| The Wednesday of Holy Week reading ends at Matthew 26 verse 25.
The next verse begins Jesus’ words which form the heart of the Eucharistic prayers. So, in close proximity of the haunting words that speak of Judas’s forthcoming betrayal of Jesus we have these other words that have endured over the centuries. These are the words of Jesus’ assurance of forgiveness through his loving self-sacrifice.
No doubt, the remorse and pain which Judas must have felt when he realized what he had done was so deep, so cutting, and so full of desolation that he must have wished he had never been born. But, even without Judas’s betrayal, there was really nothing to stop the momentum of those others who wanted Jesus’ death. Jesus was not arrested because of Judas’s actions alone. He was arrested, tried, and killed because many people conspired willingly, and some ignorantly, to take his life. There was a tremendous force of desire to remove a threat to the status quo; a desire to quell chaos by offering up a scapegoat, Jesus. The Sanhedrin sought it, King Herod sought it, Pontius Pilate and the Romans sought it, and the uncommitted crowd was convinced to seek it.
No doubt, Judas succumbed to his own desire to make a few silver coins. He fed off the energy of the jealous and violent desires of the chief priests. He took advantage of his situation as Jesus’ friend in order to facilitate what appeared to be ever more inevitable – Jesus was intensifying the confrontation with the powers of temple and state and the pushback was growing. Judas did what was easy, and selfish, and cowardly, and deceitful. Others, then, killed Jesus.
Let us not condemn Judas, or demonize him for letting temptation get to him in the manner that led to his betrayal of Jesus. If there is one thing about which we seek reassurance in the days of Holy Week and Easter, it is the reassurance that Jesus was effective in his sacrifice, that his words, his intent, his actions were effective. We want to be reassured that forgiveness of sin results from Jesus death and resurrection. We want to know that, not only is it possible that God can forgive our sins, but that there is no obstacle, no lack of grace-filled courage in us to forgive the sins of others against us.
The people will say what they want about them, about Judas and Jesus. The fact remains that Jesus did not condemn Judas, nor did Jesus seek the condemnation of those who eventually killed him (“Forgive them Father, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Lk 23:34). Even Judas is forgivable. Even those who start and wage wars, and torturers; even those who abort infants and those who procure abortion are forgivable. Even alcoholics and drug abusers; even murderers and child abusers are forgivable. Even we are forgivable. This Eucharist is a testament and reassurance of that truth. |
