29 May 2024 - Wednesday of the 8th odd week
Homily
There was a time when public functions in society were seen as services that certain people were called upon to render to the community, often at their own expense. Things are quite different today! Candidates often spend huge sums of money trying to convince people to elect them to these offices.
But it seems that human nature hasn't changed that much since the time of Jesus. On several occasions in the Gospel, even after the three announcements of his passion by Jesus, the Disciples discuss among themselves who among them will have the most important position in His kingdom. They expected Jesus to re-establish the kingdom of David on earth.
In today's Gospel, their understanding now seems to be that God will entrust the judgement and condemnation of the Gentiles not to a nationalist Messiah, but to the Son of Man announced by Daniel, and that he will be surrounded by other judges who will also sit on thrones. When the Son of Man is delivered to the Gentiles, they want to be associated with divine vengeance. Once again, Jesus tries, with great patience, to make them understand that the only way to the thrones to which they aspire is through suffering and service. He himself had not come to reign but to serve. Once again, he shows himself to be the one who fulfils the prophecy of the servant of Jahveh.
In the last chapters of what we call the Book of Isaiah, we find four songs by another prophet, whose name we do not know and who is usually called the ‘Second Isaiah’. These songs are called the ‘Songs of the Suffering Servant’, and were written at a time when the people of Israel were subjected to devastation, famine, anguish, persecution and exile. It was impossible for them to make sense of it all. The message of the Second Isaiah is a prophecy soaked in human tears, mixed with a joy that heals all wounds, makes all scars disappear and makes all future generations capable of understanding the future despite the absurdity of the present. There have never been words more apt to bring consolation in a situation made up of suffering and tears.
Israel was in exile and its children were ‘like an antelope in a net’. The executioners had said to Israel, ‘Bow down, that we may pass over you’ and he had ‘made his back like the ground and like a causeway for them to pass over.’ The exiles lived in constant fear ‘because of the fury of their oppressors.’ It was then that the figure of the ‘suffering healer’ appeared - the one who chose to pass through this path of suffering. Like a lamb led to the slaughter, or a sheep before the shearers, he remained silent and did not open his mouth.
It is to this figure of the suffering servant that Jesus refers when he says to his disciples (at the end of today's Gospel): ‘The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, to lay down his life for the redemption of many’. So it is also in this context that we must interpret the invitation to mutual service. In his description of the Last Supper, Saint John has substituted the washing of the feet for the account of the institution of the Eucharist found in the other Gospels, so that there is no ambiguity about this ideal of service.
As we now continue this celebration in memory of the Servant of Jahveh, let us ask ourselves how we can be more faithful to this invitation, in the concrete of each day.