Of the holy gospel according to Saint John, and this is special for the feast of Saint Martha. Many Jewish people had come out to console Martha and Mary over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, while Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would never have died. Even now, I am sure that god will give you whatever you ask of him.
Jesus replied, your brother will rise again. Martha said, I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. And then Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he should die, will come to life, and whoever is alive and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
Martha replied, yes, lord. I have come to believe that you are the messiah, the son of god, he who is to come into the world. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. And there's a second reading, optional.
This was optional for this feast of Saint Martha. And the second reading is the one you're also familiar with as you are with this text, where, of course, Martha and Mary were entertaining Jesus, and Martha complains to Jesus that he was letting that Mary was letting her do all the the hard work in the kitchen and all the bearing all the brunt of serving the guests. And wouldn't Jesus be so kind as to tell Mary to get off her duff and help her? That's the second reading today. This first reading, of course, the these this text that our our blessed lord on about the resurrection, that's very familiar because we hear it generally at, well, at funerals because it is one of the most consoling, most inspiring, most encouraging texts that we have, and it's coming from our blessed lord.
And it's worth noting in passing how Mary, and I mean, I'm probably Mary, but certainly Martha in this case, expresses her confidence in the final resurrection. Now that's rather extraordinary among the Jews. Anyway, we have here an idea two very important ideas. And one is that there is a resurrection, that there is something beyond this life. And the second is that Martha wasn't talking about that.
She wanted some kind of an immediate result. She was a good pragmatist. She wanted her brother back. That's all she wanted, and she she implies that if Jesus had been there, he would not have died. And remember, our blessed Lord in this in this this story, our blessed Lord intentionally delayed coming after he heard that Lazarus was dead.
He tarried, as one of the translations says. I like that. You get lazy even saying the word. But our when Christ heard that he's that Lazarus had died, he stayed. He didn't he didn't jump on a on the late next train and get down there.
He delayed purposely, so that when he arrived, Lazarus was not only dead and not only buried, but he was already, as they Martha and Mary thought, suffering decomposition. And then Martha appeals to him that if you had been here, he wouldn't have died at all. Well, can't you do something for us now? This text, of course, is greatly greatly consoling consoling for those suffering bereavement. But you see, so much of this we apply to something extraneous, something beyond, something that may happen, or when we don't bring it into our daily living.
See. When we talk about resurrection, you know what the first thing we think of what what do we think of? It's very vague for the most part, but we know there's going to be some final kind of resurrection. Oh, that'll be great. Then what will we be like and all that?
People can can get terribly lost in these questions. Anybody can ask a million questions about these things. But my point this morning is this, we don't bring the concept of resurrection into our daily living. Into our daily living. Not not until we're on our deathbed, not until we need the consolation of Christ telling us that we're immortal, telling us that the that not that it is not all over with the funeral director services, that there is much more to life than than this.
This is all very true, of course. But my point is this, when our blessed lord said, I am the resurrection and the life, he certainly meant more than just that that that particular thing. We have to live. And living means a very difficult time for for all of us sometimes, and for a lot of us a lot of times. Believe me.
There is no justice in in regard to this matter of the the dispensation of the joys and sorrows of life. Some people seem to get them all. Other peoples, I emphasize the word seem, it appears, seem to go through life almost without any problems. They live they are born and they live, and they go to school, and they get married, and they raise a family, and they don't make any waves. Everything seems to go swimmingly.
Again, seems to go swimmingly. And then they die quietly and they go to their reward. That's fine. And it may even happen to some people for all I know. But our blessed lord said it isn't generally that way at all.
It isn't that way. Life has its ups and its downs. And it's just the not the thing. The I am the resurrection. Same I can rise.
Resurrection means resorgi. Resurgo means to to to come up with a great big splash, if I may refer to metaphor or turn it around a bit. This idea of salvation isn't just salvation from mortal sin. It isn't just salvation at the moment of our dying. It means in day in and day out salvation.
Salvation means day in and day out service of god, the opus dei idea, the work of the lord. This we can't escape, but we forget it. We put so and I'm speaking of all of us. You just take this first reading today, Leviticus, which I'm sure all of you could give back word for word. Well, my reaction to hearing that read was this, anyone who can follow that needs a computer and a real sophisticated computer.
And notice, this is supposed to be the word of God to his chosen people, how they were to serve him. You'd you'd say it takes a Philadelphia lawyer to try to figure out all of this. And then remember, all of these dictates, which were taken to come from God, they were all amplified according to the needs of the day. Can I do this? Is this work?
It is this allowable? Can a can a man be cured and pick up his dirty old blanket lying on the street and carry it home? Can he do that or is that work? Walking through the fields, a few of the disciples grabbed a few heads of the of the grain and started to eat it. Was it work?
Were they harvesting grain forbidden? Well, notice how detailed and there and as I say, it's much more detailed than what we read today. This is just part of it, that God asks our service. There's one thing with all of these these details you can't escape, and that is how God and the people's awareness of God was brought into their daily living. This day you shall not work.
If you if you are given to work, one way of celebrating something or other is not to work. You can't escape it. That sets the day off very special, very special. And so we have an any number of days and even weeks, octaves, where no work is to be done. And all of this is to drive home to God's creatures, their duty to God, to keep God in their daily living.
In their daily living, not just on on the Sabbath when you went to the synagogue or a number of times when you had to go all the way to Jerusalem. Remember, there was only one temple. And when the Jews up in Nazareth, up in Galilee, that was in their time a pretty good trip. You try walking from Nazareth all the way up to Jerusalem. You can do it today in a Mercedes in in two hours or a little more.
But if you're walking, it wouldn't be quite the same. And so we come back to this idea of god being in our daily life to resurrect us. We've got to be lifted up. And let's realize that there's an answer to being lifted up, and it isn't suicide. It isn't it isn't drugs or alcohol or sex or any of these things.
You can lose yourself in them all, but they won't your problem. You they will not supply the answer because Christ said, I am the only answer. And he gave us himself to prove it. In the name of the father, of the son, holy spirit. Amen.