The Connection

The liturgical commemoration of St. Martha is celebrated annually on July 29th. Today. The connection between St. Martha and Christ, the High Priest of the New Testament fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament, struck me particularly hard this morning when I was celebrating the weekly Mass at sisters' convent...

 The First Reading of today's Liturgy of the Word was as follows (quoting in extenso):

The LORD said to Moses,
“These are the festivals of the LORD which you shall celebrate
at their proper time with a sacred assembly.
The Passover of the LORD falls on the fourteenth day of the first month,
at the evening twilight.
The fifteenth day of this month is the LORD’s feast of Unleavened Bread.
For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
On the first of these days you shall hold a sacred assembly
and do no sort of work.
On each of the seven days you shall offer an oblation to the LORD.
Then on the seventh day you shall again hold a sacred assembly
and do no sort of work.”

The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the children of Israel and tell them:
When you come into the land which I am giving you,
and reap your harvest,
you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest
to the priest, who shall wave the sheaf before the LORD
that it may be acceptable for you.
On the day after the sabbath the priest shall do this.

“Beginning with the day after the sabbath,
the day on which you bring the wave-offering sheaf,
you shall count seven full weeks,
and then on the day after the seventh week, the fiftieth day,
you shall present the new cereal offering to the LORD.

“The tenth of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement,
when you shall hold a sacred assembly and mortify yourselves
and offer an oblation to the LORD.

“The fifteenth day of this seventh month is the LORD’s feast of Booths,
which shall continue for seven days.
On the first day there shall be a sacred assembly,
and you shall do no sort of work.
For seven days you shall offer an oblation to the LORD,
and on the eighth day you shall again hold a sacred assembly
and offer an oblation to the LORD.
On that solemn closing you shall do no sort of work.

“These, therefore, are the festivals of the LORD
on which you shall proclaim a sacred assembly,
and offer as an oblation to the LORD burnt offerings and cereal offerings,
sacrifices and libations, as prescribed for each day.” (From the Book of Leviticus)

I highlighted in bold font two passages which were of the utmost importance to me when I reflected upon this mysterious connection between Saint Martha, her life of service and sacrifice for others, her belief in resurrection, her intercession for her brother Lazarus and Christ, His sacrifice, His altar, and what was prescribed in the Old Testament...

The Word of God teaches us that God wants to see us as His family at prescribed times. This is not an option. He planned a schedule for regular meetings with Him in liturgical, festive manner as a sacred assembly. This is how He wanted us to be and how we should stay connected with Him as a family, not individuals.

Then there is a connection between our life, work and daily struggle with the priest, altar and the day after Sabbath, which is Sunday. God speaks in clear terms that our life will not be acceptable, will not be complete if not connected with the altar, the priest and Sunday. So, the importance of Sunday Eucharist is absolute for our perfection and a state of being accepted by God Himself.

This is the best part of which Jesus spoke to Martha. She was a woman with a great, magnanimous, open, kind heart, ready to serve and host Jesus and His companions. She was a caring, hard working woman. In her selfless service she was ready to go to her limits...  But this would not be perfect, this would not be complete without the connection with altar, priest and sacred assembly... Christ is the High Priest, He is the altar as well and whenever two or three are gathered together in His Name, He is amongst them.... That is why Jesus reminded her about the importance of this connection between her life and service - and the sacred assembly with Him, High Priest and altar in their midst to make her life complete and acceptable to God...

This poses a question to each one of us. Do I really understand importance of Sunday Eucharist? The importance of connecting my daily life, daily work, deeds, house chores, struggle, victories and failures - with the altar, the priest celebrating the Sunday Eucharist and the sacred assembly of my parochial community?

In my home town, Krakow in Poland, there are many churches belonging to religious congregations which do not take pastoral care of parishes. Some of my relatives and friends like to go for Sunday Mass to those churches, losing connection with their parishes. I know their reasons to do so. I know their quest for better liturgy, well prepared homilies, the experience of holiness of Sunday solemn liturgy. Yet they lose contact with the sacred assembly living day in day out in their neighborhoods! They gradually become some kind of selfish Christians, followers of Christ who fix their gaze on Christ, yet lose fellow followers from their sight. And this is wrong and this leads to dangerous attitudes in their Christian lives. Me and Jesus. My spiritual needs. My Sunday experience. Whereas the Lord's prayer teaches us - Our Father... not my father... What profit the community I live in has out of Sunday participation in the liturgy if I do not share the blessing of it with people I  live with on daily basis. I receive Something on Sunday in order to live it and share it with others throughout the weekdays...

St. Martha was reminded by Jesus about this connection. Between her daily life and selfless service to others and the priest, the altar and the assembly in order to make her life and service complete and acceptable to God. And at the same time she is presented to us by the Lord today as a reminder that life connected with Christ, the altar and the sacred assembly must bear fruit - just like she did...