Hearth & Altar

Jesus had friends. Really good friends. The Gospel of John says plainly that he loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. He went to their house. He ate with them. He rested there. These were people he knew and who knew him.

And when Lazarus died, Martha didn't wait for Jesus to come to her. She heard he was coming down the road and she went out to meet him. And the first thing she said was: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." That's the honest thing she was carrying. She said it directly.

Jesus didn't tell her to be more faithful or to stop being upset. He gave her the most important statement he ever made: "I am the resurrection and the life." And then he asked her the most important question: "Do you believe this?"

And Martha said yes. Standing at her brother's tomb, in the middle of her grief, she said yes.

Today is the feast of Martha and Mary and Lazarus together. What the Church is honoring is the whole household - the friend who runs out to meet Jesus, the sister who stays home, the brother who is raised. All of them, together, loved by the Lord.

• For our family, that we would have the kind of faith Martha had - the kind that says yes to Jesus even when we are standing next to a tomb, we pray to the Lord.
• For the children in our family, that they would know they are loved by Jesus the way Martha and Mary and Lazarus were loved - by name, specifically, deeply, we pray to the Lord.
• For those in our family who are grieving something today - a death, a loss, an ending - that Jesus's "I am the resurrection and the life" would be real for them, we pray to the Lord.
• For the friendships in our family's life, that they would be the kind that run toward each other in difficulty rather than away, we pray to the Lord.

At dinner tonight, tell your children about Martha. She heard Jesus was coming and she went out to meet him - not composed, not hiding her grief, just running. Ask them: if you had just lost someone you loved and you heard Jesus was coming down the road, what would you say to him? Let them answer honestly.

Martha's yes came from standing next to a tomb. That is worth telling your children. Faith doesn't require everything to be fine. It requires the yes said from wherever you actually are.