LOVE HURTS, NEVER RETORTS

Holy Week 2020 - THE SPY WEDNESDAY 

April 8: Isaiah 50: 4-9A; Matthew 26:14-25

Starting Monday, we have been hearing the three songs of the suffering servant from the book of Isaiah... a set of songs that expresses the sufferings that a servant of God or the prophet of God undergoes. It becomes a prefigurement of Christ's suffering. A servant of God, even the Son of God, finds all around  him, those who plot his downfall, those who want him to fail, to be destroyed: how prepared are we to face such people and still go about with dedication and commitment to the Will of God. 

Do you think it will be possible to go on loving even at these moments? It is simple to remain with the Lord and say 'I love', when things go on well; but when things do not go the way we want them? That is what led to the fall of Judas! But look at Jesus... it hurt him to have loved these people - the one who betrayed, the one who denied and those who abandoned him... but he never ceased loving them, much less react. Yes, true love hurts! But it goes on and on. 

"From that time on, he looked for an opportunity to hand him over" ...says the Gospel today. The plot thickens and the tempo builds towards the climax. There are eyes that keep watching out for the right moment to lay hands on Jesus...and the most unfortunate fact is that it is led by one from the innermost circle of Jesus' collaborators! Yes, love hurts, but the one who truly loves, never retorts!

It is a divine quality to love, even when that love is not reciprocated, much more when it is repaid with indifference or hurt! But if we believe we take after the Lord, that we are created in God's image, that we are brothers and sisters of Christ, then as Mother Teresa would often say, we have to love until it hurts.