Tuesday of Holy Week
Isaiah 49:1-6; Psalm 71:1-2, 3-4a, 5ab-6ab, 15 and 17; John 13:21-33, 36-38
Psalm 71 is often called a prayer of old age.
A voice that has walked a long road with God.
The psalmist remembers:
“You have been my hope, O Lord, from my youth.”
Now, near the end of life, he asks only one thing:
“Do not abandon me when my strength fails.”
It is the prayer of someone who has trusted God for many years.
Jesus too had lived such a life.
He came into the world to do the will of the Father.
Every step, every word, every act of mercy followed that path.
But now that path is reaching its darkest hour.
The Gospel tells us that Jesus is troubled.
One of his disciples will betray him.
Another will deny even knowing him.
Soon the others will scatter.
And before long the cross will rise.
To many people it will look like failure.
The Messiah rejected.
The teacher abandoned.
The mission destroyed.
Was it labor in vain— strength spent for nothing— as the prophet Isaiah once said?
Anyone who has struggled for something good knows that feeling.
The sense that all the effort has led nowhere.
But then another voice speaks.
The voice of God.
No.
It was not labor in vain, not strength spent for nothing.
“I will make you a light for the nations.”
A light that reaches
to the ends of the earth.
That promise begins to unfold in the Gospel.
When Judas leaves the room to betray him,
Jesus does not speak about defeat.
He says something unexpected:
“Now the Son of Man is glorified.”
At the very moment when darkness begins,
Jesus speaks about glory.
Because what looks like failure will become victory.
What looks like defeat will become salvation.
The cross will reveal the glory of God.
After the resurrection Jesus explains this mystery to his disciples.
The Messiah had to suffer before entering his glory.
And then the message must go out.
Repentance. Forgiveness. Hope.
For all nations. For the whole world.
That is why the psalmist makes a promise:
“My mouth will proclaim your salvation all day long.”
This promise became the mission of the Church.
To speak of God’s mercy.
To announce forgiveness.
To proclaim life in the name of the crucified and risen Christ.
Until the message reaches the very ends of the earth.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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