Gospel: John 11:19-27 (or Luke 10:38-42)
Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary, after the death of their brother, to comfort them.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, while 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 whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection, at the last day.”But Jesus said to her,“I am the resurrection. Whoever believes in me, though he die, shall live. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”  Martha then answered, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.”

Reflections
“Mary sat down to listen to his words.”
Ordinarily, the function of “listening” is to know, to learn something. (It is an intentional or deliberate act. It is not a passive mental act.) But more than this function, a corollary product of listening is that: it prepares one to take action.
Have we not experienced in our lives, when we were at a crucial point of making a difficult decision, we took some time to pray, to listen to the Spirit for guidance? In the case of being attentive to God’s word, listening supplies spiritual courage and strength. Genuine listening empowers one to take action.
Assuming a listening attitude or preparing the heart to be attentive is the kind of hospitality God seeks from us, that is, the “hospitality of loving attention and listening” (Brendan Byrne). This is Mary’s “seemingly pas- sive” action, but to Jesus the one thing that is profoundly important. There is nothing more important to Jesus than to give him our undivided attention.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2019