Gospel John 11:19–27
We know of Mary and Martha from Luke’s Gospel. However, it is John who presents them along with Lazarus their brother twice. In each instance in John, all three are part of the story.
For us Benedictines, remembering these sisters and their brother and their relationship to Jesus evokes our specific service of hospitality, our tradition of welcoming guests— and specifically as welcoming them in Christ. For us they are not some biblical characters from the past. They speak to us in a concrete way about our relationships with one another, with the guest who stops by, and above all the way we relate with Jesus in those who come to us from outside.
John seems to be giving us a preview of what Jesus will later say to the disciples at the Last Supper: I no longer call you servants but my friends. Why? Because I have revealed to you all that the Father has shared with me. Mary, Martha and Lazarus are Jesus’ friends. He can be with them easily because they are brother and sister to one another. They model the church where all are brother and sister to one another. Understanding ourselves in that mode, Jesus easily sits with us. The three of them share food with Jesus, throw him a dinner before he is to begin his final act in Jerusalem. In his visits, he always brings something for them. The welcoming leads to an openness that means accepting the gift of the guest. And his last gift is that of resurrection.
Today we hear Martha speak a very moving line, a line that can only be spoken by a friend to a friend: If you had been here my brother would not have died. It may sound like a reproach but in reality it wells up from a love shared between friends. I sometimes wonder that when we as a community receive a guest we are receiving something that fills us anew. And when that guest leaves we are sad to see him or her depart. Their presence has made a difference. It would be rare for a guest to solve a community problem or heal a wound such as Martha and Mary’s loss of their brother. But still, Martha’s line points us in a direction that invites us once again to look at our service of monastic hospitality. And at the same time remembrance of the home at Bethany invites us to ask ourselves how we have been enriched by hospitality: the people that have entered our personal lives and life as a community. Welcoming Christ like Martha Mary and Lazarus is not left to some past moment in the life of Jesus. We bring it forward and receive into our midst the Christ present in people of the faith and also those not of the faith but who share in our common humanity as brothers and sisters.
Each of the three persons of Bethany offer us a dimension of our receiving of people. Martha is about service, service at the table. Eating with guests is important for Benedict as it means acceptance. Mary, on the other hand, is the one who ponders the words of the guest. She is aware that the guest is a host in his or her own way. She guides us in our lingering over the gracious Word that has been handed on to us in Scripture. And Lazarus, he reminds us that the love and life shared here has a future. It does not die. Jesus who is in our midst is the guarantee that love here is the beginning of eternal life. Lazarus is raised because Jesus loved his friends. He promises to do the same with us and for us.
~Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB