- \n
- On this last day of Lent \u2014 tomorrow we enter into a new liturgical season, the shortest of the year, the Blessed Triduum \u2014 it\u2019s key for us to grasp what the Lord is calling us to do as we turn away from sin and are faithful to the Gospel. Today in the first reading, the third of four Suffering Servant Songs, we hear Isaiah\u2019s reflections about what he and Jesus after him wants to do in us: \u201cThe Lord God has given me \u00a0a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary\u00a0a\u00a0word that will rouse them<\/em>.\u201d With eloquence, Jesus wants to arouse us from our spiritual somnolence, from our fears about Covid-19, from our disordered habits. What\u2019s the \u201cword\u201d that will actually do that? It\u2019s what he speaks with his body language: \u201cI gave my back to those who beat me,\u00a0my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield\u00a0from buffets and spitting,\u201d all things we will be pondering over the next couple of days.\u00a0The word of what our sins have done to Jesus should arouse us to contrition, to repentance, \u00a0to entrusting\u00a0ourselves to his mercy, and to amendment and the pursuit of holiness.<\/i>\u00a0Isaiah says, foretelling Jesus\u2019 mindset, \u201cI have not rebelled, have not turned back. \u2026\u00a0The Lord God is my help,\u00a0therefore I am not disgraced;\u00a0I have set my face like flint,\u00a0knowing that I shall not be put to shame.\u201d He was resolute, setting his face toward Jerusalem (Lk 9:51) like flint, the very hard rock always placed at the tips of spears in the ancient world.\u00a0Jesus wants us to have that same firm resolve to set our faces toward him with trust and not to rebel or to turn back.<\/em>\u00a0He preaches this eloquent \u201cword\u201d to arouse the \u201cweary,\u201d because he knows that more than anything else our sins wear us down. We\u2019re also worn down by trying to struggle against evil on our own without God. He comes to join us in that fight and help us set our faces on Jerusalem together with his.<\/li>\n
- That brings us to the Gospel.\u00a0Yesterday with the help of St. John\u2019s account of the beginning of the Last Supper, we were able to look at Judas\u2019 betrayal and contrast\u00a0it with St. Peter\u2019s. Today we look at the betrayal again from the perspective of St. Matthew. St. Matthew records something very important that Jesus said about Judas during this supper: \u201cWoe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.\u201d That brings us face-to-face not only with the tragedy of the life of Judas but also the point of your life and mine.\u00a0The lamentable misfortune\u00a0of the life of Judas, the reason why it was better for him never to have been born, is not simply because the names “Judas” and “Iscariot” have become synonymous with the most notorious traitor in the history of the world.\u00a0It\u2019s because he had never come to grasp the point of human life.<\/em>\u00a0Even though he had been up close with the Lord Jesus for three years, he had never really come to know him and his merciful love. He had totally missed the point of Jesus\u2019 parables of the lost sheep, lost coin and lost son. He hadn\u2019t grasped that when he called Peter and the others to forgive 70 times 7 times, God himself would do the same. He hadn\u2019t let penetrate the lessons Jesus had taught in forgiving the sinful woman in Simon the Pharisee\u2019s House, the Paralytic, the Woman Caught in Adultery or Zacchaeus. He hadn\u2019t grasped why Jesus had called Simon bar Jonah, whose first words to Jesus were, \u201cDepart from me because I am a sinful man,\u201d or Matthew, who was a despicable tax collector. Despite three years with Jesus, he still hadn\u2019t gotten the most important thing about Jesus and his Mission: that he was mercy incarnate and had come desiring mercy not sacrifice. The real tragedy of the life of Judas\u00a0is that\u00a0at the end of his life when he looked at what he had done, he saw no way past the shame. Consequently, he ended his life rather came\u00a0to receive forgiveness from the one who was preparing to die to take away his sins.\u00a0It is similarly better for anyone who doesn\u2019t come to know the love and mercy of the Lord never to be born because, frankly, their sins \u2014 and the unexpiated guilt of their sins \u2014 will kill them in this life and forever, even though Jesus totally has the antidote to the poison of sin that kills us and wants to give it to us.\u00a0<\/em>This is the one of the most essential messages of Holy Week, to learn\u00a0from Judas\u2019 fatal mistake and entrust ourselves to the mercy of the Lord of life. Jesus wants to rouse us from the weariness that comes from the weight of our sins by taking them away and nailing them to the Cross.<\/li>\n
- But to grow in how he seeks to do this, it helps to enter more fully into the betrayal of Judas. Why did he sell out the Lord?\n
- \n
