20210729 ACTIVE FAITH PURIFIED BY CONTEMPLATIVE LOVE
29 July, 2021, Thursday, Ss Martha, Mary and Lazarus
First reading | 1 John 4:7-16 © |
Let us love one another, since love comes from God
My dear people,
let us love one another
since love comes from God
and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Anyone who fails to love can never have known God,
because God is love.
God’s love for us was revealed
when God sent into the world his only Son
so that we could have life through him;
this is the love I mean:
not our love for God,
but God’s love for us when he sent his Son
to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.
My dear people,
since God has loved us so much,
we too should love one another.
No one has ever seen God;
but as long as we love one another
God will live in us
and his love will be complete in us.
We can know that we are living in him
and he is living in us
because he lets us share his Spirit.
We ourselves saw and we testify
that the Father sent his Son
as saviour of the world.
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God lives in him, and he in God.
We ourselves have known and put our faith in
God’s love towards ourselves.
God is love
and anyone who lives in love lives in God,
and God lives in him.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 33(34):2-11 © |
I will bless the Lord at all times.
or
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
I will bless the Lord at all times,
his praise always on my lips;
in the Lord my soul shall make its boast.
The humble shall hear and be glad.
I will bless the Lord at all times.
or
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Glorify the Lord with me.
Together let us praise his name.
I sought the Lord and he answered me;
from all my terrors he set me free.
I will bless the Lord at all times.
or
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Look towards him and be radiant;
let your faces not be abashed.
This poor man called, the Lord heard him
and rescued him from all his distress.
I will bless the Lord at all times.
or
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
The angel of the Lord is encamped
around those who revere him, to rescue them.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
He is happy who seeks refuge in him.
I will bless the Lord at all times.
or
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Revere the Lord, you his saints.
They lack nothing, those who revere him.
Strong lions suffer want and go hungry
but those who seek the Lord lack no blessing.
I will bless the Lord at all times.
or
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
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 © |
I am the resurrection and the life
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.’
ACTIVE FAITH PURIFIED BY CONTEMPLATIVE LOVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 JOHN 4:7-16; JOHN 11:19-27 OR LK 10:38-42]
Martha, as seen in the gospel, is the portrayal of a Christian with an active faith. St Paul wrote, “the only thing that counts is faith working through love.” (Gal 5:6) When Jesus was at her house, Martha’s active faith was evident in her desire to please our Lord by attending to His needs and making Him comfortable at her home. She displayed gracious hospitality. In the gospel of John, again, we see her active faith when she went out to meet the Lord when He came to sympathize with her and her sister, Mary, over the death of their brother. She did not wait for the Lord to arrive but went out to meet Him and to express her great sorrow at the death of her brother and her disappointment that Jesus did not come earlier. She could not understand why Jesus would delay in coming to heal Lazarus who was seriously ill when He heard the news. Hence, she said, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Most of us are like Martha in the way we live our lives today. We live harried lives because of the demands that are made on us. The world moves rapidly with technology and so people have become more demanding of our time and the speed with which we accomplish the tasks assigned to us. Most parents have to work whilst doubling up in looking after the family; attending to household chores, the children’s needs and in-laws, our social engagements, and voluntary services to church or community. This leaves us very little time for silence and prayer. The temptation to activism is very real in the secular world, where man relies on himself and his ingenuity rather than wait for God to act. Although we may not feel that prayer is a waste of time, yet we do not put it as a priority. We pray only when we can find some time.
But the Lord did not condemn Martha for her active faith. In fact, the Lord commended her for her active faith, expressed in her desire to serve. It was only that Mary chose the better part. That does not mean that what she was doing was not good. Indeed, if we truly love God, that love is real only when we love our brothers and sisters. This is what St John said in the first reading. “My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love.” So a necessary indication of our faith in God is seen in the demonstration of love for others. In loving others, we show that we love God. (1 Jn 4:20)
The danger of an active faith is that love can sometimes be ambiguous or only apparent, unlike God who is pure love. St John says, “God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him.” “God is love” does not mean that love is God. For St John, God is love in Himself. Love is the essence of God, His being. But God also has many attributes which are identical with His being. In other words, God is not just loving us, but God is love and because He is love, He loves us all regardless of who we are and what we have done or failed to do. This is simply because God’s nature is love. God’s love is always pure because His love for us springs from His own nature.
However, for us, we are only loving but our love might not always be pure and selfless. We have mixed motives in doing good or even in loving. We do not love simply because it is our nature to love. Rather, it is our nature to seek to be loved first. In fact, in most human relationships, we love in order to be loved. Our love is conditional. We love only those who love us in return. We do good only to those who appreciate our sacrifices. Otherwise, we withdraw that love. When we give gifts, we normally give to those whom we love and appreciate most. Clearly, therefore, we are capable of loving in so far as we are loved.
Like Martha, we seek attention from those we serve. The love between husband and wife is exclusive before it becomes inclusive. Unless they are loved, they cannot give love to their children and extended family. When couples are always fighting, their love for their children also become more conditional and manipulative because instead of loving them, they make use of them to fill the vacuum in their life. They become possessive of the children, since the parents need their love as much as the children need their parents’ love. It is for this reason that for us to love others unconditionally, we must first be loved totally and without reservation. But that someone who can love us without conditions is only God.
Hence, John reminds us that if we are to love purely and selflessly, we must come to God. This was Mary’s spirituality of contemplation. “God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him: this is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.” God’s unconditional love for us is seen in the sending of His only Son to be the sacrifice for our sins. Indeed, no greater love can God give than to give His only Son for our salvation. This love was costly because it cost the life of His Son. Jesus suffered in obedience to the Father out of love for Him and for us. It was a necessary sacrifice because the justice of God had to be placated, not that God needs to punish us, but there is the question of justice. Otherwise, forgiveness without recognition of the seriousness of our sins would make God unjust and therefore not love. But no one can bring about a true atonement for our sins except Christ. Only the sacrifice of Jesus as God-man can demonstrate the gravity of our sins and God’s love and mercy simultaneously.
Contemplating on His love and mercy for us, we will now be able to love as He loves us, even our enemies. St Paul wrote, “For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.” (2 Cor 5:14f) Writing to Timothy, he said, “I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim 1:13-15)
This is why Martha’s active faith in Christ needed purification and deepening. Even when she confessed her faith in Christ as the resurrection and the life, Christ once again had to correct her. Jesus wanted her to arrive at a purer form of love, instead of seeking attention for herself. To love someone is to focus our attention on him and not on ourselves nor on others, which was what Martha was doing. She was focusing on herself and comparing herself with Mary. But she had learnt by the time Lazarus died. Then, she had arrived at a deeper faith, not just in the resurrection on the last day but that He is the resurrection and the life. She confessed to our Lord, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who has come into this world.'” In this confession of faith, Martha had arrived and anticipated the faith that is required of the Church, namely, “that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” (Jn 20:31) “He is the true God and eternal life.” (1 Jn 5:20)
This realization of the true meaning of what Martha professed in words needs time to be fully grasped. We too profess our faith in Christ and in His love, but few really grasp the depth of God’s love and mercy. If we do, our lives would be radically transformed, like Paul, Stephen, St Augustine and St Francis of Assisi and the other man saints. That is why, like Mary, we need to keep our priority in order. Spending time with the Lord in intimacy and contemplation of His Word is the better meal than any meal we could prepare for Him. Perhaps Lazarus, of whom nothing much has been mentioned other than that Jesus loved him, could be the icon of what Mary and Martha both together represent, a true friend of our Lord and a disciple who makes time for Jesus and also serves Him in His needs.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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