The Lord with us

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 29, 2020: Remembering St. Martha

Jeremiah 15:10, 16-21; John 11: 19-27

I am with you to save you and to deliver you...says the Lord in the first reading today. At times we battle with thoughts similar to what we hear from Jeremiah and we wonder if the Lord has abandoned us or abandoned this world all to itself! When things go wrong and so drastically out of control, as it is being experienced today world over, we feel like complaining as did Martha to Jesus, "if you were here, my brother would not have died"... 'if you were really here, these things would not be happening to us!' 

Just as Jesus challenges Martha to journey further in her sense of hope in the Lord, today the Lord tells us: I am with you to save you and deliver you! Do you believe that? It is like what St. Paul says about Abraham in Romans 4:18, that Jesus invites Martha to hope against hope - and us too! 

Martha's confession about Christ has nothing less short of the confession of St. Peter! The faith that Martha had in Jesus was so profound that she believed when Jesus was around nothing could go wrong. Jesus acknowledges the trust that Martha had in him, but invites her to go a step ahead and trust that even if things went wrong, she had nothing to fear for the Lord was with her always!

It is simple in times that are pleasant, to trust in the Lord; it is not that very simple to trust in the Lord "always". Even when things go wrong, or especially in such situations as today: disease, death, fear, panic, anxiety, uncertainty... we are called to be calm but vigilant; seeking solutions but not begging remedies. 

Not looking for any immediate and ready made solutions anxiously, but daring to remain patient with the issues of life, is a clear sign of total trust in the Lord, that the Lord is with us, that the Lord will never abandon us, that the Lord is there with us to save us and to deliver us!