Mary and her sister Martha

John 11:1 

Martha and Mary are mentioned three times in the Gospels: in Luke 10:38-42, John 11:1-44, and John 12:1-8. While Luke does not name the village where they live, we know from John that they live in Bethany together with their brother, Lazarus.  

Martha is presumed to be the eldest of the three siblings since she is reported to be the one who always welcomes Jesus into their home. And Lazarus is believed to be the youngest because he is barely mentioned in the gospels and he remains quiet in the background. This makes Mary the middle child.  
 
We have heard many homilies and teachings about Martha and Mary. We know that Martha is always the active one, meeting, welcoming and serving Jesus whenever he visits, while Mary is the silent and listening one.  

Thus, we are taught that the primary lesson from the story of Martha and Mary is that there are two ways of serving God: through action or through contemplation. Martha is said to have opened her house to Jesus while Mary has opened her heart to Jesus. Martha wants to feed Jesus while Mary wants to be fed by Jesus. In all three gospel accounts, Mary is at the feet of Jesus, like an eager disciple craving to learn from the teacher.  

The “one thing” to ask for

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus emphasized “the need for only one thing” (Luke 10:42). What is the significance of this “one thing”?  

These words appear at least three times in the Bible: In the prayer of the psalmist in Psalms 27:4: “One thing I ask of the Lord, this I seek: to dwell in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, to gaze on the Lord’s beauty, to visit his temple.” 

In the words of Jesus to the rich man in Luke 18:22: “There is still one thing left for you: sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven.” 

In the letter of Paul in Philippians 3:13: “Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.” 

It is evident that the “one thing” is the heavenly reward in Jesus Christ. As we reflect on the story of the raising of Lazarus in the Gospel of John, we are profoundly touched by the verse in John 11:35: “And Jesus wept.” 

Like Jesus, and certainly Martha and Mary, we also silently and internally wept at the sudden passing of two longtime friends in the CFC community.   

Losing friends in the mission

Marcial was one of Jun’s brightest students in chemical engineering at the University of the Philippines and the one who consulted him most frequently. When Jun became Secretary of Science and Technology, Jun had him appointed as Director of the Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research and Development.  

Later, Jun asked Marcial to join him as a consultant on some projects of TEST Consultants, Inc. related to energy and power generation. But subsequently we had not met Marcial for many years, although he used to send Jun copies of MS Excel computer programs that he had developed on energy generation, management, and financing.  

Then suddenly we learned that he had passed on. He was only in his early 70s. We immediately went to his wake, the earliest to visit.   
 
Linda and Bonnie were servant-leaders in the CFC community in Indonesia. Because they were fluent in Bahasa Indonesia, they were central in the growth of CFC among the Indonesians. Bonnie was struck with a golf ball that blinded his left eye, which was replaced by an artificial eye.  

Jun wrote about this incident in the first book of Letters of Aquila and Priscilla published in 2001. Three paragraphs are quoted below: 

“I have witnessed the tremendous spiritual growth of Bro Bonnie since he and Sis Linda attended the Christian Life Program in April 1994. Because they speak Bahasa Indonesia fluently, I have requested them to develop a strong Indonesian CFC community in South Jakarta by January 1999. After the completion of the current CLP at St. Johannes Church in early December, we expect to install them as Chapter Leaders of a new South Jakarta Chapter.   

“I was in Manila last week attending a meeting at the Asian Development Bank when Jean called me and said that a golf ball struck Bro Bonnie shattering his eyeglasses and left eye. She related what happened and said that she had just returned home from visiting Bro Bonnie at the hospital.  

“To help comfort him, she gave him a rosary with beads made of rosewood and a bottle of water that we brought back from our recent pilgrimage to our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima. I immediately called Bro Bonnie to assure him of my prayers, and asked him to continue to trust in the Lord. That evening, I offered a rosary for him.   

“A few days ago, Bro Bonnie was flown to Perth, Australia to consult an eye specialist. Just two days ago, Sis Linda called from Perth. She was crying and could hardly speak. She said that the specialist had found the damaged eye beyond saving and that it had already been surgically removed. 

“We were overwhelmed with sadness. Silently, we asked: Why, dear Lord? What is your purpose? Why did you allow it to happen? Has he not been serving you well? Has he not already made a commitment to you? What is the meaning of this? What is your message to Bro Bonnie and Sis Linda and to our community?”   

After years of not seeing each other, we unexpectedly learned that Linda had passed on. Once again, we were among the first to visit Linda’s wake. Bonnie has lost weight and now walks with a cane. In Linda, we have again lost a very dear friend. And we wept.

Three anointings: as prophet, priest, and king 

The anointing of Jesus in Bethany in the house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus (John 12:1-8) is one of three anointing events reported in the gospels, the second was in the house of Simon the leper (Mark 14:3-9, Matthew 26:6-13) and the third in the house of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50).  

The anointing in the Gospel of Luke is clearly a separate and distinct event. But the anointings in Mark, in Matthew, and in John have too many similarities—although there are differences in some details: (a) the same village: Bethany, (b) the same question from the disciples: “Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages and given to the poor?” (c) the same response from Jesus: “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” 

But perhaps we should be content that the Holy Spirit had inspired the gospel writers to report that there are three anointings of Jesus serving as a theological concept referencing the three roles Jesus fulfilled: Prophet, Priest, and King.  

After all, there are also three important persons in our Gospel readings: Lazarus, Mary and her sister Martha.