20200408
SEEING
ALL THINGS IN THE PLAN OF GOD
08 April, 2020, Holy Wednesday
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
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First reading
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Isaiah 50:4-9 ©
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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?
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm 68(69):8-10,21-22,31,33-34 ©
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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.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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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!
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Or:
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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!
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Gospel
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Matthew 26:14-25 ©
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'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.
SEEING ALL THINGS
IN THE PLAN OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ IS 50:4-9; PS 68:8-10, 21-22, 31, 33-34; MT 26:14 – 25 ]
Reading the gospel
today, what was your immediate reaction? Was it one of shock and anger that Judas could
have betrayed the Lord? Or was it one of sadness for Judas? Or
perhaps, we are confronted by our own betrayals, not just of our Lord but our
fellowmen, especially our loved ones, colleagues and business partners. Indeed,
the history of humanity as seen in the bible is a history of betrayals and
infidelities. From the beginning of creation, we have Adam and Eve
betraying the trust of God in the Garden of Eden. From then on, betrayals
grew from strength to strength. Cain betrayed Abel and killed him.
Jacob betrayed Esau, Rebecca betrayed Isaac. King David betrayed God and his
loyal officer by sending him to the battlefront to be killed to cover up his
adulterous act with his wife. Throughout the history of Israel, prophet
after prophet were rejected, persecuted, and some killed by the people when
they were called to repentance.
In our own lives, we
have been betrayed as well.
Our children have betrayed our love. When they were young, we made so
many sacrifices for them. Now that we are old, they ill-treat and abandon
us. When they were young, we were tolerant of their foolishness and
mistakes, but now they are intolerant of us for our ignorance or dullness of
mind or slow in doing things. Many in marriage have suffered much
emotionally and mentally because of betrayal of love by their spouse.
Sometimes, we hear of business partners cheating the company, or long-serving
staff stealing company secrets and customers’ list to give to their
competitors. However, let us be honest, we have also betrayed
others. So before we condemn others for betraying us, let us take an
honest look at ourselves first. We would have betrayed our Lord and our
loved ones in some ways and at some time in our lives.
Why do we betray
people? Commentators have provided many reasons as to why Judas betrayed
the Lord in the gosepel.
Some scholars suggest that Judas was greedy for money as he was the treasurer
of the group and was helping himself to the common fund. In his greed, he
sold Jesus to the His enemies for a mere 30 silver pieces, the price of a
slave. (Ex 21:32) So greed is one of the reasons for us to
betray our friends and our loved ones. Because of greed, we cheat and
manipulate to have a bigger share of our parents’ property. Greed
leads us to cheat in business. For the sake of promotion, we would betray
our colleagues to win our boss’ goodwill. Indeed, greed is one of the
main reasons for betrayal.
Another motive suggested
for Judas’ betrayal was his desire for power. Judas could not wait to start a revolution
against the tyranny of the Romans occupiers. He was nationalistic and even
advocated violence to drive out the Roman conquerors. He thought that
Jesus, who was triumphantly received when He entered Jerusalem, to be the man
who could restore the nation of Israel. He, being his treasurer, would
then be given an honoured place when He came to power. However, when he
realized that the way of Jesus was one of non-violence and the kingdom that
Jesus was establishing was not an earthly kingdom, he abandoned our Lord.
He changed allegiance. It was telling that the disciples would
normally address Jesus as “Lord”, but in the case of Judas, he addressed Jesus
as “Rabbi”, which means “teacher”. In the mind of Judas, Jesus was no
longer his lord. He had given up on Jesus as the one who would restore
the kingdom of David.
In our case, politics,
whether in the work place, or in church even, happens because people seek
power. If the power
sought is to help bring about justice and happiness for all regardless of race,
language or religion, it is not wrong. In fact, it is a noble
thing. However, if power is sought to boost oneself, one’s ego or to make
use of one’s power to acquire wealth, influence and prestige, that power would
only destroy those under their charge and ultimately destroy oneself. We
see this political game played out all the time among political leaders,
corporate leaders and even religious leaders. Under the guise of service
and religion, we seek power to control, to dominate and to rule, so that we can
feel good about ourselves and not be threatened by others.
There is also a third
motive suggested for Judas’ betrayal. He wanted Jesus to act according to
his plans and designs.
He was impatient in waiting for Jesus to take action against the Romans.
So he was hoping that by making the enemies of Jesus confront Him directly,
Jesus would be forced to act. However, his plan backfired because Jesus
would not take things into His own hands. He had surrendered Himself to
the Father. He had left everything to the Father to do what He
willed. So instead of defending Himself from His enemies, He submitted
without a fight. To his horror, Judas saw our Lord led out as a prisoner,
interrogated, scourged and then put to death. That was why Judas could
not forgive himself for what he did. He repented of his sins but he could
not forgive himself. He died a tragic death.
How often have we wanted
to have things our way too!
We do not trust in God’s plan for us. We do not want to align ourselves
with the will and wisdom of God. We also try to make people fit into our
plans. When they do not, we manipulate and we cause them to suffer
unjustly. When we take things into our own hands, we fail to allow the
mystery of God’s plan to unfold for us. We think we can control
everything in our life. The truth is that the mystery of God’s plan is
often beyond our understanding and control. In the case of Judas, his
mistake of betraying our Lord did not hinder God’s plan but in fact brought
about the realization of God’s plan. God’s way of establishing the
kingdom was not by power or by might but by humility and death. Jesus had
to go through His passion so that by His resurrection, He would show Himself as
Lord over hatred and death.
So, too, we must not
think that the mistakes we make in life will hinder us from realizing the plan
of God. Mistakes we all have made and will make. The real difference is whether we are
willing to admit our mistakes and learn from them. Peter and the apostles
made their mistakes in abandoning our Lord. Peter wept bitterly for
denying our Lord. Nevertheless, because of his betrayal and the Lord’s
unconditional love for him, he repented, was forgiven and empowered to love Him
to the extent of giving up his life for Him courageously, which he failed at
the Lord’s passion. Conversely, Judas also betrayed our Lord. He
too felt sorry after realizing the depth of his evil deed. Instead of
accepting the Lord’s unconditional love and forgiveness, instead of looking at
the compassionate eyes of our Lord, he looked at his shame and
ingratitude. He fell into depression and killed himself.
Today, we must not allow
Satan to enter into our hearts as Judas did, in closing himself to the love of
our Lord. Even though He
knew Judas betrayed Him, the Lord did not expose him to the rest of the
apostles who would have condemned him. Instead, He sought to appeal to
his heart so that he could exercise his freedom rightly. Unfortunately,
his heart was closed because, as we read, Satan had entered him. (cf Jn 13:27)
St John remarked, “So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went
out. And it was night.” (Jn 13:30)
The Lord is always making His appeal to us to be reconciled with God as St Paul
did, “So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through
us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For
our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor
5:20f) So it is never too late to turn back. No matter how much
we have betrayed the Lord or our fellowmen, we only need to open our hearts to
His love for us on the cross, confront our sins openly and sincerely, and God’s
grace will enter into our hearts.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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