Friday 29 th July 2022
St. Martha
“Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus.” This statement in John’s gospel tells us of the special relationship Jesus had with Martha, her sister, and her brother. Apparently Jesus was a frequent guest at Martha’s home in Bethany, a small village two miles from Jerusalem. We read of three visits in Luke 10:38-42, John 11:1-53, and John 12:1-9.
Entrance Antiphon : Cf. Lk 10: 38
Jesus entered a village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.
Collect
Almighty ever-living God, whose Son was pleased to be welcomed in Saint Martha’s house as a guest, grant, we pray, that through her intercession, serving Christ faithfully in our brothers and sisters, we may merit to be received by you in the halls of heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading : Jeremiah 26:1-9
At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word was addressed to Jeremiah by the Lord, ‘The Lord says this: Stand in the court of the Temple of the Lord. To all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the Temple of the Lord you must speak all the words I have commanded you to tell them; do not omit one syllable. Perhaps they will listen and each turn from his evil way: if so, I shall relent and not bring the disaster on them which I intended for their misdeeds. Say to them, “The Lord says this: If you will not listen to me by following my Law which I put before you, by paying attention to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send so persistently to you, without your ever listening to them, I will treat this Temple as I treated Shiloh, and make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.”’ The priests and prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah say these words in the Temple of the Lord. When Jeremiah had finished saying everything that the Lord had ordered him to say to all the people, the priests and prophets seized hold of him and said, ‘You shall die! Why have you made this prophecy in the name of the Lord, “This Temple will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate, and uninhabited”?’ And the people were all crowding round Jeremiah in the Temple of the Lord.
Psalm 68:5,8-10,14
R/ In your great love, answer me, O God.
- More numerous than the hair on my head are those who hate me without cause. Those who attack me with lies are too much for my strength. How can I restore what I have never stolen?
- It is for you that I suffer taunts, that shame covers my face, that I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother’s sons. I burn with zeal for your house and taunts against you fall on me.
- This is my prayer to you, my prayer for your favour. In your great love, answer me, O God, with your help that never fails.
Gospel Acclamation : Jn8:12
Alleluia, alleluia! I am the light of the world, says the Lord; anyone who follows me will have the light of life. Alleluia!
Gospel : John 11:19-27
Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said: ‘I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’
Prayer over the Offerings
As we proclaim your wonders in Saint Martha, O Lord, we humbly implore your majesty, that, as her homage of love was pleasing to you, so, too, our dutiful service may find favour in your sight. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon : Jn 11: 27
Martha said to Jesus: You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into this world.
Prayer after Communion
May the holy reception of the Body and Blood of your Only Begotten Son, O Lord, turn us away from the cares of this fallen world, so that, following the example of Saint Martha, we may grow in sincere love for you on earth and rejoice to behold you for eternity in heaven. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
“If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Whenever we have Jesus with us, death is far from us, but the moment we take Jesus out of our lives, death becomes imminent. Whoever believes that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, will, like Martha, “Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the son of God, he who is coming into the world”. What profession of faith is more than Martha’s. These sisters profess their belief in the son of God. While Martha made her profession of faith today, Mary will soon announce the message of the resurrection to the apostles. Let all those who believe in the Son of God hold firm to Him so that they will have Everlasting Life. “He who believes in me shall not die, even if he dies, he will have Everlasting Life.”