Message of Abbot Paul - Friday 29th

Message from Fr Paul for Friday, 29th July 2022

 Friendship and hospitality are two of the most important and rewarding aspects of our God-given human life and lie at the very heart of the Christian faith. The angel Gabriel offered the hand of God’s friendship to Mary at the Incarnation, when she gave the hospitality of her womb to the incarnate Son of God, the Word made flesh, Jesus our Lord and Saviour. Jesus healed the sick and forgave sinners as a sign of God’s friendship towards us and, at the Last Supper, called his disciples friends. If we are truly his disciples, then we are also friends of Jesus. I always remember my Welsh grandmother singing, “What a friend we have in Jesus.” It was one of her favourites hymns and still is one of mine, a hymn that brings tears to my eyes. Although a Presbyterian, like St Benedict, she always spoke of receiving Christ in all those who came to her door. That is why she always had the kettle on the hob, ready to make a fresh pot of tea for anyone coming to visit. More importantly perhaps, she and my grandfather fed all the children in their street during the Great Depression in the 1930s. It was a great sacrifice, but they saw it as their Christian duty and they did it for the love of God and neighbour. They extended their friendship and hospitality to all those in need. It made a powerful impression on my father and his brothers. Today we keep the feast of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus, friends of Jesus from Bethany, two sisters and a brother, whose house became a second home for Jesus.

 Our Gospel passage comes from John, (Jn 11: 19-27), and is part of the account of the Raising of Lazarus. Here it is:

“Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come, she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said:

‘I am the resurrection and the life.

If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,

and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this?’

‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’”

This part of the account focusses on the faith of Martha, a faith that is mirrored in Mary, and the promise of Jesus that their brother Lazarus will rise from the dead. When Martha says that she believes that he will rise at the resurrection on the last day, Jesus replies that he is the resurrection and the life, meaning that he has power to raise Lazarus from the dead even now, for “whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Mary, like Peter at Caesarea Philippi, confesses her faith in Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.” We show our friendship of Jesus by inviting him into our homes, that are the symbol of our lives, and by giving him hospitality in our hearts and souls. May we also learn to see Jesus in others and to love and serve him in them.