|
|
Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be.
Alan Watts (This letting go is part of opening ourselves to realize the person God has created us to be. What are you needing to let go of
these days?) |
|
|
Is 50:4-9a; Ps 69:8-10, 21-22, 31,
33-34 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." USCCB lectionary
|
Reflection on the Scripture |
“Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” —Matthew 26:25
Notice that in St. Matthew’s account of the Passion, Judas addressed Jesus merely as “Rabbi,” not as “Lord” (Mt 26:25; see also Mt 26:49). The other disciples all addressed Jesus as “Lord” (Mt 26:22). Calling Jesus “Rabbi,” that is, “Teacher” (see Jn 1:38), gives evidence that Judas had already stopped recognizing Jesus as his Lord and Master. Since no man can have two masters (Mt 6:24), Judas now had a different master than Jesus;
he transferred his loyalty to the Jewish chief priests (see Mt 26:14ff). How tragically sad! Judas betrayed Jesus so smoothly that even the other eleven apostles, so quick to compare themselves to each other (see Mt 20:24; Mk 9:34; Lk 9:46; 22:24), didn’t even suspect Judas. None of the other disciples said, “Lord, is it Judas?” Instead they all asked Jesus if they themselves would betray Him (Mt
26:22). Judas successfully hid his betrayal from his closest associates, but the Lord knew differently. Judas shows it is possible to fool even the pillars of the Church into thinking we are great servants of Jesus. We can even fool ourselves into thinking we have given our lives to Jesus. However, we can’t fool the Lord. We must give Jesus every aspect of our lives to truly call Him our Lord. As Fr.
Al Lauer, founder and long-time author of One Bread, One Body, often proclaimed: “If Jesus is not Lord of all, then He is not Lord at all in your life.” Ask Jesus to show you any area of your life that still needs to be subject to Him. Give Jesus your all, and make Him your Lord. Prayer: Lord Jesus, nail me to Your cross with You, so that I might never leave You (see Gal
5:24). Promise: “Morning after morning He opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, have not turned back.” —Is 50:4-5 Praise: Praise Jesus, Who suffered untold miseries and pain for our
sake. Presentation Ministries
|
|
|
|
|
-Readings from Jesus Alive in Our Lives, by Philip St. Romain. Ave Maria Press, 1985. Contemplative Ministries, Inc. 2011. Part One, Chapter 1: The Witness of the Church We should be guilty of
extreme dullness if we did not marvel at times that the Church is the only institution in the world that centers its life and activities on the premise that a man who lived about 2,000 years ago is still living and involved in the affairs of humanity. Ironically, this institution, which makes such fantastic claims about Jesus of Nazareth, is passionately dedicated to promoting sanity and clear-thinking. Yet everything we know about Jesus of Nazareth comes to us from the Church. Unfortunately, there are no accounts from non-Christian sources contemporary to Jesus’ times that give us anything more than what the Church was already saying about the man. What we know about Jesus we know from the writings of late first- and early second-generation followers. Those writings, considered to be authoritative and in keeping with oral traditions already firmly
established at that time (50-120 A.D.), were accepted as canonical; they are the writings we today call the New Testament. . .
As the early Christian community grew in its understanding of Jesus as the Messiah whose life, teachings, death and resurrection fulfilled countless prophecies of old, it was natural that this understanding would accompany narration of the naked, historical facts about Jesus’ life.
If the writers of scripture were posing as historical scientists, we could fault them on this point. What we have, instead, is a loving, faith-filled memory of the key events in Jesus’ life combined with a fuller understanding of the meaning of those events.
The scriptures were written by people of faith to provoke faith and to deepen religious insight. Historical, mythical and theological
data in scripture are true in the sense that they honestly express the understanding of the significance of the life of Jesus held by the early Church.
Paperback and eBook versions
|
Please support this outreach with a tax-deductible donation.
|
|
|
