The Memorial of Saint Martha
Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife, And a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; Yet every one of them curses me.
Your words were found, And I ate them. Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart, For I am called by your name, Lord, God of Armies. I didn't sit in the assembly of those who make merry and rejoice. I sat alone because of your hand, For you have filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual, And my wound incurable, Which refuses to be healed? Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook, Like waters that fail?
Therefore the Lord says, "If you return, then I will bring you again, That you may stand before me; And if you take out the precious from the vile, You will be as my mouth. They will return to you, But you will not return to them. I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall. They will fight against you, But they will not prevail against you; For I am with you to save you And to deliver you," says the Lord. "I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, And I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible."
Many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. Then when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary stayed in the house. Therefore Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn't have died. Even now I know that whatever you ask of 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 at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
She said to him, "Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God's Son, he who comes into the world."
Saint Martha — the one who ran out to meet Jesus while her sister stayed behind — gets unfairly reduced sometimes to a symbol of busyness. But what we see in this Gospel is something far more remarkable: a woman who, in the middle of crushing grief, makes one of the most profound declarations of faith in all of Scripture.
Notice how Martha doesn't wait. She hears Jesus is coming and she goes. There's an urgency in that movement, but also something raw and honest. She leads with her pain — *if you had been here* — and there's no softening of it. She's not performing composure. She's bringing her actual self to the encounter.
And Jesus meets her exactly there.
What emerges from their exchange is one of the most startling moments in John's Gospel. Jesus doesn't just offer comfort or even a promise about the future. He reframes everything. *I am the resurrection and the life.* Not "there will be a resurrection." Not "someday things will be better." The life she's hoping for is standing in front of her, asking her a direct question: *Do you believe this?*
Jeremiah knows something about this kind of tension — crying out in honest anguish, accusing God of being like a stream that runs dry, and then hearing the call to return, to stand firm, to trust that God is the one who holds the wall.
The connection between these two readings is the same invitation: bring the real thing. Bring the grief, the confusion, the *where were you* — and let that be the starting point of faith, not the obstacle to it.
Consider what you're carrying into this day that feels too heavy or too honest to bring to God.
Where are we tempted to wait in the house, like Mary, when we might be called to go out and meet what's coming?
And when Jesus asks *do you believe this* — what does an honest answer sound like from where we actually stand right now?