"The Lord is My Light and My Salvation; Whom Shall I Fear?"

Today's Mass Readings

During this Holy Week, the last week before the unbounded joy of Easter, the Scripture readings turn our attention to Jesus’ divinity, while not drawing our attention away from his humanity. The first reading from Isaiah foreshadows Jesus as the servant-messiah, who saves his people by his own obedience to God’s will. In the Gospel, we see Jesus spending time with his close friends – Martha, Mary and Lazarus – in his last days. Mary shows her love for Jesus in a very concrete, human way, by anointing him with oil. This, however, also foreshadows the anointing that Jesus’ body will receive after his death on the cross. Jesus, we see, is human: he has friends and his body is anointed with oil according to human custom. And yet Jesus is divine, God has put his Spirit upon him, as Isaiah tells us. The last line of the Gospel tells us that many of the Jews believed in Jesus as the messiah who had come to save them.

Jesus, as the Son of God, faced death in this week more than ever. He knows that his death is very close. At such a time, fear is a natural human response. And yet the Psalm response addresses exactly that. If God is our light and salvation, how can we fear?

In this last week of Lent, let us not fear the passion and death of Jesus that lies ahead. Let us not fear our own death. Let us trust in God’s goodness, believing that we shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living. May we see the joy beyond the suffering!

Let us the reflection by praying Psalm 27
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?

When evildoers come at me
to devour my flesh,
My foes and my enemies
themselves stumble and fall.

Though an army encamp against me,
my heart will not fear;
Though war be waged upon me,
even then will I trust.

I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.