July 29th St. Martha

 Today is the memorial of St. Martha. St. Martha and her sister Mary and their brother Lazarus were friends of Jesus and Jesus used to go to their home on occasion.

But one day, when Jesus was with His apostles in a different town, other than the town in which Martha, Mary and Lazarus lived, something bad happened, Lazarus died. And when Jesus heard about the death of Lazarus, Our Lord didn’t immediately go to their home, but rather waited four days. Then when Jesus finally arrives at the home of Martha and Mary, Martha makes a great act of faith. Martha said, “Lord if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” She believed that Jesus had the power to heal her brother and prevent her brother from dying.

Even though her brother was dead, she asked Jesus to bring Lazarus back to life. She said, “But even now, I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give you.”

Today, not very many people would ask Jesus to bring someone back to life. Martha has great faith that Jesus can not only heal the sick to prevent someone from dying, but to even make someone come back to life after they have died. There are several occasions in which Jesus raises people back to life. He raised the little girl, who died, back to life and Jesus raised a young man back to life when Jesus saw the young man’s mother crying.

We have to remember, Jesus had not yet risen from the dead. Later when He would go to Jerusalem, He would suffer and die on the cross and then three days later, He would rise from the dead which would surprise many people.

Only God has the power to heal a sick person. Only God has the power to raise someone back to life. Only God has the power to raise Himself from the dead.

We are all like Martha. All of us have faith. We believe Jesus is God. We believe Jesus rose from the dead. We believe Jesus can heal the sick. We believe Jesus can work miracles. We believe the Eucharist is really Jesus. We believe when we go to confession, Jesus forgives our sins. And we believe that when we die, not only will we go to heaven, but we too will rise from the dead at the end of the world.

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life and whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live….”