Wednesday of Holy Week
April 1, 2015 6:30am
Yesterday we heard St. John’s
account of Judas’ betrayal.
Today we hear St. Matthew’s
account of the same thing.
I want to highlight two details.
First, Jesus says, “My appointed time draws near.”
Matthew recalls that Jesus is
aware of the betrayal and of his suffering and death that is approaching.
And yet, he is resolute and
resolved to move on.
In this, Jesus shows himself as
being the suffering servant described in the first reading from the prophet
Isaiah.
The servant says, “The Lord God is my help.
I have set my face like flint.”
Saint Matthew shows Jesus as
willing to embrace the suffering that is part of his mission, part of doing the
Father’s will.
So maybe there is a lesson for us
to think about here:
A lesson about our willingness to
embrace suffering that is part of our vocation or part of our responsibilities
in life.
The second detail is that Matthew
carefully records Judas addressing Jesus as “Rabbi.”
In Matthew’s gospel, this title
is only used by Jesus’ opponents who do not understand his full and true
identity.
By this time, Judas should have
known and accepted who Jesus is, but he did not.
So maybe again there is a lesson
for us to think about here:
that we need to make time to get
to know who Jesus is and in him, who God is.
We need to do that through prayer
in general, and especially through prayer that involves the reading of the
Scriptures.
This brings us into fuller and
fuller relationship with God.
And that in turn will help us to
be faithful to Jesus especially in challenging moments, especially when there
is some suffering involved.
