Wednesday of Holy Week
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“I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; My face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.” (Isaiah 50:6)
“For your sake I bear insult, and shame covers my face. I have become an outcast to my brothers, a stranger to my mother’s sons, because the zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.” (Psalms 69:8-10)
“(Jesus said as he reclined with the Twelve at the table), ‘The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.’ Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, ‘Surely it is not I, Rabbi?’ He answered, ‘You have said so.’” (Matthew 26:24-25)
Piety
Lord, let me answer honestly to you for my sins, and help me to conquer the temptations that beset me.
Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/031908.shtml
You can’t fool God, but we seem to forget that.
Some call today Spy Wednesday, for it is in today’s gospel that we learn of Judas’s deal with the high priests and his feigned surprise when Jesus talks of the coming betrayal by one of the Apostles.
“Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” he asks, all the while knowing the truth.
Judas’s motivations for the betrayal and his ultimate redemption or lack of it have been the topics of theological works, popular fiction, and barroom debates for millennia. But it’s more relevant—and less comfortable—to consider the “Spy Wednesday” we each face every day in our struggle to be Christlike.
Catholic writer Hugh McNichol reflects on the struggle in a beautiful essay at http://www.catholic.org:
To live the life that Jesus intended for us is a perpetual struggle on a daily basis with good and evil. Sometimes when we are questioned about our transgressions, we sometimes answer back. "It's not me Lord." But the tranquility of Jesus' realization of His mission provides us with hope in the days to come. Rather than provide a discourse to the Twelve, Jesus calmly recalls the Old Testament references to Him and even shares a piece of food with Judas, simultaneously dipping a morsel into the bowl. …Often, we dip morsels and share food with those we love; we feign intimacy and even deceive one another. Jesus is not blind to the events that are revealing themselves as a result of Judas' clandestine negotiations. Judas has turned on Jesus' friendship and love. We too in our lives are sometimes turned against Jesus' love through sinful and unloving activities. There is a real message here in Jesus' tranquil resignation to the events that are coming. Faith in the love and power of the Father.
Let us have the bravery as we head into the Triduum to come clean with the Father on our “sinful and unloving activities” and to ask for His help in making changes in our lives.
Action
Receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation this week through a parish reconciliation service, weekly confession, or a special meeting with a priest. Dig deep for the sins that are weighing down your soul and come clean.
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