The first readings on the first three days of Holy Week are taken from the four Suffering Servant Songs which are found in the Prophecy of Isaiah. There is not much agreement on who Isaiah meant the suffering servant to be. The Church, however, has from its inception seen these songs as pointing to the Lord Jesus.
Isaiah has the suffering servant bringing God’s justice to the world. To this end God will put his spirit on him, a spirit of peace, unmarked by violence of any sort. His voice will be muted, he will be gentle, especially toward the weak and the wounded. He will heal, open the eyes of the blind, free prisoners from captivity. Through him God will bring about the victory of justice, not merely, however, in the restoration of Israel. For the servant has been appointed to establish a covenant not only with the people of Israel but through Israel with all nations. He carries with him God’s desire for universal salvation.
Today’s Gospel, as Fr. Carroll Stuhlmueller sees it, suggests the attitude we should bring with us into Holy Week. Jesus, he points out, understood Mary’s anointing of his feet as preparation for his own burial. Mary, however, saw it quite differently. She saw it as a “supreme moment of loving devotion toward Jesus.” This is the attitude, the feelings the Christian should have as he moves though the events of Holy Week. Jesus, our Lord, our friend, lived through these events, conscious that he was about to suffer a brutally violent, physically and emotionally painful death. He will need us to walk alongside of him, to be with him. All our attention should be on Jesus, no other distractions should be allowed. It’s not that we should be constantly speaking with Jesus. Silence is enough, along with feelings of concern and compassion.
We are to walk with Jesus, then, as he passes though the mysteries of his passion and death, suffering with him, admiring, consoling, encouraging, strengthening him, and with the hope that the experience of Holy Week will draw us far more intimately into friendship with him.
