Holy Wednesday and the Ultimate Betrayal

Judas Iscariot – a man whose name is forever remembered for betraying Jesus to the officials.   One of the original disciples of Jesus is an eternal criminal not because he set Jesus up for his arrest but because he took a fee for doing so.  His name is in the dictionary as an advjectival noun – “You Judas!” can be applied to someone who stabs you in the back, sells you out, sets you up, turns on you, cashes you in, someone who you thought was a friend who ends up using you for a little bit of an advantage.

I tend to think that this would have hurt Jesus most of all – a friend took money despite the fact that something dreadful would happen to Jesus.  Peter denies his existence, his disciples flee and hide, the Jewish authorities use the scriptures to condemn him.  It must have been an incredibly lonely experience.  An incredibly sad experience.

So, for this Holy Wednesday, let us reflect on the human cost of betrayal.   We betray our better nature when we sell out our ideals, when we fail to acknowledge who we are in relationship to others, when we just let that material world overtake us.   Let us claim Jesus as our friend even when that can make us unpopular.

HOLY WEDNESDAY

A reading from ‘The Book of the Blessed Angela of Foligno.

On Wednesday of Holy Week, I was meditating on the death of the Son of God incarnate, and trying to empty my soul of everything else so I could be more recollected in his passion and death. I had only one care, only one desire, and that was to find the best way to empty my soul from everything else in order to have a more vivid memory of the passion and death of the Son of God. Suddenly, while I was engrossed in this effort and desire, a divine word sounded in my soul: ‘My love for you has not been a hoax.’ These words struck me a mortal blow. For immediately the eyes of my soul were opened and I saw that what he had said was true. I saw his acts of love, everything that the Son of God had done, all that he had endured in life and in death – this suffering God-man – because of his inexpressible and visceral love. Seeing in him all the deeds of true love, I understood the perfect truth of what he had said, that his love for me had not been a hoax, but that he had loved me with a most perfect and visceral love. I saw, on the other hand, the exact opposite in myself, because my love for him had never been anything but playing games, never true. Being made aware of this was a mortal blow and caused such intolerable pain that I thought I would die. I perceived all the signs and marks of the truest love in him; how he had given himself wholly and totally to me, in order to serve me; how he had come so close to me: he had become human in order to truly feel and carry my sufferings in himself. When, on the other hand, I perceived the exact opposite in me, I had such suffering and pain that I thought I would die. I felt my ribs dislocate in my chest under the weight of my pain, and it seemed as though my heart would burst.

Tomorrow, the Last Supper and the Eucharist.