Living a Christian life and being true to our faith is a constant struggle. We can frown upon how much easier it is for us if we were not Catholic let alone Christian! No need to stress over being called to a higher standard or in another word higher calling. No need for uncomfortable conversations with non believers about our faith. We only need to abide but the laws of the land and be ‘free’ to live according to our whims and fancies.
If we possess such thoughts then it only means one thing. We have not encountered our Risen Lord! We do not have a deep personal relationship with Him such that our hearts pines for His presence. In trusting and knowing with certainty that He stands with us in every struggle and difficulty we may face. Our heart aches if we do not speak about Him with family, friends even strangers for love of Him; far more than any rejection we might receive from doing so. We strive for Holiness because we have received the grace of His peace, love and joy in our hearts and we want to be more like Him in every way. Let us acclaim with wholehearted conviction as Martha did, ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’ Amen, alleluia!
St Martha pray for us…
First reading
Jeremiah 15:10,16-21 ·
They will not overcome you, because I am with you‘Woe is me, my mother, for you have borne me to be a man of strife and of dissension for all the land. I neither lend nor borrow,
yet all of them curse me.‘When your words came, I devoured them:
your word was my delight and the joy of my heart; for I was called by your name,
Lord, God of Hosts.
I never took pleasure in sitting in scoffers’ company; with your hand on me I held myself aloof, since you had filled me with indignation.
Why is my suffering continual, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Do you mean to be for me a deceptive stream
with inconstant waters?’To which the Lord replied, ‘If you come back, I will take you back into my service;
and if you utter noble, not despicable, thoughts, you shall be as my own mouth.
They will come back to you, but you must not go back to them. I will make you a bronze wall fortified against this people.
They will fight against you but they will not overcome you, because I am with you
to save you and to deliver you – it is the Lord who speaks.
I mean to deliver you from the hands of the wicked and redeem you from the clutches of the violent.’
Gospel
John 11:19-27
I am the resurrection and the lifeMany 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.’
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