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<\/p>\nA woman named Martha welcomed Him to her home.\u00a0 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.\u00a0 He said to her, \u201cMartha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.\u00a0 But there is need of only One thing\u201d (cf. Luke 10: 38-42).<\/p>\n
Happy St. Martha\u2019s day.\u00a0 Grouped together with her sister, Mary, and brother, Lazarus, Martha serves as the patron saint of servants, cooks, and maids, among other things.\u00a0 She\u2019s also embraced by those who struggle with anxiety.\u00a0 And, I can attest that she is totally the patron of type A, task-oriented introverts. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been reflecting on St. Martha (perhaps because this has been a season of extraordinary distraction, with tons of preparations to be made).\u00a0 In particular, I\u2019ve been wondering about some of the things she says to Jesus.\u00a0 In Luke 10:40, she turns to Him and says: \u201cLord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.\u201d \u00a0Then, because this woman truly has no fear, in John 11:21, puts this one to the living God: \u201cLord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, these statements, taken by themselves, sound\u2026accusatory?\u00a0 Ignorant?\u00a0 Self-focused? \u00a0Like something that I would say?<\/p>\n
But we also know that Martha is a friend of the Lord for a reason\u2014perhaps her straightforwardness and other-oriented work ethic brought a smile to Jesus\u2019 face.\u00a0 And, of anyone, Jesus is patient with the foibles of his friends.\u00a0 In fact, Jesus\u2019 12 (male) disciples say plenty<\/em> of rather silly things\u2026things that smack of disbelief (Mark 6:37), of pride and envy (Luke 22:24), or even outright lies (Matthew 26: 70).<\/p>\n These disciples\u2026from James and John to Peter\u2026are awarded feast days.\u00a0 And yet Martha, human as she is, voices both our fears and worries, and our greatest moments of faith and hope.\u00a0 She is a saint for us all, worriers and workers, and those of us who love to unite our prayer and work.<\/p>\n We, who so hope to be friends of Jesus, can rest assured that we have a template for the liturgical life\u2014with its foibles and fearlessness\u2014in the heart of Martha, servant of the Christ, the Son of God, the One who has come in to the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" She is a saint for us all, worriers and workers, and those of us who love to unite our prayer and work.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":57211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3119,17,362],"tags":[3509,3508],"class_list":["post-57208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-plaza-new-ws","category-liturgical-spirituality","category-saints-mary","tag-disciples","tag-martha"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Martha-and-Jesus-200x300.jpg\")
Martha was the first one to say: \u201cYes, Lord,\u00a0I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.\u201d\u00a0 And she makes this statement in chapter ELEVEN<\/em> of John!\u00a0 (For context, John has 21 chapters.)<\/p>\n