Wednesday April 13, 2022

Wednesday of Holy Week

 

“My Time Is Near”

Today we hear the bad news of the betrayal of Judas, together with the sad yet joyous good news of Jesus’ Passover meal with his disciples. “My time is near. I will keep the Passover with my disciples.” Jesus will eat the Passover meal surrounded by those who have followed him. The traitor leaves them to betray Jesus. But Jesus, the Servant of God and people, faces his death with the fullest trust in God. Jesus will celebrate this Passover in a new way making it the eucharist. This is like a testament he leaves his disciples. It is the deepest way he is going to stay among his disciples then and now.

 

First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9 

The Master, God, has given me
    a well-taught tongue,
So I know how to encourage tired people.
    He wakes me up in the morning,
Wakes me up, opens my ears
    to listen as one ready to take orders.
The Master, God, opened my ears,
    and I didn’t go back to sleep,
    didn’t pull the covers back over my head.
I followed orders,
    stood there and took it while they beat me,
    held steady while they pulled out my beard,
Didn’t dodge their insults,
    faced them as they spit in my face.
And the Master, God, stays right there and helps me,
    so I’m not disgraced.
Therefore I set my face like flint,
    confident that I’ll never regret this.
My champion is right here.
    Let’s take our stand together!
Who dares bring suit against me?
    Let him try!
Look! the Master, God, is right here.
    Who would dare call me guilty?
Look! My accusers are a clothes bin of threadbare
    socks and shirts, fodder for moths!

 

Gospel: Matthew 26:14-25 

That is when one of the Twelve, the one named Judas Iscariot, went to the cabal of high priests and said, “What will you give me if I hand him over to you?” They settled on thirty silver pieces. He began looking for just the right moment to hand him over.

On the first of the Days of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Where do you want us to prepare your Passover meal?”

He said, “Enter the city. Go up to a certain man and say, ‘The Teacher says, my time is near. I and my disciples plan to celebrate the Passover meal at your house.’” The disciples followed Jesus’ instructions to the letter, and prepared the Passover meal.

After sunset, he and the Twelve were sitting around the table. During the meal, he said, “I have something hard but important to say to you: One of you is going to hand me over to the conspirators.”

 They were stunned, and then began to ask, one after another, “It isn’t me, is it, Master?”

Jesus answered, “The one who hands me over is someone I eat with daily, one who passes me food at the table. In one sense the Son of Man is entering into a way of treachery well-marked by the Scriptures—no surprises here. In another sense that man who turns him in, turns traitor to the Son of Man—better never to have been born than do this!”

 Then Judas, already turned traitor, said, “It isn’t me, is it, Rabbi?”

Jesus said, “Don’t play games with me, Judas.”

 

Prayer

God our Father,

when the hour of your Son Jesus had come
to accept suffering and death
out of love of you
and his saving love for us,
he did not refuse that suffering and deep pain.
In the hour of trial
that we may have to pass through,
do not let us become rebellious
but keep us trusting in you,
for you save us
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:
Be a ray of light and hope to your neighbour
As we walk along the days of Holy Week, various events occur that directly lead us to what will take place on Good Friday. Among these events was the fateful betrayal by Judas. This action earned him the title of “spy” by medieval Christians. Judas secretly watched for a chance to turn Jesus over to the chief priests, and so the medieval Christians labelled the day before the Holy Thursday as the “Spy Wednesday.”
Matthew omitted irrelevant details of the customary Passover Meal, and focussed simply on those elements which had been preserved in the community’s later celebrations of Eucharist.
According to the custom, the head of the family would say a prayer of praise and thanksgiving for God’s liberating actions and presence among His People. But Jesus radically broke with custom in identifying the bread as his body. In the Aramaic language that Jesus spoke, the word body would have meant, his living and personal self.
Jesus broke the bread before giving it to the disciples. His gesture anticipated the violence that the powers of this world would soon exercise towards him. They would break his body. By eating his broken body, his violently murdered self, although without them recognising it at that time, the disciples expressed their solidarity with Jesus in his non-violent resistance to the aggression and brutality of the world.
Jesus identified the wine in the cup as his blood, the blood of the covenant. In the Hebrew mind, blood was a synonym of life. Blood of the covenant recalled the blood that Moses sprinkled on the Hebrew people to seal their acceptance of God’s offer of love and protection
Jesus saw his imminent death guaranteeing the future Kingdom of the Father. He would die in hope. For his disciples, in spite of the persecutions and torture they faced in this world, Eucharist would anticipate that future reign of God and affirm its certainty, whatever might be the present experience of the community. Every Eucharist would be a reminder that the kingdoms of the world and their values will oppose the values of God’s Kingdom. Because the Eucharist is visible sign of Jesus’ real presence amidst his people.
Now we know that this last supper will culminate in the resurrection, in the dawn of new life and new hope. But there are many who live in utter despair. Today is a good day to remember them in our prayer. And if we know someone who is in need of help, approach him or her and, with our presence, open a space for the ray of light and hope in the middle of their nights. It is not about accusing and condemning but about reaching out and saving.

 

Video available on Youtube: Be a ray of light and hope to your neighbour