This week brought us some bad news. A gunman killed thirteen people after taking many of them hostage in the US state of New York. No one will ever be able to explain the reason for this carnage. And then again, a gunman in Pittsburg killed three police officers who came in answer to emergency call from his house. How can we explain such events? In one sense, these events bring to us the stark realities of the human condition. I begin my homily on such a somber note to bring to our attention the fallen human condition.
As we enter Holy Week, we are entering into a week that dramatizes the stark realities of the human condition. Within the Jesus story we find intrigue, malice, prejudice, hatred, betrayal, bribery, corruption, and bloody murder. Intertwined in this sad story is the life of a man who took the consequences of human sin upon himself and transformed it into love, forgiveness, peace and eternal life. He did so by becoming the “suffering servant” of God – a concept introduced to us both in the first and second readings. By becoming the “suffering servant,” Jesus changed the very meaning of human life. Human quest for permanent happiness and eternal life can only be fulfilled in Jesus.
Both the first reading and second reading talk about the “suffering servant.” There are four “servant songs” in the book of Isaiah that talk about the ideal servant leader:
(a) Is 42:1-7; (b) 49: 1-6; (c) 50: 4-9; and (d) 52:13 – 53:12). The servant leader is specially chosen by God to bring God’s saving grace to his people. The suffering servant accomplishes this mission by taking upon himself the suffering of the very people he comes to redeem. Today’s first reading is taken from the third of these “servant songs.” Thus, in Isaiah 50:4, the Servant accepts God’s call to be the suffering servant when he says, “The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, I have not turned back.” But then in the very next verse (50:5), the servant talks about his own persecution at the hands of the very people he is serving: “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.” In spite of this irony, the servant puts his trust in God. Thus in 50:6, the servant confesses his trust in the Lord in these words: “The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.”
Christians identify Jesus as the “suffering servant” par excellence. In the second reading from the letter to the Philippians Jesus is presented as the suffering servant who “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2: 7-8). Because of this, Jesus has now become the salvation of all those who bend their knees at the name of Jesus (Phil 2:10).
I would like to draw three practical implications from today’s scripture.
1. The life of the suffering servant has much to teach us. We learn that evil is a part of the human condition. In some way, we all experience the consequences of the sinful human condition. We too experience the pain of betrayal, illness, age and death. But we also learn that there are things over which evil has no hold – the capacity within us to take all the evil we experience and smother it within us with the power of God. Like Christ, we have the choice to take in the evil in the world and transform it into good. Over that power, evil has no control. We do not have to return evil with evil. Instead, we can turn hate into love, resentment into forgiveness, betrayal into loyalty, death into life. This is the most powerful way of being Christ like in the world – taking all the pain we encounter and making it an opportunity for salvation.
2. Holy Week takes us to the climax of the story of Jesus. The story of Jesus is the story of the human redemption. Because of this, the story of every person must now be told in the light of the story of Jesus. There were many people who were part of the story of Jesus. On the one side there are those who choose evil. Those who deliberately conspired to kill an “innocent man” were evil. And then there were those who chose good. Joseph of Arimathea, Mary the mother of Jesus, and his friends who stood by Jesus. There were also those who stood in the middle – playing the political game: Pilate is a classical example. The stories of all these people are told differently, depending on how each one chose to relate to Christ. At the end of our life, our story too will only have meaning depending on how we fit into the story of Jesus. What does that story look like at the moment? The most cursed position to be is in the middle – like Pilate swaying in the wind. Holy week is a time to take a stand with Christ and live up to our baptismal commitment to Christ. In this is our salvation.
3. This coming week unravels the mystery of the sinful human condition. But it also unravels the mystery of our salvation. This week is unlike any other week. My hope is that each one of us will fully enter into the depths of these mysteries. Salvation is not like fast food – it comes at a price. We cannot get to Easter without Holy Week. If we do, Easter will taste like fast food. Rather, reflect on the readings for each day of the Holy Week and spend time in prayer. Through penance we must unite ourselves with the suffering of Jesus. Please participate in the celebration of the Last Supper on Thursday; personalize the redeeming death of Jesus, the suffering servant, on Good Friday and keep Holy Saturday as a day of mourning and hopeful expectation. I am concerned that if our children do not live this story, then the story of Jesus will lose its hold over us. And once that happens, human life becomes hopeless.
Let our participation in this Eucharist be the beginning of our solemn participation in the life of Jesus. When in the Eucharist Jesus invites us to eat his body and drink his blood, he is inviting us into his story. And when we say, “Amen” we are inviting him into ours. Let Christ’s life and ours become one, especially during Holy Week. Amen.
