The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us with the image of the Suffering Servant and the power of Love as the Divine Disrupter of our human self centeredness.
Anointed for love
The reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah presents The Servant, as a Light to the Nations.
* [42:1–4] Servant: three other passages have been popularly called “servant of the Lord” poems: 49:1–7; 50:4–11; 52:13–53:12. Whether the servant is an individual or a collectivity is not clear (e.g., contrast 49:3 with 49:5). More important is the description of the mission of the servant. In the early Church and throughout Christian tradition, these poems have been applied to Christ; cf. Mt 12:18–21.1
Psalm 27 is a triumphant Song of Confidence.
* [Psalm 27] Tradition has handed down the two sections of the Psalm (Ps 27:1–6; 7–14) as one Psalm, though each part could be understood as complete in itself. Asserting boundless hope that God will bring rescue (Ps 27:1–3), the psalmist longs for the presence of God in the Temple, protection from all enemies (Ps 27:4–6).2
In the Gospel of John, Mary anoints Jesus and the religious authorities plot to kill Lazarus.
* [12:1–8] This is probably the same scene of anointing found in Mk 14:3–9 (see note there) and Mt 26:6–13. The anointing by a penitent woman in Lk 7:36–38 is different. Details from these various episodes have become interchanged.3
David Crawford comments that we can (and should) be followers of Jesus. We can have an intimate friendship with Jesus, one that welcomes Him into our homes, our hearts and any other space we consider private and personal. Jesus has called us to step out of darkness and offers us New Life.
We can live a life that testifies to the power of the Messiah, not because of anything we say or do on our own, but precisely because we respond to His call and enter into an intimate relationship with Him. You can be involved in “the victory of justice” described by the prophet Isaiah. You can work “to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.” This does not mean that we won’t face difficulties or opposition. Quite the opposite. Do not fear, though. As the psalmist told us today, the Lord is our light and our salvation. Trust. Have courage. The Lord is our refuge. Of whom should we be afraid?4
Don Schwager quotes “God first loved us,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"Fulfill the commandments out of love. Could anyone refuse to love our God, so abounding in mercy, so just in all His ways? Could anyone deny love to Him Who first loved us despite all our injustice and all our pride? Could anyone refuse to love God Who so loved us as to send His only Son not only to live among human beings but also to be put to death for their sake and at their own hands?." (excerpt from Catechetical Instructions 39)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Isaiah 42:1-7 notes that In her visions, Julian of Norwich saw that through the cross, Christ “wraps us” and “encloses us” in his tender love. Through the cross, he grasps us by the hand (Isaiah 42:6). He lifts us up from the pit of sin. And he embraces us. That’s the headline for Holy Week: “God is love!”
This week, as you accompany Jesus on the way to Calvary, remember Julian’s vision of the hazelnut and God’s staggering love. Like Julian, you can ask for your own glimpse into the passion—a glimpse of the suffering of Christ and of the deep joy in the heart of God. And you can ask for the grace to see the world through the lens of Jesus’ love. “Lord, I open my heart to receive the vastness of your love, which you have wrapped around me.”6
Friar Jude Winkler examines the Suffering Servant in Deutero Isaiah who destroys evil through love. Martha has been suggested as a model for women deacons in the early Church. Friar Jude reminds us that love precedes social justice in Christian action.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that Jesus became the scapegoat to reveal the universal lie of scapegoating. He became the sinned-against one to reveal the hidden nature of scapegoating, so that we would see how wrong even educated and well-meaning people can be. This is perfectly represented by Pilate and Caiaphas (state and religion), who both find their artificial reasons to condemn him (see John 16:8–11 and Romans 8:3).
In worshiping Jesus as the scapegoat, Christians should have learned to stop scapegoating, but we didn’t. We are still utterly wrong whenever we create arbitrary victims to avoid our own complicity in evil. It seems it is the most effective diversionary tactic possible. History has shown us that authority itself is not a good guide. Yet for many people, authority soothes their anxiety and relieves their own responsibility to form a mature conscience. We love to follow someone else and let them take the responsibility. It is a universal story line in history and all cultures. With the mistaken view of God as a Punisher-in-Chief that most Christians seem to hold, we think our own violence is necessary and even good. But there is no such thing as redemptive violence. Violence doesn’t save; it only destroys all parties in both the short and long term. Jesus replaced the myth of redemptive violence with the truth of redemptive suffering. He showed us on the cross how to hold the pain and let it transform us.7
Jesus' response to being anointed by Mary teaches us primarily to express love as servants of the Lord.
References
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