Holy Week 2023 - THE SPY WEDNESDAY
April 5: 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