Daily Mass Readings — Monday of Holy Week
| Year A | Liturgical Colour: Violet
"Behold my servant, I will uphold him: my elect, my soul delighteth in him: I have given my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." — Isaias 42:1
Liturgical Context
Today is Monday of Holy Week. The Lenten purple is worn, but the air has changed — the readings now breathe the silence before the Passion. The Church presents the First Servant Song of Isaiah: the Servant in whom God delights, who will not cry out in the streets, who will not break the bruised reed. This is Christ on the very eve of His Passion, described not as a warrior but as a quiet bearer of light. The Gospel takes us to Bethania six days before the Pasch, where Mary of Bethany anoints the feet of Jesus with precious nard and wipes them with her hair — an act of lavish, prophetic love that Christ Himself interprets as preparation for His burial. In the shadow of the Cross, a woman's extravagance is more faithful than all the apostolic prudence in the room.
✠ First Reading — Isaias 42:1–7
¹ Behold my servant, I will uphold him: my elect, my soul delighteth in him: I have given my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. ² He shall not cry, nor have respect to person, neither shall his voice be heard abroad. ³ The bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax he shall not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. ⁴ He shall not be sad, nor troublesome, till he set judgment in the earth: and the islands shall wait for his law. ⁵ Thus saith the Lord God that created the heavens, and stretched them out: that established the earth, and the things that spring out of it: that giveth breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them that tread thereon. ⁶ I the Lord have called thee in justice, and taken thee by the hand, and preserved thee. And I have given thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles: ⁷ That thou mightest open the eyes of the blind, and bring forth the prisoner out of prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Commentary
The Challoner note on verse 1 is precise: "My servant: Christ, who according to his humanity, is the servant of God." The portrait here is unlike any other portrait of power: the one upheld by God neither shouts nor crushes — He sustains the bruised reed and nurses the smoking flax. Saint John Chrysostom, meditating on this passage in relation to the Passion, writes that Christ's silence before Caiphas and Pilate is not the silence of helplessness but of sovereign restraint: He who could command twelve legions of angels holds His peace, because His mission is to save, not to strike (Homilies on Matthew, Homily LXXXIV). The phrase a light of the Gentiles — lumen gentium — is the title by which Vatican II opened its Constitution on the Church, drawing directly on this verse to describe Christ and, through Him, the Church (Lumen Gentium, §1). On the first day of Holy Week, the Church gazes at the face of her Lord and sees not a conqueror but the one who opens the eyes of the blind and brings forth the prisoner from the dark.
✠ Responsorial Psalm — Psalm 26 (27):1–3, 13–14
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
¹ The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life: of whom shall I be afraid? ² Whilst the wicked draw near against me, to eat my flesh. My enemies that trouble me, have themselves been weakened, and have fallen. ³ If armies in camp should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear. If a battle should rise up against me, in this will I be confident.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
¹³ I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. ¹⁴ Expect the Lord, do manfully, and let thy heart take courage, and wait thou for the Lord.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Commentary
Psalm 26 (27) is the Psalm of the soul that has looked clearly at its enemies and chosen not to fear. Saint Augustine, commenting on the final verse — expect the Lord, do manfully, and let thy heart take courage — writes that this is the virtue of fortitudo, the strength that does not come from an absence of fear but from a presence of faith (Enarrationes in Psalmos, Ps. 26). Christ on the way to Calvary prays this Psalm in His humanity: I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. The Resurrection is not yet, but the faith that anticipates it is already here. For those who will accompany their Lord through Holy Week, this is the Psalm to carry: the Lord is our light when the darkness of Thursday and Friday descends.
✠ Verse Before the Gospel — Hail and adoration
Hail to thee, our King, who alone hast had compassion on our errors: obedient to the Father, thou wast led as a meek lamb to the slaughter.
✠ The Holy Gospel — John 12:1–11
The Lord be with you. — And with your spirit.
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John. Glory be to Thee, O Lord.
¹ Jesus therefore, six days before the pasch, came to Bethania, where Lazarus had been dead, whom Jesus raised to life. ² And they made him a supper there: and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that were at table with him. ³ Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of right spikenard, of great price, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. ⁴ Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, he that was about to betray him, said: ⁵ Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? ⁶ Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and having the purse, carried the things that were put therein. ⁷ Jesus therefore said: Let her alone, that she may keep it against the day of my burial. ⁸ For the poor you have always with you; but me you have not always. ⁹ A great multitude therefore of the Jews knew that he was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰ But the chief priests thought to kill Lazarus also: ¹¹ Because many of the Jews, by reason of him, went away, and believed in Jesus.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise be to Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ.
Commentary
Mary of Bethany pours a pound of precious nard — worth three hundred pence, nearly a year's wages — upon the feet of Christ, and wipes them with her hair. The gesture is extravagant, wasteful, and in the eyes of Judas, absurd. But Christ defends it: she may keep it against the day of my burial. Saint Thomas Aquinas, commenting on this passage, observes that love of God admits of no measure — and therefore no expenditure in His honour is excessive when it flows from the interior fire of charity (Summa Theologiae, II-II, Q.27, a.6). The contrast between Mary and Judas is the contrast between the two orientations of the human heart: one that pours itself out in love, another that calculates what love might otherwise earn. Saint ThΓ©rΓ¨se of Lisieux, who took Mary of Bethany as her model, wrote that her entire vocation was this same gesture — to pour out love without counting the cost, trusting that love is the only currency that does not depreciate (Story of a Soul, ch. IX). Six days before the Pasch, a woman kneels at His feet and anoints what the Cross will wound.
✠ Closing Prayer
O Lord Jesus Christ, who didst not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax: look with mercy on us who come to Thee this Holy Week more bruised and dim than we dare admit. Teach us the courage of Mary, who spent all she had upon Thee and counted nothing wasted. Let this week be not merely observed but entered — let us follow Thee from Bethania to Gethsemani, from the Upper Room to Golgotha, with eyes open and hearts that do not flee. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our Father... Hail Mary... Glory be...
✠ Laus Deo semper — Praise be to God always ✠
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