Tuesday of Holy Week
Today we continue our journey through Holy Week. Although we are still only at the beginning, we know how it ends, not with death and sorry, but with Easter joy. And of course, the end is just the beginning, 50 days of Easter joy. We celebrate the greatest mystery of our with Triduum and Easter, the solemn celebrations which conclude this week. All of these mysteries: the Last Supper, Jesus’ passion and death, and His resurrection, are events that cannot be easily separated from one another.
Today’s first reading is a great example of St. Augustine’s famous line that the New Testament is hidden in the Old, and the Old Testament is made manifest in the New. This first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah is within the portion of Isaiah known as the Servant Songs. In today’s reading we find God’s servant, called Israel. This can be applied to Jesus at many levels, since He recapitulates Israel’s history in His own life, going down into Egypt as a child, coming out of Egypt again, being tried in the desert wilderness, going into exile/death only to be restored to new life, etc.
One of the significant portions of today’s first reading is the mention of the reunification of the 12 tribes of Israel, the united Davidic kingdom, the kingdom of God (49:5). This Jesus does symbolically by uniting Israelites around His 12 apostles, and He does actually by gathering followers from among the Jews (descendants of the southern tribes of Israel) and even going to the Samaritans and Galileans (both composed of descendants of the northern tribes of Israel). But then comes the startling verse: “It is too little…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” (49:6). Thus, the mission among the Gentiles, some of whom we already see coming to faith during Jesus’ own earthly ministry.
This reunification of Israel within the kingdom of God, the Church, as well as the ingathering of the Gentiles, is affected by the events we celebrate at the end of this week: Last Supper, passion, death, and resurrection. Jesus has become a light to the nations, and thus in Jesus is fulfilled the promise made to Abraham, the promise of blessing to all nations. In Christ, God has begun the work of reuniting the peoples of the world in the one family of God. This is why the Church is Catholic—international, universal, cosmic—spanning the globe, and spanning purgatory, heaven, and earth. It is into this family we are all called, and it is for the mission of calling others to God that we are also called, by our baptism. Let us persevere during Holy Week, keeping our eyes fixed on the events which end the week, but recognizing the implicit hope that these events represent.
- Jeff Morrow