“Peter denied Jesus;
Judas betrayed Jesus. The bad news was that both of them fell off the track and
were both filled with regrets, remorse and anguish for their mischievous behaviors.
However it was only Peter who chose to rise again after falling! Judas chose to
end it with suicide! If you fall, you can rise again!”
Gospel
Text: (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.”
The stage is being set for the final drama of
Jesus’ mission. Judas has gone to the chief priests to make a deal for handing
Jesus over to them. This term ‘handing over’ is like a refrain all through the
Gospel and reaches a climax here. John the Baptist was handed over. Now we see
Jesus being handed over.
Judas sells his master, hands him over, for 30
pieces of silver. What people will do for money! Judas is not alone. What he
did is happening every day. Perhaps I, too, have betrayed and handed over Jesus
more than once.
The whole approaching drama is now set in
motion.
Let us watch it carefully during the coming
three days not just as spectators but as participants. We too have so often
betrayed Jesus, we too have so often broken bread with Jesus and perhaps have
sold him for money, out of ambition, out of greed, out of anger, hatred,
revenge or even violence for our own personal gain.
We can, like Judas, either abandon him in
despair or, like Peter, come back to him with tears of repentance.
*clapping* !
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