On July 29^th every year we celebrate the Feast of Sts. Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Our Ordo refers to them as Hosts of the Lord. In the Gospel of John their relationship to Jesus is described as follows: When Lazarus was ill "the sisters sent word to him saying, ‘Master, the one you love is ill’." And again we read: "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." And again, Jesus says to his disciples: "Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him." As Jesus encounters Martha and Mary outside Bethany, John relates that Jesus was "deeply troubled, perturbed and wept." From this we can see that there was a deep bond of loving friendship between Jesus and Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.

        They are presented in the Gospel of John as a models of what it means to be Church. What it means to form a Community of Faith, as examples of what being a faithful disciple to Jesus is all about.

        These saints have a special place in our Benedictine Ordo because of their practice of the virtue of hospitality. This virtue, as we know from the Holy Rule, is to have a preeminent place in our life style as Benedictine Monks. The virtue of hospitality we see in the lives of Martha, Mary and Lazarus is sewn, nurtured and sustained because they know and they receive the love Jesus offers to them and they respond in consummate friendship with a trust and faith that proves to be inextinquishable.

        When the sisters send word to Jesus: "Master, the one you love is ill!" Jesus responds by saying: "This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it." After two days Jesus said to his disciples: "Let us go back to Judea." The disciples respond in fear and disbelief: "Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?" Yes, Jesus wants to go back there out of love for his friend Lazarus. Lazarus is dead and he means to bring him back from death to life and Jesus knows that this will lead to his own death.

        When the Jews hear that Jesus has raised his friend Lazarus from the dead they convene the Sanhedrin to discuss: "What are we going to do?" "...and from that day on they planned to kill him."

        When Jesus encounters Martha and Mary out side Bethany Jesus is perturbed, deeply troubled and weeps. Literally "he snorted in spirit" (like a horse might snort physically), a deep, shuddering and internal emotion. He is deeply troubled. Jesus is so troubled because death has claimed his friend, Lazarus, the one that he loved. This is unacceptable - Jesus will not allow death to claim his friend.

        In this context of death, the ultimate expression of the power of sin and evil over those whom Jesus loves, Jesus calls Martha and Mary to believe in him as he proclaims: "I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me, even if he dies will live!" We know how Martha responds, "Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world." The raising of Lazarus from the dead is a foreshadowing of the resurrection of Jesus and those who accept his love and come to believe in him will share in his coming resurrection.

        It is in this atmosphere, that as John writes, six days before the Passover, Jesus comes to "Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus raised from the dead." And Martha, Mary and Lazarus host a supper for him. The actions of all three represent the Church responding to Jesus in their midst as the resurrection and life. Lazarus reclines at table with Jesus. Martha graciously serves with no hint of any complaint here in John’s gospel. Mary, I like best of all. Mary completely abandons herself to show in a gesture of extravagant hospitality her faith in Jesus. She anticipates his coming death as she anoints his feet with pure nard (worth 300 days wages) and then she wipes his feet with her hair. Mary’s expression of true faith and love for Jesus is juxtaposed with Judas’ complaint: "Why wasn’t this sold and the money given to the poor?"

        Martha, Mary and Lazarus as a family community centered with faith in Jesus as the Lord of Life form a model for every Benedictine Community. Our nurturing and living the virtue of hospitality begins by knowing and receiving the love of Jesus. We are the ones whom Jesus loves. We are the ones whom Jesus freely died for and calls back from death to life. As we seek to live the life of hospitality, our hospitality flows from being at table with the Lord. It flows authentically by always seeking to serve the Lord without any complaint. It is sincere when we are able to show in an extravagant way how much we love Jesus without any apology, excuses or timidity. Mary was unconcerned about what anybody in the house would say all she knew was that she loved the Lord. He was going to die for her and she wanted to respond to this love. The more we can live a super abundant hospitality to Jesus the more we can live authentic and sincere and a Christian hospitality to one another and to all who come to us.

        One of our Benedictine mottos is to pray and work, to pray and to serve. So our service is to pray and our prayer is to serve. There are many forms of hospitality more recently with the visit of the head master from Christ the King Priory in St. Louis, he explained the full notion of how in their school they best try to express their hospitality towards their students and the parents. So it is also with us, we need to express this hospitality toward each other and towards all who come to us. We must be honest and know that this hospitality has to be real. We have to become like Mary, not ashamed, unconcerned with letting others know that we love Jesus and that our hospitality for them grows from our love for Jesus. We must also be ready to be persecuted for this. We see in the Gospel through the witness of Lazarus many were coming to believe in Jesus. So the Sanhedrin put Lazarus on their death list as well. He too, was to be killed because of his witness to the Lord. When we witness to the Lord by genuine hospitality we must recognize that this goes against what the world finds acceptable. It goes against power, money, fame, having a good reputation, satiating all of our desires, just consuming and consuming. All of this will evoke a hostile reaction from the world to the point where we know in church history where many have given their lives. Our love for Jesus then expressed in true hospitality is meant to be others with faith in Jesus. To help them see in our love for them the unfounded love that Jesus has for them that they too will come to believe that: "Jesus is the resurrection and the life and that whoever believes in him will never die."