Wednesday March 31

Wednesday of Holy Week

 

“My Time Is Near”

           

Introduction

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.

 

Opening 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.

 

Reading 1: IS 50:4-9A

The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
That I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
And I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
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.

The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
He is near who upholds my right;
if anyone wishes to oppose me,
let us appear together.
Who disputes my right?
Let him confront me.
See, the Lord GOD is my help;
who will prove me wrong?

 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 69:8-10, 21-22, 31 AND 33-34

(14c) Lord, in your great love, answer me.
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 zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.

Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak,
I looked for sympathy, but there was none;
for consolers, not one could I find.
Rather they put gall in my food,
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
R.  Lord, in your great love, answer me.

I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving:
“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”
R.  Lord, in your great love, answer me.

 

Verse before the Gospel:

Hail to your, our King;
you alone are compassionate with our errors.

 

Or

Hail to you, our King, obedient to the Father;
you were led to your crucifixion like a gentle lamb to the slaughter.

 

Gospel: Mt 26:14-25

One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests and said,
“What are you willing to give me
if I hand him over to you?”
They paid him thirty pieces of silver,
and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the disciples approached Jesus and said,
“Where do you want us to prepare
for you to eat the Passover?”
He said,
“Go into the city to a certain man and tell him,
‘The teacher says, My appointed time draws near;
in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.'”
The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered,
and prepared the Passover.

When it was evening,
he reclined at table with the Twelve.
And while they were eating, he said,
“Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
Deeply distressed at this,
they began to say to him one after another,
“Surely it is not I, Lord?”
He said in reply,
“He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me
is the one who will betray me.
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.”

Intercessions

Let us join our prayers to those of the Lord Jesus, as we say: Lord, hear your people.

• For all those whose love has been betrayed or rejected, we pray:
• For the people who are facing death, that they may trustingly put themselves into the Lord’s hands, we pray:
• For all who suffer and face difficult decisions, that God may be their strength and inspiration, we pray:
• For all Christians, that they may seek the presence of the Lord in the eucharist, we pray:

Lord, stay with us. We love you, now and for ever.

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Praise be to you, eternal God,

for you invite us to the table of your Son.

Let us, Jesus’ disciples today,

eat his bread of love and strength

and drink his wine of gladness,

that our trust in you may never fade

and that we love one another

in good days and in times of pain.

We ask you through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Prayer after Communion

Our Saving God,

a new world could be born

when Jesus laid down his life for us

and left us the sign that you have made with us

a new and everlasting covenant.

Thank you for letting us celebrate

in memory of him

that sacrifice which brought us life

and unites us in him.

All thanks and praise to you

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Blessing

It is good to be with the Lord this Holy Week. It gives us the opportunity to reflect on the immense love with which God loves us. How do we answer his total love? How much do we echo and mirror it to the people around us? Especially you, parents, how much do you make your children feel God’s love in you? May almighty God bless you all, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

As the days of Holy Week move forward, various events occur that directly lead to what will take place on Good Friday. Among these events was the fateful betrayal of Jesus by Judas. This action earned him the title of “spy” by medieval Christians. From Wednesday onward, Judas secretly watched for a chance to turn Jesus over to the chief priests, and so medieval Christians labeled this day as “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 custom, the head of the family would say a prayer of praise and thanksgiving for God’s liberating actions and presence among the People. But Jesus radically broke with custom in identifying the bread as his body. In the Aramaic language that Jesus used, 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 their recognising it at the 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.
We now 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, to approach him or her and, with our presence, open a hole for light and hope in the middle of their night. It is not about accusing and condemning but about reaching out and saving.