for April 8
Wednesday of Holy Week

Today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah is another of the so-called suffering servant passages that helped the early church understand the meaning of Christ’s suffering and death. If we think of the role of the person described as fulfilled in Jesus, his offering a word to the weary back then is equally important for us today.

Preparing to commemorate the passion it is easy to picture Jesus as the one who did not turn back, did not rebel, did not shield himself because the Lord God was his help. So indeed God is for us too, the Lord God described as near to Christ who we believe is equally near to us. Opposed even to the point of death, condemned and executed as a criminal, humanly speaking it looked like things turned out wrong for Christ. Yet in the end God proved him right as the cross led to the resurrection, new life for him and for us, the climax of our holy week celebration.

In the gospel, Jesus prepares to celebrate what we call his Last Supper which we recall on Holy Thursday. But there is also Judas, not surprisingly always and accurately described in the gospels as the one who betrayed him. Yet Jesus knew and therefore expected his betrayal as he knew and therefore expected his death. Jesus in the gospel even says his appointed time draws near. It has been noted that in the story the other disciples address Jesus as Lord while Judas does not. This perhaps suggests he never fully grasped who Jesus was or what his mission was, unlike ourselves who nonetheless need to keep deepening our faith in and understanding of Christ.

Jesus condemns the act of betrayal but also says he goes to his death as it is written, as in the suffering servant passages like our first reading or the Good Friday one which says he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our offenses, so that it turns out to be part of the divine plan that the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all.

The Passover meal Jesus is getting ready to celebrate is another way to approach the gospel in these difficult times. Historically it refers to the angel of death passing over the first-born of the Israelites in Egypt when they put the blood of a lamb on their doorposts. More liturgically it refers to the Jewish people passing over from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land. What Jesus is preparing to inaugurate we call the Christian Passover. Jesus will pass over from death on Good Friday to life on Easter Sunday which enables us to pass over from the death that is sin to life with Jesus. All this accomplished of course also through the blood of a lamb, namely Jesus the Lamb of God as we proclaim him at every Eucharist.

So we make our own the opening prayer from today’s liturgy that God who willed the Son to submit to the yoke of the cross might grant us to attain the grace of the resurrection.
—Edward O’Donnell SJ

Today’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops website.