IS 50: 4-9A
PS 69: 8-10, 21-22, 31 and 33-34
MT 26: 14-25
INTRODUCTION
Welcome
to the final day of Lent, 2014, "Spy Wednesday," remembering the day Judas asked, "What are you willing to
give me if I hand him over to you?"
In
the composition of place, we read
the third song of the Suffering Servant, perhaps even experiencing the
acceptance, the surrender and the peace Jesus feels. We can also sense the betrayal, the pain, of His day as we
go through our own lives, our own days…
Spy Wednesday can be an
appropriate day to pray the Stations of the Cross, if we haven’t already done
so.
The readings of the day certainly
speak for themselves as we enter the Triduum, Holy
Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, all
leading us to the triumph and fulfillment of Easter Sunday.
Have a blessed Easter, all the
better because of a blessed Lent.
May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.
protect us from all evil
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.
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REFLECTION
Giving something up
notwithstanding, Lent is more about giving in…giving more…entering more deeply…preparing
for all that is to come…making ourselves ready, with the grace of God…for
the grace of God.
We
read in Isaiah that, despite the betrayal and suffering, The Lord GOD is my help, therefore
I am not disgraced… We pray in the Responsorial Psalm, with the hope
and confidence of the psalmist, beseeching, Lord, in your great love, answer me. We learn in the Gospel about Judas, the
betrayer of Jesus.
Lent, briefly and to the point, is
the time we can start doing what God calls us to do, only doing it better than we
did it before. So rather than simply
focusing on what we gave up, we can pray in gratitude about what are
becoming. We can be grateful for the
confidence, and the courage, and the strength to live in the promises of God
and the hope of the Kingdom…we can with increasing confidence, answer the
Baptismal questions..
Do
you reject sin so as to live in the freedom of God’s children?
Do you reject the glamour of evil and refuse to be
mastered by sin?
Isn’t Lent also, primarily, a time for us to reconcile--with ourselves, with others,
and, mostly, with God?
The 35th
General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, in Challenges to our Mission
Today, charges us Jesuits, As
servants of Christ’s mission we are invited to assist him as he sets right our
relationships with God, with other human beings, and with creation. (GC35, n.
62) Lent is a good time to look at how we respond to that
invitation. This type of preparation and
examination seems much more than giving up something.
We can accept more fully the gift
we’re being offered, and enter more fully into the opportunities we have been
given, to live life abundantly in accordance with what our Lord has given us.
Have a blessed Triduum, as together we prepare to celebrate joyfully the mysteries
of our salvation during this Holy Week, and look forward to a bright Easter.
Fr. Paul Stark, S.J. is Vice President of Mission and Ministry.
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