By Antony Christy, SDB –
April 17: Isaiah 50: 4-9; Matthew 26: 14-25
Today can be called the Spy Wednesday within the Passion week… because it would have been this day that Judas approached the Jewish authorities and offered to hand Jesus over to them. The plot is darkening here!
Let us have a look at the key player today: Judas. He can easily be presented as the epitome of the ills that the present society is infected with. There are three tendencies in Judas that we are called to beware of:
- What will you give me? Looking for a gain, a personal gain, a sordid gain, a material gain, from whatever the situation be! The society today is growing in this tendency, that not only persons see each other as potential gain or loss, but they manipulate the other towards one’s own gain!
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Is it I Lord? Not really getting the grips of oneself. The society today is quick to blame the others for all evils, unable to point to oneself and get in touch with the personal limitations that add to the social scourge! Issues that affect our society like corruption, caste, creed and other discrimination… aren’t they arising from individual insensitivities?
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It was dark outside… because he did not have God in his heart, he had only the money bag in his mind. As John symbolically adds at the end of his account of this episode, it was dark outside. When Judas left, it was not only dark outside, but much more dark within him! He was going through a tough time: whether to trust God or to take things into his own hands and push it forward – a likely temptation that many of us undergo: to trust God or push our way forward!
At times we think we are more practical than God, we are more precise in responding to a situation than God and so we make hasty decisions and then lament when we face the repercussions! This is a common tendency we see in the world. The lesson is clear; the Lord knows best and the Lord has a plan for everyone and everything! Why don’t we allow the Master of the creation to take control of things and situations?
Let us learn to Trust God and wait on the Lord’s will.
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005 and has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (specialisation in Catechetics). He has a Doctorate in Theology with specialisation in Catechetics and youth ministry at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the young towards a World of Peace and dialogue is the passion that fires him.