Feast of St. Martha

http://sogreatacloudofwitnesses.blogspot.com/2011/02/st-martha-feast-day-july-29.html

Wednesdays are a treat for me because Fr. Mitch Pacwa celebrates Mass on EWTN and he always increases my understanding of both history and Sacred Scripture. I always remember the beautiful Lenten retreat he offered on Isaiah 53. Don't ever miss the chance to learn from him. Today is the feast of St. Martha, the busy and efficient hostess who was reprimanded by Jesus because she wanted her sister, Mary to help. 40 Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” 41The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. 42 There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” (Luke 10:38-41). Today we see Martha grow in faith. Here's the Gospel:

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.”

Fr. Mitch begins with the fact that God loves us, not to be confused with affection, which is a normal human response. Even the animals have affection. But love comes from God. God *is* Love. It is so great and infinite that He gives His only Son so that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish (John 3:16). Jesus loves the Father and each of us so infinitely that He goes to the Cross willingly to save us. And this is why we are able to love another. It's about offering ourselves to God and accepting Him. It's about offering ourselves to our neighbor and accepting them.

Jesus loves Martha and Mary and Lazarus. They are His friends and they love Him too. Underpinning this love is faith. And you can see how Jesus draws Martha closer in this exchange and deepens her faith. She believes Lazarus wouldn't have died if He'd been present. She believes in the resurrection (the Pharisees and Essenes do, but not the Sadducees). And when Jesus tells her HE *is* the Resurrection she professes her faith. She believes Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. The wording is very similar to Peter's confession of faith (Mt 16:15-16):

15He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16^{* j} Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood^* has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. 18^k And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,^* and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. 19^l I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.^* Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 15


So if we've received the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love, and if we nurture them, we continue to grow in them. But once we reach heaven, faith and hope disappear--we don't need faith because we will see God and we don't need hope because we're in heaven. Only love remains! But oh, this is just an inadequate summary. If you have a chance, listen to his homily (~12 min). 

It was this feast day that we got to attend at EWTN six years ago on our way to see my brother. How the time has flown. And how much our Lord has brought me closer to Himself. My prayer is that all who read this will be brought closer to Him too. 

Unplanned

I read the book UNPLANNED many years ago and was struck by Abby Johnson's courageous journey as a Planned Parenthood director to the pro-life cause. So many of us, myself included, have believed in a lie, based our lives upon it, but Abby shows that you can turn away from a life you do not want and into a new one. I wanted everybody to read it and did a mini-review here. Now that it's a movie, I hope everybody who is 13 years old and up can see the truth about abortion. It does have a couple of very graphic scenes, but they are not gratuitous. They are absolutely necessary to show the violence of the act, not just against the baby but also against the mother. The ultrasound is computer generated--and not a real abortion.

I didn't know what abortion was until I came to this country and took a mandatory class on Health as a freshman in the public high school. Never mind that I didn't actually know how the baby got to be there in the first place. But my first reaction was horror. Yet, fast forward four years, and by age 18, I had breathed enough feminist and me-myself-I air and was blithely proclaiming that abortion is a woman's right, the baby being a parasite since it takes all its sustenance from the mother. But by my mid-20s I reversed my position because now I had family and friends who'd gone through abortions and I saw their suffering, and my own part in the destruction of their babies. See, I did not want any responsibility for the babies, so I'd say, "I'll support whatever choice you make." Like Abby Johnson, I looked at myself and wondered how I ever became so hard-hearted.


The movie is well-made, true to its characters, and situations. Although it's Abby's story, we get a good glimpse of how a girl raised in a Christian home can make choices that are unchristian. Away from home, she's subject to all the temptations young people face. Her parents are amazing, and a great example to all how to show love even when you disagree with your child. The women working at PP were also well-defined. All of them cared about the women. Except maybe Cheryl, the boss, who made it very clear that what mattered was the bottom line. I also liked seeing the friendship that developed between Marilisa and Abby across the fence. It's what allowed Abby to leave PP. I don't cry much at movies, but by the end I was bawling, thinking of the babies who'd be grown up by now. It definitely packs an emotional wallop. But remember God's mercy.

I could write so much more, but many others have reviewed UNPLANNED and one of the best reviews with extra interviews is by Donald McClarey. The story of the actress who plays Abby is amazing! So read the review, watch the embedded videos. And go see the movie. Bring your friends. This is so timely with so many states trying to pass laws to protect the right to have an abortion for any reason. I think this movie can change hearts and minds. Nobody will be able to say, "I didn't know." Now I have to figure out how to get BOUND made into a movie. I suppose I need to learn how to write a screenplay :) I think writers must have a certain audacity to even begin writing a book that they believe will make a difference. So, go be audacious! Write!!! Because it matters.

