When Moses came to the people
and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD,
they all answered with one voice,
"We will do everything that the LORD has told us."
Today we celebrate a second holy family that appears in the gospels, that of Martha, Mary, and their brother Lazarus. We remember them as devout persons who welcomed the Lord to their home whenever he came to Jerusalem. If there was no room in the City, he always had a room, good food, and an eager welcome in their house. Mary might sit listening at his feet as Martha served his meals while Lazarus made himself useful for whatever needed doing.
When their ancestors swore to Moses, "We will do everything that the Lord has told us." they affirmed their readiness to hear the Word of God and keep it. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus kept that oath as the Incarnate Word of God stayed in their own home.
Recently the Surgeon General of the United States, a native of India and citizen of the United States, has called attention to the plague of loneliness in his adoptive country. I spent a weekend with a compatriot of his almost fifty years ago. The young priest was studying in Chicago and he told me the people of his village could not imagine the violence, crime, fearfulness, and unhappiness of that major American city. He told how the adults in his village watched out for the children even as they taught them how to get along peaceably. If their parents had died, they were not orphans for the village watched out for them. The same children would die in Chicago.
As we celebrate today's memorial we remember that the Lord also knew loneliness like any human being, but he found comfort with this holy family.
There is a brief, devastating sentence in the Gospel of Saint John. It describes both the hopelessness of our sin and growing tension as Jesus would soon be crucified. After the Sanhedrin had met to discuss the problem of Jesus, Saint John says,
"Then each went to his own house."
In the same Gospel Jesus says of his disciples,
"Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone."
The dismissal at the end of Mass doesn't mean go home and hide again. Our gatherings in Church should be only the tip of the iceberg of our living community. Our choirs, sodalities, bible studies, third orders, prayer groups, volunteer and service organizations, and daily Masses offer us both escape from our loneliness and the experience of faith-filled solidarity. We love one another as God loves us. As Saint Francis said, "The Lord gave me brothers."
We can provide for one another as the holy family in Bethany provided for Jesus. No Catholic should die of loneliness.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.