Apostleship of Prayer - Saints
July 29 - Saint Martha
Martha was the sister of Mary and Lazarus whose house he visited as a much welcomed guest. In John's Gospel we find that the sisters are free to call on Jesus when their brother was grievously sick. They were clearly close friends of Jesus.
In the story in Luke 10: 38 - 42, we find the text with which we are all quite familiar: "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her." Archaeologists have six texts of this story but only two of those texts have the word "better" in. So this text could be read as "Mary has chosen her part" This could infer that Jesus is gently chiding Martha: she has chosen her part, to wash dishes, and, if that is her choice, she could stay with it or change it. Never the we should not forget Martha because of her strong act of faith that we find in John 11: 25 - 27: "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."
She is also Jesus' messenger to Mary and to all of us: "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." The Lord is calling all of us to share in his resurrection and in his victory over death.
As Mary, Martha and Lazarus were Jesus' friends so are we all called to be his friends.
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