Are You Judas?
5 min
The First Ever Guide to Eucharistic Consecration
This isn’t just another book. It’s an invitation to participate in a sacred journey—a spiritual pilgrimage.
Please Note: To help you have a deeply personal experience of Holy Week, we have selected Gospels that reflect what was historically happening in Jesus’ life on these eight days. At times, these selections deviate from the Church’s daily Mass readings.
Gospel
Mt 26:14-25
Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.
Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the passover?” He said, “Go into the city to such a one, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at your house with my disciples.’ ” And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the passover. When it was evening, he sat at table with the twelve disciples; and as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” And they were very sorrowful, and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me, will betray me. The Son of man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” Judas, who betrayed him, said, “Is it I, Master?” He said to him, “You have said so.”
Readings are from Dynamic Catholic’s New Testament Bible: RSV Catholic Edition
Get Inspired with Daily Reflections
Start your day with Today's Saint, Daily Gospel Reflections, Today's Mass Readings, and other inspiration!
Transcript
Are You Judas?
Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where we are exploring the genius of Jesus, the genius of the gospels, the genius of our great faith, looking for a word, a phrase, or an idea each day to anchor our days in the Gospels, the life and the teachings of Jesus. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew 26:14-16. "Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priest and said, 'What will you give me if I deliver him to you?' And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment, he sought an opportunity to betray Jesus." What do you think about Judas? What do you think about Judas today? You go through this week, Judas is an enormous figure. He's a looming figure. And how do you see yourself in Judas? Because I think there's a lot of things this week that we want to look away from.
I think there's many, many moments in the passion of Jesus when we just can't stand it, can't handle it. We want to look away. But the challenge is to stay in it, to look clearly into the sufferings of Christ. And I think Judas is another one. I think we want to look away from this, but let's think about betrayal today. We all experience it, and we all experience both sides of it. I think it's easy to think about betrayal on the victim side of it, but let's think about betrayal on the perpetrator side of it today. And let's think about it in three senses: betrayal of self, betrayal of others, and betrayal of God. Long before we betray others or we betray God, we betray ourselves. Long before we betray others or we betray God, we step out of alignment with what we believe to be good, true, right, noble, just. We step out of alignment with what we believe to be our values. And it's that betrayal of self that triggers the cause and effect relationship. It's then that we end up betraying others. It's then that we end up turning our back on God and betraying God in small ways or large, in all three instances.
In what way have you betrayed yourself this year? In what way have you betrayed somebody else this year? However large, however small, in what way have you betrayed God this year? That's the lesson of Wednesday and Holy Week, is that betrayal is real. It is in the human nature. We are capable of it. We do do it. Question is, are we mindful of it? Are we remorseful of it? And then when we realize, whoa, hold on a minute, I have betrayed myself, I have betrayed others, I have betrayed God, how are we going to respond to that? Obviously, Judas responded horribly to that. I think we respond horribly, too, sometimes when we get all mired in our shame, which really is a useless emotion. And the devil wants you in shame because shame is just a spiraling downward experience. Guilt is good because it tells us, hey, you've stepped off the road, stepped back on the road. But shame is just constantly turning in on itself and doesn't go anywhere. And the devil likes that. He likes us to be inactive. He likes us to be not going anywhere. He likes us to be wallowing in our shame. God's calling you out of that today. Whatever your experience of that is, He's calling you out of that. He's calling you to claim your betrayal, ask for forgiveness, and move on. And above all else, do not underestimate God's capacity for mercy. That's the mistake Judas made. He underestimated God's capacity for mercy. Let's not make that same mistake.
Have an amazing day. And remember, don't just be yourself. Be the very best version of yourself, all that God created you to be.
One thing I did want to mention is, for the first time now, we're releasing a video every day based on the Daily Gospel. And so Lent will finish, and we have this Holy Week experience. And usually, our best Lent ever videos would end this Sunday on Easter Sunday. But every day, the rest of the year, you're welcome to come back and enjoy this experience of looking at the daily gospel just for a word or a phrase or an idea to anchor our days. I hope you'll enjoy that and take advantage of that and share that with your family and friends.
Share
