In the many things we desire in life, suffering is certainly not one of them; we not only don’t wish suffering upon ourselves, but we would also wish to free those we love from it. For this reason, today’s first reading might seem incomprehensible. In this reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah, we find that “the Lord was pleased to crush his servant with suffering.” In this passage from Chapter 53, God’s servant is tested through suffering, but “because he offers himself as a reparatory sacrifice... the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him.” How difficult it is for us to understand this message! Perhaps to help us, we can imagine a father or mother taking their young child to the doctor. The doctor has to perform a procedure that will cause pain to their child, who doesn’t understand why the parents, who love him so much, would allow this suffering; yet, the parents accept it all because they know it is for the good of their child.
It is clear that the fullness of Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in Jesus; God the Father offers His Son as a sacrifice for the healing of the world from the worst pandemic ever to exist – sin. Sin is the opposite of love; it robs the human heart of the most precious thing – inner peace – and breaks our relationship with God, with each other, with ourselves, and even with the rest of creation. Sin is the opposite of what God, who is Love, is. The Lord’s suffering servant, “after his suffering, will see the light and be satisfied with his knowledge,” and God will “justify his servant before the masses.” It is God’s infinite love that leads Him to take our sin upon Himself to destroy it, to take our suffering and illness to give them value, and to take our life to bring us into the embrace of the heavenly Father. Above all, the cross does not have the last word over God’s suffering servant, who “after suffering will still see the light”; he passes through suffering and death to reach the fullness of life and becomes the source of eternal life for all who believe in Him.
Like us and like that young child who does not understand the suffering their parents are putting them through at the doctor, even the apostles did not understand the mystery of God’s suffering servant, who is Jesus. When Jesus tells them that he is going to Jerusalem to suffer and die, they become confused and begin discussing among themselves who will take his place... who will start commanding. Obviously, Jesus saw that they still hadn’t grasped the most important part of his message, and with all patience, he continued to explain it: it is the pagans who desire to rule and dominate others. “Among you, it should not be so; rather, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of all.” We ask ourselves, have I understood and am I grateful to the Lord, who bore upon himself the cross that should have been mine, my cross, that is, my sin, so it would not destroy me, my illness and suffering so that from a curse he turns them into grace and blessing, and, above all, my death so that he transforms it from eternal destruction into a passageway to endless life?
Lord, you who came not to be served, but to serve and to give your life as a ransom for us; help us understand that if we do not seek to resemble you, if we do not strive to serve and not dominate each other, then we cannot be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, but will instead be salt that has lost its flavour and is fit only to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by people. Ammen.