[00:00] "I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world." Today we celebrate St. Martha, St. Lazarus, and St. Mary, saints who were the friends of Jesus and whose home was always open to Him. In the letter of St. John, we

[00:32] see why they had opened their homes to our Lord. First of all, they had an unwavering faith, a faith that Jesus, although He seemed to be just a man, was not just a man, but with the eyes of faith, they saw that He was also the Son of the living God, the true God come into the world. And because of this, they loved Him. And not because they first

[01:04] loved Him, but because He first loved them. Our Lord came to their home in order not to rebuke them like in some cases where He rebuked those whom He encountered, whether it be at the Pharisees' homes or in other places. Our Lord came in order to teach and in order to be a friend to them. Our Lord in the gospel today reserved, He allowed them to go through

[01:39] a suffering in order that they might see a great sign, a great wonder of His love. Because all of God's goodness flows from His nature of being love. We have Martha, who after having been corrected by our Lord at one point, when she was trying to correct her sister, Mary, for not helping her with some of the household duties or the duties

[02:14] of a host. And our Lord corrected her saying, "You know, you're worried about many things, but Mary has chosen the better part and it shall not be taken away from her." Martha hadn't done anything wrong. She was doing our Lord's work by serving Him, but she was concerned and in a way irritated that Mary was just sitting around listening to our Lord while she was doing all the work as a host. But our Lord was basically just telling her that

[02:48] Mary chose something greater. She chose to sit and listen and be taught by God Himself. But Martha's great faith, just as much as Mary's contemplation and her love of our Lord was shown in choosing the better part. St. Martha's great faith and her love was shown in testifying to who Jesus was and having the faith that no matter what, He could even

[03:26] bring her brother back to life. And then you have Lazarus, who doesn't say anything in the gospel or it's not recorded that he says anything, but our Lord loved him as a friend and our Lord cried over his death, even though He knew that He was going to be doing a great miracle and bringing him back to life from death, He still cried. One, as a testimony

[03:57] to the fact that He was fully human, that He possessed a human heart and human emotions, that He was able to feel compassion and to have a true, authentic human love. And it is that same heart, which He expressed through tears, that He expressed through the cross when He said, "I thirst." He thirsted for our love. And at the home of Bethany, of Lazarus,

[04:33] Martha, Mary, He received that love. His thirst was quenched in a way because when He went there, He was sure of seeing friends and those who truly loved Him. So Mary, she gives us an example and she teaches us how to choose the better part. In faith and love, she was motivated to sit in silence while listening to our Lord. It is the same faith

[05:11] and love that is required to receive the benefits of sitting before our Lord in the Holy Eucharist and the dispositions to receive Him in Holy Communion. Martha, she showed her faith and her love and she gives us an example of no matter what obstacles, no matter what sufferings or trials we undergo, that our Lord sees all and everything is in His divine providence

[05:44] and will be used for our greater benefit and for our good. And Lazarus, he himself is a walking sign of God's power and hope in the resurrection on the last day, a resurrection which can only come from God being faithful to His promises. So we look to our Lord in faith, hope, and love in the great mystery that is expressed in the gospel and the mystery

[06:20] that we encounter today in celebrating these three great saints who welcomed our Lord into their home. And today, while we're at Mass, we're disposing ourselves in order to receive our Lord in Holy Communion, just as they did in their home at Bethany. And how much more should we have that faith, hope, and love when we're receiving our Lord? The love which

[06:52] motivates us to contemplate Him, to be attentive to His words, the faith which gives us the certitude of the things that our Lord wants to give us. Then also the hope and that certitude that our Lord is faithful to His promises and that we will one day, in being faithful to Him as He is faithful to us, receive the glory that the Eucharist offers us as a pledge

[07:26] in this present moment. So if we have these dispositions, when we come to the table of our Lord and we receive Him truly as He is, just as much as they received and even more, because we're receiving Him into our bodies, but not just like normal food, but so that we are united to Him, that He brings us into His body. So we receive even more of a grace than what Martha, Mary, and Lazarus received for so much less that we put in. But we can

[08:04] receive even more depending on our dispositions. So the very Lord that they encountered as a friend, as a teacher, and as their God is the same that we receive today in the Holy Eucharist. So let us not waste that encounter, those chances, those opportunities to receive our Lord in faith, hope, and love, and receive all the goodness that He desires to give us,

[08:37] so that we might one day enter into the fullness of glory in heaven with these three saints and all of the saints and angels, where we will see God face to face and completely understand what it means that God is love and who abides in love abides in God and God in him.