THE WORD TO THE WISE - running late today

[RB Williams, OP]

WEDNESDAY,  APRIL 16, 2025  WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK

[Isaiah 50:4-9a and Matthew 26:14-25]

   And while they were eating, he said, "Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."  Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, "Surely it is not I, Lord?"  [Matthew]

     The very familiar fresco of the Last Supper by Leonard DaVinci, painted on the wall of a Dominican dining room in Milan, Italy, portrays the moment Jesus makes his announcement of the betrayal!  Yesterday we had the version from the Gospel According to John, which seems to be hush-hush without too much stir.  Today, everyone at table asks, "Surely it is not I, Lord?"

     One wonders why the group didn't immediately seize Judas, but somehow nobody seems to notice other than that Jesus appears to have told him something, after which he disappears only to reappear with a mob in the Garden of Gethsemane.  The thirty pieces of silver were in his pocket - roughly between $300 to $400 in today's currency.  But, it is important to note that Jesus knows what is going to happen and takes no steps to avoid it, even in the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

     The big picture in all of this, which includes us all, is that Jesus did this for us and not just for his disciples back then!  We are all complicit, and he did it out of love for each and every one of us.  Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday is a a story of love.  AMEN