Wednesday in Holy Week

A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah:

 

In those days, Isaiah said: Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him: Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not. Surely he bore our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, everyone has turned aside into his own way: and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth. He was taken away from distress, and from judgment: who shall declare his generation? because he is cut off from the land of the living: for the wickedness of my people have I struck him. And he shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death: because he has done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his mouth. And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity: if he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand. Because his soul has labored, he shall see and be filled: by his knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he has delivered his soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked: and he bore the sins of many, and prayed for the transgressors.

 

A reflection upon the sacred scriptures:

 

Again it is Isaiah that instructs us, not indeed upon the triumph which our Emmanuel is to win over his enemies, but upon the sufferings of the Man of Sorrows. So explicit is his description of our Lord’s Passion that the holy Fathers have called him the fifth Evangelist. What could be more sublimely plaintive than the language here used by the son of Amos? And we, after hearing both the Old and New Testament upon the sufferings which Jesus went through for our sins—how shall we sufficiently love this dear Redeemer, who bore our infirmities and carried our sorrows, so as to look as a leper, and as one struck by God, and afflicted?

 

We are healed by his bruises! O heavenly Physician, that takes upon himself the sufferings of them he comes to heal! But not only he was bruised for our sins; he was also slaughtered as a lamb: and this not merely as a Victim submitting to the inflexible justice of his Father who has laid upon him the iniquity of us all, but because it was his own will. His love for us, as well as his submission to his Father, that led him to the great Sacrifice. Observe how he refuses to defend himself before Pilate, who could so easily deliver him from his enemies: He shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearers, and he shall not open his mouth. Let us love and adore this divine silence, which works our salvation. Let us not pass over an iota of the devotedness which Jesus shows us—a devotedness which never could have existed, save in the Heart of a God. Oh! how much he has loved us—his children, the purchase of his Blood, his Seed, as the Prophet here calls us. O Holy Church! You long-lived Seed of Jesus, that laid down his life!—You are dear to him, for he bought you at a great price. Faithful Souls! give him love for love! sinners! be converted to this your Savior; his Blood will restore you to life, for if we have all gone astray like sheep, remember what is added: The Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. There is no sinner, however great may be his crimes; there is no heretic, or infidel, who has not his share in this precious Blood, whose infinite merit is such that it could redeem a million worlds, more guilty even than our own.

 

Let us pray,

 

Look down we beseech thee, O Lord, on this thy family on whose sake our Lord Jesus Christ refused not to yield himself into the hands of the wicked and to suffer the torments of the cross. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end.

 

Amen.