- Most think it was for the money, that he was a greedy thief and would sell out Jesus for what he could get. \u201cWhat are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?,\u201d he asked. They gave him 30 shekels of silver, the price of a slave, or about 90 days wages. Jesus had said that we cannot serve both God and money because we will love one and hate the other. Some think that Judas\u2019 avarice led him to love money and consequently to hate Jesus. But I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the reason because later he threw the money back in the temple area when he recognized he had betrayed an innocent man.<\/li>\n
- Another reason that is proposed is because Judas himself thought he had been betrayed by Jesus. It\u2019s possible that he had thought that hooking himself to Jesus\u2019 train would be the path to satisfy his human ambitions, that he would become the money-man of the new Messianic administration; when he began to grasp that that was not in the cards, that his hopes in Jesus would not be fulfilled, aggrieved he turned on him.<\/li>\n
- Another explanation is that he might have been seeking impatiently\u00a0for Jesus to inaugurate his kingdom. Much like Mary at the wedding feast of Cana went to Jesus and precipitated his \u201chour\u201d by asking him to do a miracle for the young couple, so some think Judas may have been provoking Jesus to reveal himself and his kingdom fully when he would be placed\u00a0in the hands of those whom Judas thought Jesus had come into the world to overthrow.<\/li>\n
- A fourth interpretation is less psychological than spiritual: he had allowed Satan to enter into his heart for some reason beyond our knowledge and then\u00a0Satan tempted him to turn on Jesus and then turn on himself.<\/li>\n
- What I think is most plausible comes from Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. He said that Judas\u2019 betrayal began with Judas\u2019 rejection of Jesus in the Eucharist. His betrayal was traceable ultimately to a lack of faith in the Lord such that he refused to believe what Jesus said about the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. Sheen wrote in his spiritual autobiography,\u00a0A Treasure in Clay:\u00a0<\/em>\u201cThe beginning of the fall of Judas and the end of Judas both revolved around the Eucharist. The first mention that Our Lord knew who it was who would betray him is at the end of the sixth chapter of John, which is the announcement of the Eucharist. The fall of Judas came the night Our Lord gave the Eucharist, the night of the Last Supper.\u00a0The Eucharist is so essential to our oneness with Christ that as soon as Our Lord announced it in the Gospel, it began to be the test of the fidelity of His followers. First, He lost the masses, for it was too hard a saying and they no longer followed Him. Secondly, He lost some of His disciples: \u2018They walked with Him no more.\u2019 Third, it split His apostolic band, for Judas is here announced as the betrayer.\u201d We see this lack of faith in how everyone else in the Gospel was saying, \u201cSurely not I, Lord,\u201d whereas Judas asked, \u201cSurely not I, Rabbi.\u201d For Judas, Jesus was a teacher owed respect, not a Lord owed faith. And that lack of faith was seen most of all in his approach to the Eucharist.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- What began Judas\u2019 downfall is meant to begin our rise. His refusal to accept Jesus\u2019 words should be repaired by our total commitment not just to believe the truth of the Lord\u2019s real presence, but how he reigns, how he saves, how he sanctifies through the Eucharist. The words Jesus preaches to the weary are, \u201cThis is my Body, which will be given up for you,\u201d \u201cThis is the chalice of my blood,\u201d and \u201cDo this in memory of me!\u201d This is what gives us the strength to set our faces with his like flint toward Calvary and not turn back. Whether we’re able to receive that gift hear today, or need to beg Jesus through a spiritual communion to give us that strength through extra-sacramental means, Jesus’ whole passion, death and resurrection is what fortifies us resolutely to follow him all the way through Golgotha to the Father’s eternal right side.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
The readings for today\u2019s Mass were:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
\nReading 1
\nIS 50:4-9A<\/a><\/h4>\nThe Lord GOD has given me
\na well-trained tongue,
\nThat I might know how to speak to the weary
\na word that will rouse them.
\nMorning after morning
\nhe opens my ear that I may hear;
\nAnd I have not rebelled,
\nhave not turned back.
\nI gave my back to those who beat me,
\nmy cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
\nMy face I did not shield
\nfrom buffets and spitting.<\/div>\nThe Lord GOD is my help,
\ntherefore I am not disgraced;
\nI have set my face like flint,
\nknowing that I shall not be put to shame.
\nHe is near who upholds my right;
\nif anyone wishes to oppose me,
\nlet us appear together.
