Day 4 - Novena to Ste. Marie Magdalene
Opening Prayer (See Day 1)
Scripture Reading: Gospel of John 11:1-45
Today's passage is a lengthy story. A portion of it is one of the most popular Gospel passages used for the Masses of Christian Burial. In this passage both Martha and Mary make profession of faith in Jesus. Here follows Frere Thomas' meditation.
"Martha seems to have here the beautiful role: It is she who meets Jesus first and speaks with him the most. In his dialogue with her, Jesus leads her to be the first acknowledge in faith that he is the Messiah, able to give life to the dead and to her brother, Lazarus. However, in front the tomb, she doubts: 'There will be a stench. He has already been the tomb four days...'
Mary does not challenge him: she simply throws herself at the feet of Jesus, and she weeps. This is no longer the gesture of a sinful woman, but a gesture of intercession. Rather than the discussions of Martha, it is these tears which touches Jesus, which touches the heart of God and otains the resurrection for Lazarus. This faith is not lip service, but a faith of action, which throws itself totally before God.
By the perfume of her tears, Mary obtains life from death "which has a stench..." She is prostrate on the soil from which the Creator had drawn Adam, and from which the "new Adam" would raise the people broken by sin. The One who unbound Lazarus of his bindings will himself be wrapped in bindings, to break the chains of those dead because of sin, and to set them free."
A few new insights into this story for me. Martha and Mary both approach the Lord with the same words, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." But the gestures are different. The reactions are different. Martha questions, she confronts Jesus with the realities that she percieves. Isn't that what we all do so often. We ought to pray more, but ... there is the phone, there are appointments, there is a soccer game, there is this and that. We ought give Jesus more room in our lives ... but there is work, family, job, recreation. There are all these things. Martha's gesture and reaction is to let Jesus know, to inform him of what she thinks is the reality of the situation. We too feel the need to let Jesus know what is really important, what the conditions are that keep us from letting Jesus into our lives.
We do not all have the luxury of 4 times of shared prayer each day, we do not all have the opportunity for daily Mass - or do we? We have families in our parish - we really do - who have ordered their family life so that spiritual things have priority. They will be the first to tell you it is not easy. I think it requires that we choose to be open to the what the Lord has to say to us.
Closing Prayer:
God of mercy,
you who received the tears
of Ste. Marie Magdalene for her brother, Lazarus,
lead us to recognize in your Son,
who comes to save the world
by offering his life to conquer our death,
to live freely and confidently,
in this world in your love and in your service.
Through Christ our Lord.
AMEN!
