THE PATH TO BETRAYAL OF THE LORD

Tuesday, Holy Week/2024

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP

Theme: The Path to Betrayal of the Lord

The comparison we made between Mary of Bethany’s attentiveness to the word of God and Judas Iscariot’s inattentiveness reflected the mind of the Lord, that of the Church. The readings draw our attention to Judas. Mary’s attention to the word of God inspired her love for Christ and her action to prophesy the coming death of Our Lord. The Lord expressed this himself when he says: “Leave her alone; she had to keep this scent for the day of my burial. You have the poor with you always, you will not always have me.” Our Lord saw that Mary’s pure nard, she opened for him, will soon be used for his burial. Mary, of course, did not know this since she was acting under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This guidance happens when we habituate ourselves with the word of God. The word of God is Spirit, and those who live by it live by the Spirit. The reverse is the case for a life lived in the flesh. Such a person sees and acts only carnally. The life of Judas is an example of this. Hence, our Lord was troubled by his life and the role he was about to play in his coming passion and death. He expressed a deep sorrow in the foreknowledge that his mission was about to be fruitless in relation to Judas. “While at supper with his disciples, Jesus was troubled in spirit and declared, ‘I tell you most solemnly, one of you will betray me.” A soul’s betrayal of Jesus Christ starts gradual and builds up to an open rejection or betrayal of the Son of God. The beginning is a lack of attention to the word of God. When we fail to attend consciously to the word of God, we gradually drift away from him.

As the first reading says about the vocation of a servant of God, he must feel called and consciously advance towards God. This feeling of being called and communion with God is not possible without faith in the word of God and constant meditation on it. “Islands, listen to me, pay attention, remotest people. The Lord called me before I was born, from my mother’s womb he pronounced my name. He made my mouth a sharp sword, and hid me in the shadow of his hand. He made me into a sharpened arrow, and concealed me in his quiver.” Though this prophecy is about the Son of Man, it applies to any other who consciously attends to the word of God, grows accustomed to his will, and builds his life on it. The sharp sword Yahweh puts in the mouth of his servant is his word, habitually in the consciousness of the servant, and defines his actions. The servant lives concealed, because the purposes of God are not known to him, yet he lives them out by living the word. Unfortunately, the Lord called Judas, just like any soul, to the service of God, but lack of attention made him wander away from the path the vocation to be an apostle laid before his feet. He joined the company of the Lamb but did not follow the path of the Lamb’s humble sacrifice. He focussed on himself and fell prey to the evil one. “‘Who is it, Lord?’ ‘It is the one’ replied Jesus ‘to whom I give the piece of bread that I shall dip in the dish.’ He dipped the piece of bread and gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. At that instant, after Judas had taken the bread, Satan entered him.” Satan entered him because he left himself empty of the words of Jesus Christ; He ate bread from him but did not eat consciously of his Presence. 

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to eat of the Sacrament and consciously of the reality of the divinity of your Son, that we receive the fullness of his redemption.