SAINTS MARTHA, MARY & LAZARUS ON MONDAY OF WEEK 17 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me will have the light of life. JN 8:12

JEREMIAH 13:1-11

My Soul's Beloved,

When we look at the evil that flourishes in the world we are tempted to be scandalized and appalled believing that never in the history of the world have humans sunk to such levels of depravity and debauchery. But if we did so we would only showcase our ignorance of salvation history. The writer of Ecclesiastes says, ‘What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.’ 

Since the fall of our first parents the children of the world have willfully chosen to forsake all that is true, good, and beautiful. They are like the loincloth that God commanded the prophet Jeremiah to purchase and wear round his waist. The Lord spoke again and told him to take off the cloth and bury it in the ground. He did as God asked. After many days, the Lord told him to fetch the loincloth he was ordered to hide and when he went to look for it and found it, he saw it was soiled and unfit for use.

The soiled loincloth is an allegory of the people of God who had sinned grievously against Him and which the Lord will discard as they are filthy and useless. Let us not fool ourselves that we can sin with impunity and try God's patience because You O Lord are silent. Sooner or later the whole world will feel God's wrath, especially those nations that were founded on Christian values and principles. Like the people at the time of Noah and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, retribution will come and we will be destroyed and wiped off the face of the earth. 

Grant us the grace O Lord, to wake up before it is too late. May the few who are faithful offer ceaseless prayers and sacrifices in reparation for the profanities and blasphemies of all that is sacred that routinely take place all over the world. 

For the sake of His sorrowful passion, beloved Father, have mercy on us and the whole world.

‘Thus says the Lord: In the same way I will spoil the arrogance of Judah and Jerusalem. This evil people who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the dictates of their own hard hearts, who have followed alien gods, and served them and worshipped them, let them become like this loincloth, good for nothing. For just as a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I had intended the whole House of Judah to cling to me – it is the Lord who speaks – to be my people, my glory, my honour and my boast. But they have not listened.’

PSALM - DEUTERONOMY 32:18-21

You forget the Rock who begot you,

  unmindful now of the God who fathered you.

The Lord has seen this, and in his anger

  cast off his sons and his daughters.

‘I shall hide my face from them,’ he says

  ‘and see what becomes of them.

For they are a deceitful brood,

  children with no loyalty in them.

‘They have roused me to jealousy with what is no god,

  they have angered me with their beings of nothing;

I, then, will rouse them to jealousy with what is no people,

  I will anger them with an empty-headed nation.’

You forget the God who fathered you.

JOHN 11:19-27

My Soul's Beloved,

It is so easy to get discouraged when we are faced with sorrow, filled with anxiety, and engulfed in grief. Despair threatens to take possession of our whole being and our lives are filled with darkness as gloom shrouds our soul. 

It is so hard to shake off the dullness lying heavy on our spirit when we allow ourselves to focus on our sorrows and grief rather than lifting our gaze from ourselves to You and in faith to find in Your Word consolation, comfort, and strength. 

Today the Church celebrates the famous siblings Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, whom You loved, and whose hospitality You enjoyed often. We contemplate the passage in the Gospel of John that narrates the death of Lazarus. Their house, once a place of joy is now in mourning. Word has been sent to You that Your friend Lazarus is dead. You come four days after receiving the news and Martha, the active disciple on hearing that You are approaching hastens to meet You. Mary the contemplative disciple remains at home. As soon as Martha sees You she says, 

‘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.’ 

Beloved, in our deepest grief may we never forget to ask in faith for whatever we need convinced as Martha was that whatever You ask the Father on our behalf He will always grant You, for You O Lord are the perfect mediator between God and man.

You assure Martha that her brother will rise again for You are the God of miracles and Lord over life and death. Martha thinks You are speaking of the resurrection on the last day but You remind her that You are Lord and that nothing is impossible for You. 

‘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.’

Yes, Lord, I too believe that You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and that salvation is found in no other but You. Keep me and my loved ones safe in Your love until You O Lord, in Your goodness, compassion, tender mercy and love bring us home at last to share in Your glory in heaven forever.