"Surely , it is not I" or Is it?

In the Gospel Acclamation of today's liturgy, we pray:  "Hail to you, our King: you alone are compassionate with our errors."    We witness this compassion in today's Gospel,in which Jesus reclines at table, celebrating the Passover meal with both his betrayer and the one who would later that night deny Him vehemently three times!  Jesus is cognizant of both men's future behavior and  He says to the Twelve: "Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."  A shock wave goes through the room and each of the twelve in turn asks Jesus: "Surely it is not I, Lord?"  Even Judas poses that question to Jesus! Jesus simply, caringly and lovingly responds to him, saying:  "You have said so!" Perhaps Jesus is hoping that Judas will repent of his plan.

Imagine yourself sitting at this banquet, one of these especially chosen persons very close and dear to Jesus. You hear the One you love, the One you have followed closely for three years, the One from whom you have learned so much about love and truth and justice say: "One of you is going to betray me tonight to those who are seeking to kill me. Yes, one of you is going to hand me over to these evil men. I will then be arrested, condemned and put to death by way of crucifixion!"  Unbelievable but the truth!  One of the twelve men whom Jesus chose to carry on His mission when He returns to the Father will abandon Him to men jealous of His popularity, threatened by the increase of followers who cling to His every word and believe in Him as the Messiah.

That betrayer is you and me when we choose sin over righteousness, lies over the truth, hatred over love, a corrupt way of living over doing what is good and right,  a promiscuous lifestyle over a disciplined way of living as Jesus lived!

And how often have we not said to the person who catches us in sin, as Judas said to Jesus: "Surely it is not I...?"

Jesus' Hour Had Come

In today’s Gospel, John 13: 21-22, 36-38, Jesus is “reclining at table with his disciples.”  He is “deeply troubled” and says: “Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”   Imagine Jesus’ sorrow.  My mind goes to situations in which a criminal is fearful of being betrayed. Jesus is no criminal yet one of His own is about to hand him over to those who are plotting to crucify him. I think of King David being pursued by his son Absalom, who, also,  is seeking to put his father to death. Jesus, our King, is, in a sense, pursued by His Father to reveal the depth of their love for you and me. Each person of the Trinity is eager to reveal the willingness of the Son of God to die in our place. Out of their love for us, the Trinity gives one of their own to sacrifice his life for the exoneration of each human being from the claws of death, which we call sin.

When the apostles heard Jesus’ message that one of them was about to betray Him, they frantically begged to know which of them would do such a thing. “It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.” He gives the consecrated bread to Judas. At that moment “Satan entered him.” Jesus says to him: “What you are going to do, do quickly.” Judas leaves. “It is night.” Darkness seems to have triumphed. So even more urgent is the act of redemption, Jesus, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, giving His life to save us from the kind of night that engulfed Judas.

Oh, the mercy and the love of our God. This is the hour for which Jesus became man. This is the hour when Jesus will be glorified and we with Him. The gates of heaven will be reopened to humankind, the gates that had been closed when Adam and Eve followed their own will instead of God's.  What will you and I do when tempted by Satan, as was Judas in his betrayal and as was Peter in his denials of Jesus. Judas leaves Jesus. Peter stays.  What will you and I do in moments like these?

Faith and Trust in Difficult Situations

Both readings today’s, Gen. 37: 3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a and Mt 21: 33-43, 45-46, are about persons chosen by God to lead a major role in the salvation of a peoples who would otherwise have perished. In Gen. Joseph is sold by his brothers to Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver and put into slavery in Egypt, where he rises to a significant position by which he saves his family.  In the Gospel, Jesus shares a parable about the servants sent by their master to gather the harvest from those in charge of their master’s vineyard. The servants are killed and so the master sends his son.  “Surely, they will not kill my son.” They do! Jesus is not spared.  For thirty pieces of silver, Judas hands Jesus over to those plotting to kill him.  By his death, he saves all of humankind. 

The disastrous situation, that of Joseph and that of Jesus,  is manipulated  from within the inner circle.  Things can also go terribly wrong within our families, our communities, our parishes, our civic and ecclesial realities.  It is so  easy at those times  to become disgruntled, difficult to deal with, or downright nasty.  Like Joseph’s brothers,  we are capable of plotting evil to get rid of a person who irritates us, makes  our lives miserable,  causes us inconvenience, or makes us look bad, so to speak, while “our adversary” is lifted up as the favorite one.   Like Judas, we are also capable of exploiting a situation to make a profit and find ourselves involved in sinful, disastrous behaviors. 

Jesus teaches us another way, as does Joseph!  What choice will I make when disaster befalls me? Will I resort to violence, whether that be of  words or actions or will I look for and discover God at work, as did Joseph?  Do I remember, in difficult situations, that, no  matter how “wrong” things might be or become, God can and does bring good out of any situation?

Called from birth to be God's servants

Today’s first reading, Is. 49: 1-6, is all about God’s servants, you and me, and about Jesus.  Each of us is called from birth to serve the Lord, to carry out the Father’s will for us, to live intelligent, creative lives for the sake of the Kingdom and to be as “sharp” in doing good, perceiving and avoiding evil as any “two-edged sword”.  We are conceal in the “shadow” of God’s love and “polished” by grace, even, and especially, when we think we have “toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly [spending our] strength.” 

 Think of Jesus’ ministry coming to an end in the way it did. Truly, it looked as though He had “toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent…[His] strength.”  At the Last supper He confides to His assembled disciples that one of them is going to betray Him and another will deny Him 3xs before the cock crows. In the darkest of hours, Jesus is abandoned by those He thought were faithful friends.

When things get rough in life, do I abandon others? Do I walk away from Jesus, from people who count on my support, even betraying them and walking out into “the night” to do that which I know is wrong of me to do?” When push comes to shove, do I deny knowing Jesus, knowing those who need me to stand by their side?  In the difficulties of life do I abandon the faith in which I was raised?