Martha

This morning, on her feast day, I'm thinking about Martha as a model of prayer:

Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother [Lazarus, who had died]. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die. do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” John 11:19-27

The process of prayer:

1. Go out to meet the Lord. We go out of our ordinary routine and ordinary pattern of thought and enter into prayer. She went out meet him.

2. We express our faith from our concrete situation in life. I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.

3. Through prayer the breadth and scope of faith is transformed. I am the resurrection and the life.

4. We go forth from prayer in gratitude for the process: Yes, Lord, I have come to believe.


P.s. For learners of pastoral Spanish, being able to utter Martha's words confidently is always a milestone, masterpiece of conditional and imperfect subjunctive that they are: si hubieras estado aquí, mi hermano no habría muerto.