Bethany: A Fraternity that Welcomes, Listens, and Proclaims: July 29, 2025

Bethany: Today’s liturgical memory immerses us in the contemplation of the sign of Bethany, in Martha, to renew our essentially servant vocation, where the charity of Christ urges us (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14); in Mary, to renew our search for contemplation, choosing the better part, for those who love God all things work together for good (cf. Romans 8:28); and in Lazarus, the daily work of conversion and faith, which moves us to leave the tomb and journey towards the One in whom we have life in fullness, if you remain in me, you will bear abundant fruit, the fruit of life and for life (cf. John 15:4-8).

Bethany: A Fraternity that Welcomes, Listens, and Proclaim

“Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”(John 11:5)

Memorial of Martha, Mary and Lazarus

Today’s liturgical celebration leads us to encounter the fraternity of Martha, Mary and Lazarus in Bethany, a family that according to Saint John the Evangelist (cf. John 11:5) was loved by Jesus, a family where Jesus found rest in the joy of friendship, but also, as today’s Gospel points out, a family that finds rest in Jesus, listening to, keeping and fulfilling his Word, living the grace of conversion and with conviction professing their faith: Yes, Lord: I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God.

Already in the celebration of Sunday XVI of Ordinary Time, we meet this holy family; following the reading of the Evangelist Luke (cf. Luke 10, 38 – 42), Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, teaching His disciples the mission, speaking to them in parables, preparing them for what is coming, very important episodes in that ascent to Jerusalem. But, Jesus makes a stop on the way and surprises us by entering the village of Bethany, in a house with a very familiar, friendly, hospitable and pleasant atmosphere of sharing, to live the joy of feeling at home, in fraternity, in friendship.

As members of this General Chapter, we know that we are also on this path of life and mission, each one in our entity and with our brothers [and sisters], with its lights and shadows. However, we have made a stop on the way and the Lord has guided our steps to enter this house, of the Province of Poland, also with a very familiar, friendly, hospitable atmosphere where we are living the joy of being together at home, knowing and feeling ourselves with Christ, through Christ and in Christ, in our meetings, dialogues, discernments of what is essential for our vocation as Dominicans: to forge the common good, to care for unity, solidarity, subsidiarity and to dedicate ourselves entirely to the great task of questioning ourselves about our preaching of the Good News, facing those who are close to us and the world of the young, but also those who are far away, those who have left the Church.

Today’s liturgical memory immerses us in the contemplation of the sign of Bethany, in Martha, to renew our essentially servant vocation, where the charity of Christ urges us (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14); in Mary, to renew our search for contemplation, choosing the better part, for those who love God all things work together for good (cf. Romans 8:28); and in Lazarus, the daily work of conversion and faith, which moves us to leave the tomb and journey towards the One in whom we have life in fullness, if you remain in me, you will bear abundant fruit, the fruit of life and for life (cf. John 15:4-8).

In the work we are carrying out during these days, Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus inspire us to work fraternally, in communion and peace, in the dynamic encounter of listening, welcoming, emptying and sharing faith, the service and the task of evangelization, in this way we are building the life and mission of our beloved Order with courage and towards the future.

In a world where fraternity and the human family are threatened, the three siblings of Bethany are the sign that illuminates and inspires our being sibling preachers, nuns, friars, sisters of active life, lay fraternities and young people, full of grace and truth, who contemplate and give from what is contemplated, in the diversity of the mission, of the frontiers and the interlocutors to whom we are sent to preach, heal and save, finding more joy in giving than in receiving (cf. Acts 20:35), and where our fraternity is already a preaching of hope.

Christ comes to the fraternity of Martha and her siblings and to our fraternity in this General Chapter to share the joy of friendship, of the word, of what we are and what we have; and He wants to go much further; He wants to enter, to know, to share and to transform with the Word of Hope, the pain, the suffering, the doubts and the fears. Christ calls us not to be strangers to the harshness of pain and the contexts of death that scourge our world.

We are certain that Christ has entered Bethany and Krakow; He is among us in this General Chapter to make us bearers of grace and truth, those preachers who renew our commitment to always welcome the other as our neighbor, without distinction, always with hospitality and daring ourselves to face the sufferings of the world with the Word of Hope.

From the fraternity and hospitality of Saint Martha and her siblings, we are placed on the path of holy preaching to transmit and pass on the faith that we have received, that we live and that we have the joy of announcing to those who are near and to those who are far from the faith, to those who want to deepen and know more, and to those who do not know the Lord; to those who want to return and seek in us that beacon of light to guide their steps towards the way, the truth and the life, and also to those we have to seek to bring to Christ.

After this pause in Bethany, Jesus continues to Jerusalem to fulfill the glorious destiny of the cross. In the same way we, after this General Chapter, will return and continue in our entities, the charism and the union with Christ, the personal, community and provincial conversion, the work of basing our discernment, proposing ourselves as interlocutors in these new fields of mission, which implies changing styles of life and mission, returning to our entities to renew with love the dedication of our life, in the service to our brothers and sisters.

May Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus intercede for us, so that from our fraternity and with wisdom, in this General Chapter, we may contribute to, care for and preserve the sacred treasure of our unity; work for the common good and for charity and make possible what Saint Augustine said: In what is essential, UNITY, in what is important, LIBERTY, but in all things the radiance of CHARITY.

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