Our Lady Of Perpetual Help

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Reflection -   Week of July 20, 2025

Question of the Week:

How am I hospitable to others in need of food or rest, or just some companionship? How can I see the Lord in such hospitality?

     Mary has every right to be overwhelmed when her sister welcomes Jesus into their home. Here is the Messiah himself, sitting at their table. She is transfixed by his every word, probably not even noticing that Martha is doing all the work. Poor Martha! She is the conscientious one, doing all the serving and cleaning up and anything else that needed to be done for their guest. Tired and overworked, she can’t help but complain and now Jesus seems to be siding with her lazy sister. But Jesus is aware of Mary’s need right there right now to give him her undivided attention, not unlike his closest disciples. Long after all the dishes are washed and put away, and long after all of Martha’s worries and anxieties are past, Mary’s experience of sitting at the Lord’s feet and glorying in his presence will stay with her. Truly she has chosen the better part, for she has chosen with her heart.

     But don’t give up on Martha! The next time we encounter Mary and Martha, when their beloved brother Lazarus had just died, it is Martha who makes one of the most powerful proclamations in the entire Gospels when Jesus asks her if she believes that he is the resurrection: “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world” (John 11:27). Somehow in between all her cooking and serving and cleaning, Martha absorbed what Jesus said and who he is and is able to confess her faith at one of the most traumatic points of her life. Sometimes we don’t realize the faith we’ve internalized until much later.