“Hear me, O islands, listen, O distant peoples.” These words from the first reading for mass today are so appropriate for all of us, because our fellow Catholics throughout the world are reflecting on God’s word too, as we prepare for the Holy Triduum. We aren’t quite there yet. Good Friday and Easter Sunday could come and go without affecting us very much though, if we aren’t careful. It’s not too late to spend some extra time in prayer, go to confession, and make preparations for the Holy Triduum. If it’s possible to make arrangements to take off work long enough to attend Good Friday services, that would be a very good thing to do. Easter Sunday can be a beautiful, joyful day with a little extra preparation too.
The first reading for mass talks about what we spend our time and effort on. “Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the Lord, my recompense is with my God.” This verse in scripture is enough to prod us to examine what we really spend our time, money and effort on. If you want to know what a person values the most in life, you need look no further than where they spend the majority of their time, money and effort. It’s just something to think about in these final days that are leading up to Good Friday.
Another thing that is worth noting about the first reading, especially in light of the gospel, is the theme of destiny. The prophet Isaiah writes that he was destined to serve God before he was ever born, as His prophet. The entire reading is about his predestination to serve God as a prophet. Then, if you carefully read through today’s gospel, you will also notice that Judas was predestined to betray Jesus.
From the tone of the first few sentences of the gospel, it sounds as if it caught the disciples by surprise when Jesus suddenly announced, “Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” It sounds like the disciples were at a loss as to whom he meant. Judas knew it was him though, and so did Jesus. Jesus dipped a morsel of food and handed it to Judas, who took it and then Satan entered him. Jesus told him, “What you are going to do, do quickly” and Judas didn’t hesitate. He knew that Christ knew, that he was going to betray him.
It was predestined that Jesus Christ was born, suffered, died and rose from the dead, for the forgiveness of our sins. Someone had to set this sequence of events in motion. Judas triggered the events that led to Jesus’ crucifixion. Perhaps he was predestined to do so, but he did have a choice to serve Jesus, or serve himself. We too, have this same choice. Do we use our time, effort and resources in service to Jesus Christ and other people, or do we mostly seek to satisfy our own wants? When it comes right down to it, it is often very difficult to put aside our own wants, in order to serve the Lord. Judas focused his life on money instead of Jesus Christ, and he deeply regretted it in the end. Are we honest enough with ourselves to recognize the same tendencies Judas had, within our own self?
Peter was predestined to deny Jesus three times, even though he swore he would never do so. Peter was a whole lot weaker, than he would have ever admitted to himself that he was. We always think we are better people than we really are in reality. Other people know our shortcomings better than we do. They also know our strengths though. This is important to remember as well. So does Jesus. Jesus knew Peter would deny him three times, but he also knew Peter loved him with all of his heart. He had a heart of gold.
Are there people in our lives that have character flaws and weaknesses that obscure our vision of seeing who they really are? Jesus doesn’t see them in the same way we do. Imperfect people become saints. Saint Peter was a man with many shortcomings, imperfections, weaknesses and character flaws, but Jesus Christ saw enough good in him to found his entire church on him. We should keep this in mind when other people’s shortcomings seem a little too prominent to us. But, we should also realize the same holds true for ourselves. We shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves sometimes. We are only human too, and God may have plans for our lives as well. It is possible we are predestined for greatness. God may have plans for our lives that we can’t even begin to imagine right now. He doesn’t see us the same way that we see ourselves. Like Saint Peter, we need to work on getting over our past mistakes and go on to be the person that God created us to be.
Tuesday of Holy Week
Mass Readings:
Isaiah 49: 1-6 / Psalm 71: 1-6, 15, 17 / John 13: 21-33, 36-38
