GOSPEL
I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.
Reading from the holy Gospel according to Saint John 11, 19-27
Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary
to comfort them about their brother [Lazarus, who had died].
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Jesus said to her,
“Your brother will rise.”
Martha said to him,
“I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”
The word of the Lord.
It refreshes me.
To Martha (whose memory we celebrate today), the Lord asks, “Do you believe in me? Or in other words: Do you trust that I am the living Son of God and have power over death?” She believed, and that is why she is a saint.
It is the same question that is asked of me today, if I am restless with so many things, if I lack hope because… “I am the resurrection and the life: whoever believes in me, even though they die, will live, and whoever is alive and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Related to married life:
Juanjo: After an “intense” day of married and family life, with my own concerns, you with yours, the kids constantly in the middle, work problems, household finances, cleaning, cooking, shopping… a tremendous wear and tear. And that’s when I have to leave everything aside and do what Martha did: Go out to meet Jesus. The TV disturbs me. The Internet doesn’t give me rest either. I only find rest in lying down on the Heart of Jesus and resting in you, Miriam. In your beauty, in your femininity, in your joy…
Miriam: Thank you, Juanjo. The truth is that every night the miracle happens, and that little time together revives us, takes us out of the atmosphere of death that surrounds us. So let us joyfully contemplate the Lord today, calm in front of his friend Martha who reproaches him restlessly. How would Jesus have looked at her that day to make her a saint? Martha was a friend of Jesus, like us, and that friendship sustains us, encourages us, beautifies you, beautifies our marriage, makes me smile when I look at you…
Juanjo: Believing in Christ changes you, changes me, changes everything.
Mother,
We remember you rejoicing, visiting your relative Isabel and uttering that phrase: “My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.” May ours also rejoice alongside yours. Hallelujah!