Word to the Wise
Wednesday, March 31, 2021 - Holy Week - Wed
[Isa 50:4-9a and Matt 26:14-25]The Lord 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, have not turned back. 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. [Isaiah]
The gospel scripture for today is the evangelist Matthew's account of the moment of Jesus' announcement at the Last Supper that one of the disciples would betray him. The first scripture, however, from Isaiah takes us closer to the events that follow - Jesus' arrest and trial - that Matthew recounts. One may read the words of Isaiah above and then go to Matthew 27:27-31: Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus inside the praetorium and gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped off his clothes and threw a scarlet military cloak about him. Weaving a crown of thorns, they placed it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" They spat upon him and took the reed and kept striking him on the head....." Matthew's description echoes the Song of the Suffering Servant! All of Holy Week happens against the backdrop of Isaiah's prophecy.
The events of Holy Week and Easter with all their sorrow and joy take place within a much greater context of God's plan of salvation. St. Thomas Aquinas, along with many others throughout history, asked if somehow God could have handled all this in a different, less difficult, way. His response is that God could have done it differently, but the way it did happen was more in keeping with the promises God made through the prophets and others in the Old Testament. [ST III, q.46. a.2]. None of this happens outside of us as some ancient event, but continues in us as baptized into Christ's death and resurrection. [Romans 6:3-11]: Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.
The fullness of meaning in Holy Week and Easter are there for us to contemplate and understand in the next three days. AMEN