23 March 2027 · Latin Rite
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“I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Isaiah 49:6
Today the second Song of the Servant lets the Servant himself speak. “The LORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me.” God has shaped him like a sharp sword and a polished arrow, hidden in his quiver until the right moment. Yet the Servant also knows the taste of failure: “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the LORD.” God's answer is astonishing. Instead of reducing the mission, he enlarges it: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob… I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” On Tuesday of Holy Week we hear this as the prayer of Jesus. To human eyes his work in Jerusalem is collapsing; one of the Twelve is about to sell him, another will deny him, the rest will run. Yet through that apparent failure the light will reach the whole world, even to the shores of India. The Psalm is the prayer of one who has trusted God from the womb: “Upon you I have leaned from my birth.”
The Gospel takes us into the Upper Room. Jesus has just washed the feet of the disciples, and now he is “troubled in spirit” and says: “Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.” The disciples look at one another. The beloved disciple, reclining next to Jesus, asks: “Lord, who is it?” Jesus dips a piece of bread and gives it to Judas. In the East, to give a morsel from the dish to a guest was a sign of honour and friendship. Even at this moment Jesus offers Judas love. But Judas takes the bread and goes out. St John adds four words that fall like a stone: “And it was night.” Not only the night outside, but the night of a heart that refuses the light. And yet Jesus says: “Now the Son of Man has been glorified.” The hour of betrayal is also the hour of glory, because love is about to be shown to the end.
Then Peter speaks with all his warm, impulsive heart: “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus answers gently and truly: “Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.” Two disciples fail the Lord on the same night. The difference between them is not the size of their sin, but what they do afterwards. Judas goes out into the night and despairs. Peter will meet the gaze of Jesus, weep bitterly, and return (Luke 22:61–62). Jesus had said, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterward”; and Peter did follow, to Rome and to his own cross. Holy Week is the time to be honest about our betrayals and denials, and to choose Peter's tears instead of Judas's night. No one is too far gone for the mercy of the One who gave the morsel even to his betrayer.
Theme: “I will give you as a light to the nations.”
The Servant called from the womb, the night of Judas and the tears of Peter.
“The LORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me.” Isaiah 49:1
“and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
Apply: Thank God tonight for your own call, and offer him one work that seems to have failed.
“I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Isaiah 49:6
“For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, so that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” Acts 13:47
Apply: Pray and give something this week for the missions.
“Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted the heel against me.” Psalm 41:9
“So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.” John 13:30
Apply: Bring into the light of confession the sin you most want to hide.
“For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.” Psalm 71:5
““Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”” Luke 22:31–32
Apply: Make your confession before the Triduum, and trust his mercy more than your strength.
The Servant's apparent failure becomes the light of the world.
Judas and Peter both fail; mercy is refused by one and received by the other.
Take-home resolution: Choose Peter's tears, not Judas's night: go to confession before Holy Thursday.
Dear friends, in today's first reading the Servant speaks: the LORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me (Isaiah 49:1). And then he admits: I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing (Isaiah 49:4). But God answers: it is too small a thing to restore only Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth (Isaiah 49:6).
In the Upper Room this light seems to be going out. Jesus is troubled in spirit and says: one of you will betray me. He gives a piece of bread, a sign of friendship, to Judas. Judas takes it and goes out. And it was night (John 13:30).
Then Peter says: I will lay down my life for you. Jesus answers: before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times (John 13:38). Two apostles fail him that night. Judas despairs; Peter weeps and returns. The difference is not that Peter's sin was small, but that Peter trusted the mercy of Jesus.
This Holy Week, do not go out into the night. Whatever you have done, come back to the light. Go to confession. Let Jesus look at you as he looked at Peter. From that weak, forgiven fisherman the light of Christ reached to the end of the earth, and it reaches you today. Amen.
