CT - Catholic Telegraph

The price of faithfulness

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Isaiah 53:10-11.

Five weeks ago, when the Gospel reading (Mark 8:27-35) gave us Jesus' first prediction of His passion, the overture reading was from the third of the Servant Songs found in the second part of The Book of Isaiah. Now, on this 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, when Jesus instructs His disciples about the costs of discipleship, we hear from the last part of the fourth Servant Song.

These four pieces of fine poetry were composed during the Babylonian exile. They describe the ideal servant of God. Some look on this servant as an image of the people of Israel. Christian tradition has seen in the servant a foreshadowing of the life and ministry of Jesus.

The fourth Servant Song, in its entirety, runs from verse 13 of chapter 52 all the way through chapter 53. It is concerned with the sufferings of the servant in the execution of his mission from God. The song is used in its entirety as the first reading for the liturgy of Good Friday. This Sunday's reading is from the last part of the poem which deals with the results of the servant's suffering. It is a short reading, but it teaches us about some very important aspects of our salvation.

First we have a general statement: "The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity." The point here is not that God takes pleasure in the suffering of the servant but rather that God was at work in this aspect of the servant's mission, that God accepted the servant's suffering (and death) as a gift proffered to the Lord by this special servant of His. It was in accord with what the Lord asked of him.

But there would be outcomes of this generosity and self-gift on the part of the servant. These outcomes are expressed in the three statements that follow the topic sentence, each pointing out a result of the servant's suffering. Because he gave his life as an offering for sin, the servant will be the father of a great family and will bring about the fulfillment of the Lord's will. Because of his affliction, the servant will be glorified ("see light in fullness of days"). Finally, through his suffering the servant will bear the guilt of "many" (i.e., all) and bring them to a state of justice, i.e., to redemption and salvation.

The point here is fundamental in the Christian teaching about our salvation: The sufferings of the righteous can make up for the sins of others. By voluntary suffering, the servant atones for the sins of all his people.

It is important to realize, however, that what is pleasing to God, what makes up for the sins of the whole people, is not the suffering of the servant in itself. God does not take pleasure in the pain of those He loves. What is important is the faithfulness of the servant, his dedication to God even when that dedication brings him to suffering and death. The faithfulness of the servant is not limited to the ordinary matters of ordinary life. It also extends to the deepest reaches of human endeavor. Nothing is too costly, nothing is too painful, even death itself, in the context of the servant's willingness to carry out the plans of God. It is this generosity, this willingness to give of himself, that makes the suffering significant. In itself, human hurting is not redemptive. It only becomes so when it is an expression of human dedication to the loving will of God.

The Christian theological tradition reads the fourth Servant Song as an interpretation of the life and death of Jesus. He is the servant whose suffering takes away the sins of the world. His faithfulness to the Father, both human and divine, won salvation for all of us not because it caused Jesus suffering, but because it was a faithfulness of unique dimensions. Jesus' suffering and His terrible death on the cross were expressions of that faithfulness. It was the faithfulness that mattered most.

The choice of this overture reading for this Sunday's Gospel applies the fourth Servant Song to Jesus' disciples. He is very clear about the sons of Zebedee drinking the same cup that He himself is destined to drink. And what Jesus says to James and John also applies to us. We are all called to be followers of Jesus in His faithfulness to the Father, even when that faithfulness is painful and costly. It's not the suffering that counts most, but the faithfulness behind the suffering. The suffering is only the expression of our willingness to maintain our dedication to the Lord, come what may. But it is part of our vocation as disciples.

For reflection and discussion

What has suffering contributed to my life?

What has my response to suffering contributed to the lives of others?