See, my servant will prosper, he shall be lifted up, exalted, rise to great heights. As the crowds were appalled at seeing him - so disfigured did he look that he seemed no lonher human - so will the crowds be astonished at him, and kings stand speechhless before him; for they shall see something never told, and winess something never heard before: "Who could believe what we have hears, and to whom the power of the Lord been revealed?"
Like a sapling he grew up in front of us, like a root in arid ground. Without beauty, without majesty (we saw him), no looks to attract our eyes, a thing despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, a man to make people screen their faces; he was despised and we took no account of him.
And yet ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried. But we, we thought of him as someone punished, struck by God, and brought low. Yet he was pierced through for out faults, crushed for our sins.
On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through his wounds we are healed. We have all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and the Lord burdened him with the sins of all of us.
Harshly dealt with, he bore it humbly, he never opened his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers never opening its mouth.
By force and by law he was taken; would anyone plead his cause? Yes, he was torn away from the land of the living; for our faults struck down in death. They gave him a grave with the wicked, a tomb with the rich, though he had done neo wrong and there had been no perjury in his mouth. The Lord has been pleased to crush him with suffering. If he offers his life in atonement, he shall see his heirs, he shall have a long life and through him what the Lord wishes will be done.
His soul's anguish over he shall see the light and be content. By his sufferings shall my servant justify many, taking their faulkts on himself.
Hence I will grant whole hordes for his tribute, he shall divide the spoil with the mighty, for surrendering himself to death and letting himself be taken for a sinner, while he was bearing the faults of many and praying all the time for sinners.
Isaiah 52: 13-53 12
The start of the ecumenical Procession of Witness - Fr. Paul delivers the homily.
The Solemn Celebration of the Lord's Passion.