Memorial of Saint Martha
(Jeremiah 10:15.16-21; John 11:19-27)
We are accustomed to thinking of time and space as having
different coordinates. Space has its set which marks a person’s locale. Time gives another dimension that places a
person in different locales at different moments. Einstein showed how time and space can be
brought together with one set of coordinates.
These coordinates can expand space to virtually infinite distances or,
alternatively, stretch time virtually to forever. In the gospel Jesus invites
Martha to think of him in a comparable way.
Jesus asks Martha if she believes that he is “the
resurrection and the life.” He does not
refer to himself as destined to rise again but expresses himself as the
resurrection itself. Anyone who knows
Jesus, therefore, experiences the resurrection. The person is put on the space-time
continuum such that she is catapulted out of the ordinary space and time sets
of coordinates into a new kind of existence.
This existence has universal range and lasts for forever.
But what does it mean to “know Jesus”? It is to be touched by him whose love is
oceanic deep and nuclearly powerful so that we are utterly transformed. Like iron is magnetized after being rubbed by
a magnet, we are made into perfectly loving creatures by being touched by
Jesus. We are we so touched by reading
intently the Word of God and, most of all, by receiving sincerely the
Eucharist.
