20250416 FOLLOWING GOD’S PLAN AND ACCORDING TO HIS TIME
16 April 2025, Wednesday of Holy Week
First reading | Isaiah 50:4-9 |
Who thinks he has a case against me? Let him approach me
The Lord has given me
a disciple’s tongue.
So that I may know how to reply to the wearied
he provides me with speech.
Each morning he wakes me to hear,
to listen like a disciple.
The Lord has opened my ear.
For my part, I made no resistance,
neither did I turn away.
I offered my back to those who struck me,
my cheeks to those who tore at my beard;
I did not cover my face
against insult and spittle.
The Lord comes to my help,
so that I am untouched by the insults.
So, too, I set my face like flint;
I know I shall not be shamed.
My vindicator is here at hand. Does anyone start proceedings against me?
Then let us go to court together.
Who thinks he has a case against me?
Let him approach me.
The Lord is coming to my help,
who will dare to condemn me?
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 68(69):8-10,21-22,31,33-34 |
In your great love, O Lord, answer my prayers for your favour.
It is for you that I suffer taunts,
that shame covers my face,
that I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my own mother’s sons.
I burn with zeal for your house
and taunts against you fall on me.
In your great love, O Lord, answer my prayers for your favour.
Taunts have broken my heart;
I have reached the end of my strength.
I looked in vain for compassion,
for consolers; not one could I find.
For food they gave me poison;
in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
In your great love, O Lord, answer my prayers for your favour.
I will praise God’s name with a song;
I will glorify him with thanksgiving.
The poor when they see it will be glad
and God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord listens to the needy
and does not spurn his servants in their chains.
In your great love, O Lord, answer my prayers for your favour.
Gospel Acclamation |
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Hail to you, our King!
Obedient to the Father, you were led to your crucifixion
as a meek lamb is led to the slaughter.
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Or: |
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Hail to you, our King!
You alone have had compassion on our sins.
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Gospel |
Matthew 26:14-25 |
'The Son of Man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will'
One of the Twelve, the man called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you prepared to give me if I hand him over to you?’ They paid him thirty silver pieces, and from that moment he looked for an opportunity to betray him.
Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus to say, ‘Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the passover?’ ‘Go to so-and-so in the city’ he replied ‘and say to him, “The Master says: My time is near. It is at your house that I am keeping Passover with my disciples.”’ The disciples did what Jesus told them and prepared the Passover.
When evening came he was at table with the twelve disciples. And while they were eating he said ‘I tell you solemnly, one of you is about to betray me.’ They were greatly distressed and started asking him in turn, ‘Not I, Lord, surely?’ He answered, ‘Someone who has dipped his hand into the dish with me, will betray me. The Son of Man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will, but alas for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born!’ Judas, who was to betray him; asked in his turn, ‘Not I, Rabbi, surely?’ ‘They are your own words’ answered Jesus.
FOLLOWING GOD’S PLAN AND ACCORDING TO HIS TIME
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ISAIAH 50:4-9; PS 69:8-10,21-22,31,33-34; MT 26:14 – 25]
Do we follow the plan of God or our own? This is the question that confronts us in today’s scripture readings. Most of us are so sure that our plans are the best in life, whether with respect to our career, projects, or our future. We think that by fulfilling our dreams we will be happy. More importantly, we fail to ask whether our dreams and our plans are also the dreams and plans of God. The truth is that God’s wisdom does not always agree with our plans. God surprises us very often when He allows things to happen beyond our expectations. But we often resist the plan of God when His plan does not concur with ours. We insist that we follow our meticulously thought-out plan, but eventually, we will realize that we got it wrong. It is in this context that we are invited to reflect on today’s scripture readings.
In today’s scripture readings, the liturgy focuses on how Jesus fulfilled the plan of God. The opening prayer speaks of the salvific plan of God to be realized in the passion and death of the Lord. This plan is the will of God. And because Jesus submitted to the plan of God, He could free us from the power of the enemy and enable us to share in the glory of His resurrection. Indeed, in the life of Jesus, He always sought the Father’s will and acted according to His will. He says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.” (Jn 4:34f) This is the way of Jesus in living out His sonship, always in obedience to the Father’s will.
In the gospel, the preparations for the Passover were mysteriously prepared and arranged for Him. Earlier on when He wanted to enter Jerusalem, He told His disciples, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.'” (Lk 19:30f). In today’s gospel, the Lord told His disciples when they asked Him, “‘Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ ‘Go to so-and-so in the city’ he replied ‘and say to him, ‘The Master says: My time is near. It is at your house that I am keeping Passover with my disciples.’ The disciples did what Jesus told them and prepared the Passover.” Indeed, it was as if Jesus had all these arranged without the disciples’ knowledge. But there was no mention of such pre-arrangements by the Lord Himself. Most likely, it was Jesus’ foreknowledge and God’s own pre-planning that the events should take place the way they did.