Immaculee Ilibagiza -- Light and Salt

Last Friday, we had the wonderful opportunity to listen to Immaculee Ilibagiza, author of LEFT TO TELL, a miraculous story of hope and forgiveness during the Rwandan holocaust of 1994. I'd read the book a few years ago when a good friend recommended it to me, and then Max read it in his Theology class. We both agreed that it's grace from God that allows a person to forgive such heinous crimes. Briefly, in 1994, when the plane carrying the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down, within the hour, Hutus began killing Tutsis. It had been well-orchestrated. The world did not intervene to stop this massacre--I remember hearing the news and could not understand why nobody would stop the killing--and by the time they did, three months later, 1 million people lay hacked, shot, or burned to death. It was neighbor against neighbor. People forgot their friendships. Immaculee says hatred masked any and all love and the truth. She prayed what Jesus prayed on the Cross, "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do."

This short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzuK_NXyE8U gives a good summary and this slightly longer one shows how and where Immaculee, along with other women, survived:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Od6V6Z3ug  and this short article explains the conflicts between the two so-called tribes. And our local newspaper did a wonderful write-up of the event.

Briefly, Immaculee's parents were prominent teachers in their community, devout Catholics. People came to them for advice but they only had their faith. She said that her father told her to go to a Protestant preacher's house. He was Hutu and would keep her safe. He put her in a tiny bathroom (3 ft x 4 ft) off his bedroom. She said, "I can't stay here. It's too small." But no matter. Things can always get worse. He returned with five more women. And later still, with two more. They had to be absolutely quiet and they stayed like that, sitting, standing, sleeping on top of one another for 91 days! The preacher would bring a plate of food whenever he could and the eight women would share the meal.

After a week, she was fed up with the fear and anger and sorrow in her heart. The preacher kept a radio in the bedroom so that they could hear the news. Private radio stations were used to propagate hate. They were giving away prizes for the most number of Tutsis killed.

She had the presence of mind to ask for a Bible from her protector. He gave her one and she already had her father's rosary. Prayer brought peace. She prayed many rosaries each day. I loved how she explained it--the rosary is simply meditating upon the life of Jesus with His mother Mary in a very organized manner. And Mary really teaches her to pray--to pray with her heart. She'd being with "Our Father" and get stuck.  "Are we really all His children? No, no, no. Not the evil people who are trying to kill us. Alas, they too are God's children and He loves them." That simple "our" helped her to see her would-be killers as her brothers. In our Lord's Prayer, we ask to be forgiven as we have forgiven those who've trespassed against us. This is the verse that she could not pray. So she skipped it. However, Our Lord is very patient and eventually Immaculee was able to ask for the desire to forgive and later was able to forgive those who killed all her family (except for one brother who was out of the country at the time).

She told a very interesting story about Our Lady of Kibeho. It is the only Marian apparition that has been approved on the continent of Africa and the message from our Lady is not just for Rwanda or Africa but for the whole world. She appeared to three young girls and encouraged them to pray from the heart, take the faith seriously, and to love one another. She showed them visions of what would happen--the massacre--if the people did not turn to God. Immaculee remembers this from the time she was a child, how the girls shook from the terrible visions they had. This was twelve years before the massacre.

This is the same message of Fatima--return to God. But we don't listen. Immaculee is trying to change that. She is light and salt with her message of hope and forgiveness, without which there can be no peace. Parce, parce, Domine! 

On Hope

What do Courage and Hope mean to you? Caroline Starr Rose is starting a conversation about these two virtues to celebrate her beautiful new website AND her book May B., which is out in paperback.

I've been sick for over a week with a rotten migraine, and have been contemplating the gift of hope. These lovely words keep me company:

In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be confounded. ~ Ps. 30:2

Because he hath hoped in Me, I will deliver him: I will protect him. ~ Ps. 90:14

A contrite and humble heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. ~ Ps. 50:19


I used to think of hope as it pertained to this or that outcome, and I still can't help it, but when I can do nothing but lie in bed and shed bitter tears, I am able give up all those material longings, and begin to finally say and mean "Thy will be done ... on earth as it is in Heaven" and I can't help but long to be in Heaven. I am not suicidal, but I do know I'm a traveler here. My true home is with God.



A squirrel hid these peanuts
 hoping to find them another day!

St. Alphonsus says: Hope is a supernatural virtue by which we confidently expect, in virtue of God's promise, the endless happiness of Heaven and the means necessary for its attainment.

Three things necessary for the attainment of eternal life:
the pardon of our sins (to every sinner who desires to repent, He promises pardon),
the victory over temptations (not by our own good resolutions ... but place our hope in the merits of Christ),
and the crown of all graces, a holy death (Christ alone can give us the strength to suffer, with patience and profit, the trials of this last decisive moment).

We are united to Jesus Christ by bonds of love so strong that nothing can ever break them unless we ourselves break them by mortal sin. ... The Lord has written us in His hands with His own blood. Therefore we should allow nothing to disquiet us, for He arranges and disposes everything with these very hands which were nailed to the Cross as a proof of His love for us.

So this my friends is hope! With it comes courage to bear all things patiently and humbly and with love