Reflections Tuesday after Palm Sunday Fr. Udoekpo Michael @shsst
Readings: Isa 49:1-6; Ps 71:1-2, 3-4a, 5ab-6ab, 15 and 17; John
13:21-33, 36-38
The Glory of the Cross and of the Suffering Servant!
(1) In yesterday’s Mass we read and learned from First Song of the
Suffering Servant of God, a Type of Christ, in Isaiah 42:1-7. Interestingly
today, we have a follow up with the Second Song of the Suffering Servant of God,
Isaiah 49:1-6. In her wisdom, the Church pairs this important Holy Week text
with selected verses from the Gospel of John chapter 13, which we sometimes
called the Book of Glory. Both texts,
the first reading and the Gospel share a common theme of the Glory of the
Cross and of the Suffering Servant of God.
(2) In these readings we discover that there is always a hidden joy,
a lesson or glory in suffering, a light in the end of the tunnel, in cruce
salus (in the Cross there is salvation). This is true in the experiences of
the Suffering Servant, Ebeh YHWH, in that first reading.
(3) Interacting with God, the Suffering Servant says in his 2nd
song and oracle:
“Though, I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing,
uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the Lord, my recompense, my
honor is with the Lord. For now the Lord has spoken who formed me as his
servant from the womb…I am made glorious in the sight of the Lord, and my God
is my strength….I will make you a light to the nation.” In other words, the servant
thinks that his mission has failed, yet he entrusts his cause to God believing
that he will be dully rewarded, honored or glorified!..(This reminds of
my novitiate days and challenges in seminary formation… but joy at the end, Its
like a mother in labor… joy when the baby is born]
(4) We also notice Christ, taking about the events that will
glorify him, such as, his betrayal, suffering, death and resurrection, in today’s
Gospel, says, “Now is the Son of Man gloried, and God is gloried in him. If God
is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify
him at once.”
(5)What this basically mean for us is that as we live through this
Holy Week in this period of pandemic, it might be worthwhile not to lose sight of
the person of the Suffering Servant and the figure of Christ and his universal love
for us, which took him to Jerusalem and to the cross.
(6)Like the Suffering Servant of Isaiah (Isa 42:1-7; 49:1-6; 50:4-7),
Jesus handled his suffering with patience, wisdom, and humility. He gave his back
and cheek to those who slapped him and plucked his beard. He withstood spitting
and mockery for his love for us. Christ handled his persecution with patience
knowing that his hour of glory was up.
(7)The Christ of the Holy Week would even forgive his persecutors (Luke
22:14–23:56). He would not resist his enemies’ arrest in the in the garden. In the
praetorium before the judge Pilate, he ironically became a judge himself, to palate
who was ignorant of the meaning of the truth. As he gave up his spirit, the veil
of the Old Temple was torn from top to bottom because Christ, the new temple, had
not only cleansed the temple at his entrance into Jerusalem, but had divinely promised
to destroy and rebuild it in three days (John 2:9). The crucifixion of Jesus is
at the same time the destruction of the old temple, and the resurrection of Christ
is a rebuilding of a new way of worshiping God in the spirit of truth, love, forgiveness,
and endurance (John 4:24).
(8)As we walk together through this Holy Week, in this time of
Covid-19, may we see it as a holy and a saving week—a week of glory, of grace, of
victory, of life over death. May we not only
focus on our weaknesses or the weaknesses of Judas, Peter, Pilate, and other disciples
who fled from Christ’s suffering and trial.
(9) Rather, with God’s grace, may we imitate the teaching endurance
of the Suffering Servant, Christ—a king of peace and love—with the faithful examples
of those women, men, and the beloved disciples at the foot of the cross. May we
unite our sufferings, our illnesses, our setbacks, and the mockery we experience
in life with the glorious cross of Christ, and with the victory of the Easter Resurrection!
In Cruce Salus, for in the Cross there is salvation!
