Suffering Servant

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, March 24, 2024:
Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

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Isaiah
50:4-7
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The servant of the Lord said: “The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens — wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward.

“I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.

“The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

The first reading for this Sunday, Palm Sunday, or Passion Sunday as it is also known, is from the prophet Isaiah. This portion of the book is often referred to as The Song of the Suffering Servant. The prophet is noted for his beautifully accurate description of the suffering our Saviour endured. 

​I have often  been drawn to meditate on this scripture along with the gospels that depict  the suffering of Jesus in his Passion. I experience chronic migraines and have long felt the call to reflect on how Christ walked this path and experienced this suffering so that I may be saved. I have longed to more deeply understand what is meant by the idea of uniting our sufferings to Christ, not just the glib “offer it up” we so often hear in connection to our own or other people’s pain. 

It seems to me that the answer to my questions about the endurance in suffering lies in the first lines of this reading: I am called to speak truth to the weariness I experience and to listen to the Lord who gives me everything I need to persevere in trial, pain, persecution, sorrow, and all the rest. It is here in the midst of what I believe are my darkest moments that the Lord speaks truth to my soul. How does He speak? In many and varied ways. I must silence myself to listen so that when I am struck I am to remain focused: body, mind and soul, on the Lord who knows what it is to suffer and overcome. 

Lord, speak truth to my heart this day, that any suffering I face this day may be for Your glory and the good of all.





Sr Teresa MacDonald

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