Then at the Last Supper, the Lord Jesus prophesied, “‘I tell you solemnly, one of you is about to betray me’ They were greatly distressed and started asking him in turn, ‘Not I, Lord, surely?’ He answered, ‘Someone who has dipped his hand into the dish with me, will betray me. The Son of Man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will.” The passion of Jesus was a fulfilment of scriptures. But there is no implication that Judas was destined to betray Jesus. On the contrary, the Lord said, “But alas for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!” The act of betraying Jesus was the personal decision of Judas. He was not programmed by God to be the traitor. Nevertheless, on hindsight, the evangelist recalled how Judas unknowingly fulfilled the scriptures when he “went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you prepared to give me if I hand him over to you?'”
“They paid him thirty silver pieces, and from that moment he looked for an opportunity to betray him.” That price was what was required to be paid if a slave was gored by an ox. (Ex 21:32). Two other places also mentioned the thirty silver pieces, namely in Zechariah and in today’s gospel. Judas, who was overcome with guilt for betraying Jesus, fulfilled Zechariah’s vivid prophecy of throwing thirty silver coins into the temple. (Zech 11:4-14; Mt 27:3-5). The Jewish leaders used that money to buy a field from a potter, again as Zechariah had prophesied. (Mt 27:6-10). It was in that field that Judas hanged himself. In this act too, Judas was imitating Ahithophel who counselled Absalom how to entrap David, an advice which Absalom did not follow. (2 Sm 17:1-16). As a consequence, “When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and went off home to his own city. He set his house in order, and hanged himself; he died and was buried in the tomb of his father.” (2 Sm 17:23)
Clearly therefore, in the mind of the evangelists, all the events preceding His passion, death and resurrection were but the unfolding of the culmination of God’s plan as already foretold in the scriptures. Indeed, St Paul in his writing cited the scriptures to substantiate his belief in Jesus. “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” (1 Cor 15:3-5). After His resurrection, Jesus enlightened the disciples at Emmaus, “‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.” (Lk 24:25-27)
Indeed, Jesus was living out what was said of the Suffering Servant in today’s first reading from Isaiah. “For my part, I made no resistance, neither did I turn away. I offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who tore at my beard; I did not cover my face against insult and spittle. The Lord comes to my help, so that I am untouched by the insults. So, too, I set my face like flint; I know I shall not be shamed. My vindicator is here at hand.” Like the Suffering Servant, Jesus surrendered Himself to His enemies without resistance, in humility and in faith in His Father’s love and vindication. Truly, in the mind of Jesus, He too would have said to His opponents, “Does anyone start proceedings against me? Then let us go to court together. Who thinks he has a case against me? Let him approach me. The Lord is coming to my help, who will dare to condemn me? They shall all go to pieces like a garment devoured by moths.” Jesus was simply carrying God’s plan as foretold in the Suffering Servant in Isaiah. Like the Suffering Servant, Jesus was obedient even unto death. Jesus fulfilled the Father’s will and plan by cooperating with the work of redemption in giving Himself to us for our salvation, which is celebrated in the Last Supper where Jesus offered Himself for us all.
In contrast, we have Judas who wanted to follow his own plan. He was more concerned with his interests than that of the Lord’s. He did not want to act according to the timetable of our Lord and the way of God to bring about the establishment of the kingdom of God. The reasons for his betrayal are not clear. It would be due to his impatience with our Lord for not taking up arms against the Romans, after such an enthusiastic welcome by the crowd when he entered Jerusalem. And so by bringing the enemies to Him, he thought he would provoke Jesus to act. It could also be due to his greed – selling Jesus to the enemies. Whilst we are not sure of his real motives, clearly, he was not interested in following the designs and plans of God. Of course, even the rest of the apostles betrayed Jesus in their own ways, though not out of malice but out of weakness. But Jesus did not allow Himself to be pressured into acting outside of His Father’s time and His plan. He would surrender Himself in God’s time. He would act according to His Father’s will and plans. We, too, must also ask ourselves whether we are like Judas who often wanted things his way, especially when we do not get the answers we want from God in prayer. We take things into our own hands as Judas did. We are impatient with God, with our superiors, with our situation in life – our illnesses, the injustices we suffer, loss of job, and failed relationships. We do not wait for God to act in His time. By taking things into our own hands, we hurt ourselves.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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