Children, Peter said he would never leave Jesus, but he got scared and said he did not know him. Then he was very sorry and cried, and Jesus forgave him and made him the leader of the apostles! When we do wrong, let us say sorry quickly and come back to Jesus.
Lord Jesus, you were called from the womb to be a light to the nations, and in the night of betrayal you went on loving to the end. When we fail you, do not let us go out into the night like Judas, but look at us as you looked at Peter, so that we may weep, return and follow you. Make your salvation reach to the ends of the earth. Amen.
Today’s two readings are both about a calling that seems to have failed. The Servant cries, “I have labored in vain”, and God answers by making his mission wider. At the supper Jesus is troubled, Judas goes out into the night, and Peter promises more than he can give. Yet at that very moment Jesus says, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified”. Psalm 71 prays from the womb onward, as the Servant does: “Upon you I have leaned from my birth”.
Setting.
This is the second Servant Song. In the first, God spoke about the Servant. Now the Servant speaks for himself, and he addresses the coastlands and peoples far away. In Babylon the exiles felt forgotten (49:14). The song answers that weariness from within: even God’s chosen one has felt he has achieved nothing.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.” (49:1)
St Paul describes his own call in these words (Galatians 1:15; compare Jeremiah 1:5). A vocation begins earlier than any human decision.
““You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”” (49:3)
“Israel” stands in nearly all manuscripts, yet in vv. 5–6 this servant has a mission to Israel. Here is the song’s riddle: the Servant both embodies the people and serves them. Christians see it resolved in Jesus, the faithful Israelite who gathers Israel and the nations. The people of Israel remain God’s own, whose gifts and calling are not withdrawn (Romans 11:29).
“I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (49:6)
God answers a complaint of failure not by making the work smaller but by making it larger.
How the Church reads it.
Old Simeon, holding the child, calls him “a light for revelation to the Gentiles” (Luke 2:32). Paul and Barnabas take 49:6 as their own charter in Antioch of Pisidia (Acts 13:47). So the song belongs first to Christ, and then to those who share his mission. The Catechism lists it among the Songs that proclaim the meaning of the Passion (CCC 713). Those who feel their work has come to nothing can pray v. 4 honestly, including its second half: “yet surely my cause is with the Lord”.
Setting.
We are at the supper, after the washing of the feet (13:1–20). John’s reader already knows the devil’s work in Judas (13:2). The Mass reading passes over vv. 34–35, the new commandment. The verses left in show three disciples around Jesus: the one who betrays, the one who rests close to him, and the one who boasts and will fall.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“the one whom Jesus loved…was reclining next to him;” (13:23)
Greek has “on the bosom of Jesus”, the word used of the Son who is “close to the Father’s heart” (1:18). As the Son rests in the Father, so this disciple rests in the Son. The Gospel does not name him; ancient tradition sees him as John the son of Zebedee, while some modern scholars keep the question open.
“So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.” (13:30)
A time of day and a state of soul. Jesus has said that whoever walks at night stumbles (11:10). St Augustine remarks that Judas was not harmed by something evil in the bread: he took a good thing badly (in substance).
““Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”” (13:37)
Peter uses the very words of the Good Shepherd (10:11). He means them sincerely, but he has the order reversed: Jesus lays down his life for Peter first. After the Resurrection Peter will be called three times to love and will truly follow (21:15–19).
How the Church reads it.
The Church reads the two failures of this night together. Judas and Peter both fail their Lord. The difference shows itself after the fall, in Peter’s return. No one should say of any person that he is beyond mercy. The words “It was night” are followed at once by “Now the Son of Man has been glorified”: the darkest deed of the week is taken up into the plan of love.
If Jesus foretold the betrayal, did Judas have any choice?
Yes. To know beforehand is not to force. The Catechism says that God sees all moments of time in his eternal present, so his plan includes each person’s response, and he permits the acts that flow from human blindness in order to bring about his plan of salvation (CCC 600). Judas acted, and answered for it.