CT - Catholic Telegraph

The sufferings of Our Lord

Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion (ABC), Isaiah 50:4-7.

The free-standing series of first readings concerned with Old Testament salvation history has now come to a close. For Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion and for Easter Sunday, the first reading has been chosen to harmonize with the second reading and the Gospel in the observance of the day.

The first reading for this Palm Sunday is from the 50th chapter of the Book of Isaiah, that part of the book written during the exile by one or more followers of the tradition of the eighth-century prophet. This reading is from one of the "Suffering Servant" poems.

The "Suffering Servant Songs" are poetic productions of extraordinary intensity. They speak of a unique Israelite, completely consecrated to God's will who, though innocent, is called to suffer as part of his vocation.

As is the case with all great poetry, there is more than one level of meaning in these songs. Probably no single interpretation expresses their full significance. Scholars and literary critics have spent great energy trying to discern who the servant is actually intended to be, which is the key question to understanding the meaning of the poems.

Some say it is the prophet/writer himself, suffering rebuff from his own people for being too optimistic, too open to welcoming sinners and gentiles into the embrace of God's providence. Others say that the servant is God's people seen as a collective, who, though pardoned of their sinfulness and now innocent, are nonetheless called to suffer for the sake of others. Others see the servant as an embodiment of the great figures of Israel's history - Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah - the ideal Israelite who somehow brings about universal salvation. The richness of the possibilities is one of the fascinations of these writings.

This Sunday's reading is an excerpt from the third of these four poems. (The whole poem will constitute the first reading for Wednesday of Holy Week.) The prophet presents himself as a speaker who faithfully proclaims God's word of energy and encouragement to the weary. He is careful in listening to what God says to him and has not refused to accept it. He is patient when he is mistreated and persecuted, though subject to the greatest of human indignities. Finally, he is confident that God will protect him from final disgrace, that God will make him strong in bearing his sufferings.

Whatever the significance of the four servant songs may be in their original context, Christian believers have seen them as referring to the suffering of Jesus (and, by implication, to the Christ-like suffering that goes with being a follower of Christ). It is for that reason that they are read on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday of Holy Week, all four of them, each year. They provide a modality in which Christian believers can look upon the sufferings of their Lord, a modality already prepared many centuries before the actual passion and death of Jesus.

The use of a portion of the third song as the first reading for Palm Sunday each year is to provide an overture or preview for the whole of Holy Week. In these verses the church invites us to recall the ministry of Christ, a ministry of teaching and speaking comfort to the weary ("... a well trained tongue ... a word that will rouse..."). The reading also speaks of the faithfulness and obedience of Jesus ("He opens my ear ... I have not turned back"), a faithfulness that would bring Jesus to His death. In the course of mistreatment and persecution He would be patient ("I gave my back to those who beat me ..."). But in the end God will intervene to bring His Christ to glory ("I am not disgraced ... I shall not be put to shame"). These are all themes that we will encounter in the course of the days that lie ahead during Holy Week: Jesus condemned for His teaching, refusing to back away from His faithfulness to the Father, putting up with scorn and pain and even death without complaint, and, finally, brought to resurrection in which all the dedication and faithfulness and suffering are touched with the glory of a new life, a life that all those who open themselves to Christ would be called to share. Jesus is the true, the ideal Israelite, the new Abraham, the new Moses, the new Jeremiah, the founder of a whole new people whose suffering for the sake of others would bring them a new life and a new identity.

All that we hear each year from the various proclamations of God's word on Palm Sunday and throughout the rest of Holy Week is an exposition, a clarification, a development of what we hear in this overture.

For reflection and discussion

What role has suffering played in my relationship with God?

What sources of confidence do I experience in my life?