Memorial of Saint Martha
Today is the Memorial of Saint Martha we were not only offered a different gospel for her feast, we were given the choice of two gospels. Our first impression of both gospels might make us feel bad for Martha. They don't they paint the most flattering picture of her. In the gospel from John, Martha is giving Jesus a piece of her mind as she wrestles with her brother's death. In the gospel from Luke, she tries to get Jesus to get Mary off her tuchus but instead gets told to be more like Mary. However, I think it is in these unflattering moments that we have the greatest lesson to learn from Martha.
I'm not sure if you noticed but Martha is hardly the only person to ever have character flaws. But she is one of the few people who has real, honest, and mask-free conversations with Jesus. Her relationship with Jesus was so marked by her authenticity that he could give her real answers.
Sometimes, I desire real answers from the Lord or others, but I ask fake questions. I tiptoe around what I'm trying to ask or I try to preserve my own image by failing to really ask the burning questions of my heart. Or, pridefully, I don't want to look or even feel stupid so I don't ask the questions I assume everyone else already knows. But then what happens? I feel alone, thinking I'm the only one who wonders how can God allow injustice? Why is there so much suffering? Or countless other real questions.
Martha reminds me that real questions get real answers -- not satisfying, easy, or even complete answers -- but real answers. True answers. In Martha's exchanges with Jesus we see that authenticity is met with authenticity and who else can we be authentic with if not Jesus! We can bring him our real questions because, as the passage from John reminds us, He is our real answer.
Thinking about these real questions and real answers, I'm reminded of a story that will be the challenge for us at the end of this reflection. There was a nobel prize winning scientist who had an interviewer ask him why he became a scientist when many others in his neighborhood pursued financial or legal work. He told the interviewer that when his neighbors would get home from school and their parents would ask what they learned that day, he'd walk in his own front door to his mother asking, "Did you ask any good questions today?"
Have we asked any good questions today?
As we remember St. Martha today, let's not reduce her to a busybody, but honor her authenticity. May we all wear as few masks as Martha, and be as open with the Lord as she was and still is. Amen.
- Spencer Hargadon