The First Suffering Servant Song

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

We read all four of the "Suffering Servant" songs on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday of Holy Week. The Church has seen them as oracles that point toward Jesus' passion and death. However, all of them were written long before Jesus was born. They were, in fact, written as descriptions of the role of Israel in the world. Reading them in this light gives us a rather wonderful glimpse into what God had in mind when he formed Israel as his people. As people of the New Covenant, the New Dispensation, we can also read them as descriptions of the vocation of the community in which we live.

Today's passage indicates that Israel is to be a beacon for the rest of the world. I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness (Isaiah 42:6-7).

The word "holy," means "set apart," "other than," or "different." Israel was called to be holy, to be other than, in the world. When people gazed upon this people, they were supposed to see a reflection of God. In this passage, it is God's justice which is evoked. Of course, it is also important to remember that the pattern of God's justice is mercy. Thus, the beacon of justice will bring God's saving power to those who are oppressed by the power of sin.

Jesus, who is God, is more than just a reflection of God's justice. He is the embodiment of God's justice, the incarnation of God's mercy. His suffering is the model for our own. Those of us who struggle with the effects of chronic illness and or disability are called to holiness by our willingness to unite our suffering with that of the Crucified Savior. In that way, we will be come beacons of God's justice, God's mercy in our world.