\nWho disputes my right?
\nLet him confront me.
\nSee, the Lord GOD is my help;
\nwho will prove me wrong?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nResponsorial Psalm
\nPS 69:8-10, 21-22, 31 AND 33-34<\/a><\/h4>\nR. (14c)\u00a0Lord, in your great love, answer me.
\nFor your sake I bear insult,
\nand shame covers my face.
\nI have become an outcast to my brothers,
\na stranger to my mother\u2019s sons,
\nbecause zeal for your house consumes me,
\nand the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.
\nR.\u00a0Lord, in your great love, answer me.
\nInsult has broken my heart, and I am weak,
\nI looked for sympathy, but there was none;
\nfor consolers, not one could I find.
\nRather they put gall in my food,
\nand in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
\nR.\u00a0Lord, in your great love, answer me.
\nI will praise the name of God in song,
\nand I will glorify him with thanksgiving:
\n\u201cSee, you lowly ones, and be glad;
\nyou who seek God, may your hearts revive!
\nFor the LORD hears the poor,
\nand his own who are in bonds he spurns not.\u201d
\nR.\u00a0Lord, in your great love, answer me.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nGospel
\nMT 26:14-25<\/a><\/h4>\n - What began Judas\u2019 downfall is meant to begin our rise. His refusal to accept Jesus\u2019 words should be repaired by our total commitment not just to believe the truth of the Lord\u2019s real presence, but how he reigns, how he saves, how he sanctifies through the Eucharist. The words Jesus preaches to the weary are, \u201cThis is my Body, which will be given up for you,\u201d \u201cThis is the chalice of my blood,\u201d and \u201cDo this in memory of me!\u201d This is what gives us the strength to set our faces with his like flint toward Calvary and not turn back. Whether we’re able to receive that gift hear today, or need to beg Jesus through a spiritual communion to give us that strength through extra-sacramental means, Jesus’ whole passion, death and resurrection is what fortifies us resolutely to follow him all the way through Golgotha to the Father’s eternal right side.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- That brings us to the Gospel.\u00a0Yesterday with the help of St. John\u2019s account of the beginning of the Last Supper, we were able to look at Judas\u2019 betrayal and contrast\u00a0it with St. Peter\u2019s. Today we look at the betrayal again from the perspective of St. Matthew. St. Matthew records something very important that Jesus said about Judas during this supper: \u201cWoe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.\u201d That brings us face-to-face not only with the tragedy of the life of Judas but also the point of your life and mine.\u00a0The lamentable misfortune\u00a0of the life of Judas, the reason why it was better for him never to have been born, is not simply because the names “Judas” and “Iscariot” have become synonymous with the most notorious traitor in the history of the world.\u00a0It\u2019s because he had never come to grasp the point of human life.<\/em>\u00a0Even though he had been up close with the Lord Jesus for three years, he had never really come to know him and his merciful love. He had totally missed the point of Jesus\u2019 parables of the lost sheep, lost coin and lost son. He hadn\u2019t grasped that when he called Peter and the others to forgive 70 times 7 times, God himself would do the same. He hadn\u2019t let penetrate the lessons Jesus had taught in forgiving the sinful woman in Simon the Pharisee\u2019s House, the Paralytic, the Woman Caught in Adultery or Zacchaeus. He hadn\u2019t grasped why Jesus had called Simon bar Jonah, whose first words to Jesus were, \u201cDepart from me because I am a sinful man,\u201d or Matthew, who was a despicable tax collector. Despite three years with Jesus, he still hadn\u2019t gotten the most important thing about Jesus and his Mission: that he was mercy incarnate and had come desiring mercy not sacrifice. The real tragedy of the life of Judas\u00a0is that\u00a0at the end of his life when he looked at what he had done, he saw no way past the shame. Consequently, he ended his life rather came\u00a0to receive forgiveness from the one who was preparing to die to take away his sins.\u00a0It is similarly better for anyone who doesn\u2019t come to know the love and mercy of the Lord never to be born because, frankly, their sins \u2014 and the unexpiated guilt of their sins \u2014 will kill them in this life and forever, even though Jesus totally has the antidote to the poison of sin that kills us and wants to give it to us.\u00a0<\/em>This is the one of the most essential messages of Holy Week, to learn\u00a0from Judas\u2019 fatal mistake and entrust ourselves to the mercy of the Lord of life. Jesus wants to rouse us from the weariness that comes from the weight of our sins by taking them away and nailing them to the Cross.<\/li>\n
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