Martha's Faith

Gospel: John 11: 19-27

Today's feast of St. Martha bring us to the tomb of Lazarus and the interaction between Martha and Jesus.  What is remarkable about this encounter is the great faith Martha possesses: she wants her brother to be alive, but accepts whatever Jesus will say and do in this moment.  Then, an even more remarkable thing happens: Martha makes the same expression of faith Peter did earlier in the Gospel.

What distinguishes her profession of faith are two things.  First, she makes it for the sake of another, for the sake of her brother Lazarus, not expecting anything but God's will.  Second, this profession of faith leads to the raising of her brother to new life, a sign of Jesus' future resurrection and our own! It foreshadows the faith of other women at the tomb of Jesus believing in the resurrection, the first to witness it and the first to proclaim it.

Jesus brings together women and men to profess the same faith and to belong to the same community of faith without distinction, an entirely new thing in the ancient world.  That we have failed to do so from the beginning is not a mere accident or negligence; it has been intentional and deliberate, for Jesus' vision is a threat to power in religion and wider society.  May the faith of Martha lead us to resurrection now and at the hour of our death.