Saint for the Day

• July 29—St. Martha, Virgin.

  

  ST. JOHN tells us that “Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus,” and yet but few glimpses are vouchsafed us of them. First, the sisters are set before us with a word. Martha received Jesus into her house, and was busy in outward, loving, lavish service, while Mary sat in silence at the feet she had bathed with her tears. Then, their brother is ill, and they send to Jesus, “Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick.” And in His own time the Lord came, and they go out to meet Him; and then follows that scene of unutterable tenderness and of sublimity unsurpassed: the silent waiting of Mary; Martha strong in faith, but realizing so vividly, with her practical turn of mind, the fact of death, and hesitating: “Canst Thou show Thy wonders in the grave?” And then once again, on the eve of His Passion, we see Jesus at Bethany. Martha, true to her character, is serving; Mary, as at first, pours the precious ointment, in adoration and love, on His divine head. And then we find the tomb of St. Martha, at Tarascon, in Provence. When the storm of persecution came, the family of Bethany, with a few companions, were put into a boat, without oars or sail, and borne to the coast of France. St. Mary’s tomb is at St. Baume; St. Lazarus is venerated as the founder of the Church of Marseilles; and the memory of the virtues and labors of St. Martha is still fragrant at Avignon and Tarascon. Reflection.—When Martha received Jesus into her house, she was naturally busy in preparations for such a Guest. Mary sat at His feet, intent alone on listening to His gracious words. Her sister thought that the time required other service than this, and asked our Lord to bid Mary help in serving. Once again Jesus spoke in defence of Mary. “Martha, Martha,” He said, “thou art lovingly anxious about many things; be not over-eager; do thy chosen work with recollectedness. Judge not Mary. Hers is the good part, the one only thing really necessary. Thine will be taken away, that something better be given thee.” The life of action ceases when the body is laid down; but the life of contemplation endures and is perfected in heaven.

  Taken from the “Pictorial Lives of the Saints: with Reflections for Every Day in the Year”

Sunday Sermon

• Ninth Sunday After Pentecost~ A Christian’s Weapons

  “For the days shall come upon thee : and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round and straiten thee on every side.” — St. Luke xix. 43.

  We learn from today’s Gospel that we are not to expect to go on smoothly in this life without ever meeting anything that will disturb us. On the contrary, our Lord would have us clearly understand that we are to be tried on every side, for His words are : “And thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side.”

  The axiom has it, “Forewarned is forearmed”; so then we have great reason to be grateful to our Lord for His pointing out what we are to look for during our stay on this earth. The evident reason of this prediction is that we should be prepared to meet whatever befalls us. The question arises, then, Have we the means on hand to combat and overcome our enemies? Yes, in abundance. We have so many helps, my dear brethren, that they are too numerous to mention. Why, to name some of them, we have prayer, the sacraments, our Lord Himself in the Sacrament of the Altar — what more can we ask for? If we are overcome by our enemies we have but ourselves to blame, for our Lord has said, “Come to me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.” Do we do this? Don’t we rather turn to the things of earth and try to drown our sorrows by means of them? I am afraid the latter is what many of us have recourse to, and hence we are vanquished by our adversaries. How many of us, when it pleases the Lord to take from us one whom we loved dearly, turn to Him in prayer and seek assistance in that hour of trial? Is it not often the case when, for instance, a father or a mother is taken away, that the son, terrified at the affliction, endeavors to get rid of it by drinking and carrying on in a disgraceful manner — and to what good? True, drink may make one oblivious of his surroundings for the time being, but when its influence has passed away the trouble returns with redoubled vigor ; whereas, if at the outset he would turn his thoughts to God and beg of Him the grace to bear his trials manfully, it would be a stay for him to sustain his troubles and a source of merit hereafter.

  There is not one of us that is not ready to op pose and conquer the enemy when he threatens the life of our body, and if we are so solicitous about that which, after all, is but to last for a few years, what shall we say when he attempts to deprive us of what is to continue for ever — the soul ? Now, then, an enemy, common, I was going to say, to us all, is detraction ; that is to say, telling the faults of our neighbors to their detriment to every one that will listen. Knowing, then, the adversary, what steps are we to take to put him down?

  Let us take, for example, a person who wants to overcome this vice, and who, nevertheless, is prone to it to such an extent that its commission affords him or her a kind of gratification. Of course, we said above we had abundant means to overcome our enemies and sustain ourselves in the warfare against him ; but the special means to vanquish this enemy is the sacrament of Penance. This person at the start is fully in earnest and means to be successful at the sacrifice of self.

  The first thing such a person does is to institute a daily examination of conscience. At the expiration of each day it is carefully noted down how many times this fault has been committed ; one day, one month, is compared with another, so that in a very short time the state of the con science is pretty exactly known ; and the number in this particular sin comparatively few, sup posing, as we said before, the person is in earnest. This help, together with a weekly or monthly confession, will produce in six months’ time a gratifying result to God and the soul who has had so much success in the warfare against the adversary.