Daily Retreat 04/06/07

2007 Apr 6 Fri: Is 52: 13 -- 53: 12/ Ps 30(31): 2. 6. 12-13. 15-16. 17. 25/ Heb 4: 14-16; 5: 7-9/ Jn 18: 1 -- 19: 42

 

Isaiah’s Servant Songs

 

Isaiah is the greatest of the prophets. Certainly his book (with 66 chapters) is the longest prophetic book (in fact the longest book in the Bible except for the collection of Psalms), and he prophesied in such detail about the coming Messiah that St. Jerome asserted that Isaiah is almost more of an evangelist, a gospel writer, than a prophet!  

 

Not surprisingly, then, the words of Isaiah ring out regularly throughout the Church’s liturgical year - in fact, every single day of this Holy Week includes a reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah, and in particular, the four profound canticles of the Servant of the Lord.  The first of these is read on Monday, Is 42:1-7.  God the Father speaks in these words, describing the vocation and mission of His holy chosen one:

 

Here is My Servant whom I uphold, My chosen One with whom I am pleased,

Upon whom I have put My Spirit; He shall bring forth justice to the nations,

Not crying out, not shouting, not making His voice heard in the street.

A bruised reed He shall not break, and a smoldering wick He shall not quench,

Until He establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for His teaching.

 

Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spreads out the earth with its crops, Who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk on it: 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.

 

The second servant poem, Is 49:1-6, is read on Tuesday of Holy Week.   The prophesy is presented as a first person exposition from the lips of the Servant of the Lord Himself, describing the uniqueness of His election, the travails of His labors, and universal extent of His mission:

 

Hear Me, O islands, listen, O distant peoples. The LORD called Me from birth, from My mother's womb He gave Me My Name. He made of Me a sharp-edged sword and concealed Me in the shadow of His arm. He made Me a polished arrow, in His quiver He hid Me. You are My Servant, He said to Me, Israel, through whom I show My glory.

Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent My strength, Yet My reward is with the LORD, My recompense is with My God. For now the LORD has spoken who formed Me as His Servant from the womb, That Jacob may be brought back to Him and Israel gathered to Him; And I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD, and My God is now My strength! It is too little, He says, for You to be My Servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make You a light to the nations, that My salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

The third Servant Canticle, Is 50:4-9a, is read on Palm Sunday, and Wednesday of Holy Week.  In these verses, the Servant of the Lord describes His mission of patient teaching and indomitable inspiration, even in spite of formidable opposition:

 

The Lord God 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.

The Lord GOD is My help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set My face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame. He is near who upholds My right; if anyone wishes to oppose Me, let us appear together. Who disputes My right? Let him confront Me. See, the Lord GOD is My help; who will prove Me wrong?

 

On Holy Thursday in the morning, the Chrism Mass includes a familiar passage from Isaiah chapter 61, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me....”  Jesus Himself claimed those verses as the very manifesto of His mission when He proclaimed them in the synagogue of His hometown of Nazareth (Luke 4:16-21).

 

Then, today, Good Friday, the fourth and longest servant song: Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

 

See, My Servant shall prosper, He shall be raised high and greatly exalted. Even as many were amazed at Him-- so marred was His look beyond human semblance and His appearance beyond that of the sons of man-- so shall He startle many nations, because of Him, kings shall stand speechless; for those who have not been told shall see, those who have not heard shall ponder it.

 

Who would believe what we have heard? To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up like a sapling before Him, like a shoot from the parched earth; there was in Him no stately bearing to make us look at Him, nor appearance that would attract us to Him. He was spurned and avoided by people, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, one of those from whom people hide their faces, spurned, and we held Him in no esteem.

Yet it was our infirmities that He bore, our sufferings that He endured, while we thought of Him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But He was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon Him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by His stripes we were healed! We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the LORD laid upon Him the guilt of us all.

Though He was harshly treated, He submitted and opened not His mouth; like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, He was silent and opened not His mouth. Oppressed and condemned, He was taken away, and who would have thought any more of His destiny? When He was cut off from the land of the living, and smitten for the sin of His people, a grave was assigned Him among the wicked and a burial place with evildoers, though He had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood. But the LORD was pleased to crush Him in infirmity.

If He gives His life as an offering for sin, He shall see His descendants in a long life, and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through Him.

Because of His affliction He shall see the light in fullness of days; through His suffering, My servant shall justify many, and their guilt He shall bear. Therefore I will give Him His portion among the great, and He shall divide the spoils with the mighty, because He surrendered Himself to death and was counted among the wicked; and He shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses.

 

Ah - How accurately was this haunting, most improbable prophecy fulfilled on that Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion!  Truly, Isaiah is an evangelist, as well as prophet, and how blessed are those who have come to know the Suffering Servant in the songs!