Bible Diary

Daily Reading

Memorial of Sts Martha, Mary and Lazarus

LECTIONARY
607

FIRST READING

1 Jn 4:7-16

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

PSALM

84:3, 4, 5-6a and 8a, 11

Response: How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, mighty God!

My soul yearns and pines
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young–
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God!

Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
Blessed the men whose strength you are!
They go from strength to strength.

I had rather one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

GOSPEL

Jn 11:19-27

And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 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 from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

Daily Reflection

We all value our friendships very much. However, at times (with every good and noble intention), we tend to bring to such relationships what we feel is the best for the other. In doing so, we disregard the needs and feelings of the other.

In the Gospel today, (as well as the alternate Gospel provided for the celebration of today’s memorial of St Martha), we see Martha do exactly this. In the Gospel according to Luke, Martha feels that taking care of Jesus’ material needs, and therefore preparing some food, is important; but Jesus would rather have her sit beside Him and listen to the Word that He is sharing with Mary, her sister. In the alternate Gospel according to John, Martha approaches Jesus who, on hearing of the demise of her brother, has arrived late. She says that if He had been there earlier, Lazarus would not have died. Jesus then reveals the real reason for His delay.

Perhaps we could ask ourselves, today, if we are guilty, at times, of not really being sensitive to the felt need of the other in our relationships with our friends and even with God.