(Is 50:4-9; Ps 69; Mt 26:14-26)<\/p>\n
*****************************************<\/p>\n
\u201cLord, in your great love answer me.\u201d<\/p>\n
This psalm response and the readings today invite us to trust in God the Father as Jesus did, and emulate him who was without sin, by letting go of any sin in our lives, of any ways we might be betraying him still.<\/p>\n
Both Isaiah and the psalm reveal prophecies about Jesus fulfilled, in striking detail, like a crescendo, as we approach the Great Triduum.<\/p>\n
Today we have the third Servant Song of Isaiah with its memorable images: Jesus is a teacher who sustains us with his Word; he gave his back to blows; he did not hide his face from insult and spitting; he put his complete trust in God.<\/p>\n
Psalm 69 is almost the same as Psalm 22, quoted by Jesus on the cross: insults broke his heart; they gave him vinegar to drink, yet in the end, he praises God, magnifies God\u2019s name, is grateful and glad.<\/p>\n
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Turning to the Gospel we hear an echo of an Old Testament prophecy – Jesus would be betrayed for pieces of silver and hear \u201chis time is near.\u201d This is a fourth reference to his \u201chour\u201d mentioned in the gospels (after the temptations in the desert, the wedding feast at Cana and the Greeks who want to see him). What is striking here is the one who betrays him \u201cdips his hand in the bowl with him,\u201d which is similar to receiving communion from him.<\/p>\n
Actually, we all \u201cdip our hands in the bowl with Jesus\u201d whenever we receive communion. And like Judas, we have all betrayed him or will betray him, in one way or another, because we are human. We all have a price, and we all sell out to the false gods of possession, prestige and power. We all sin, in the sense of harmatia<\/em> \u2013 falling short of the persons God has created us to be. Perhaps we all should make Judas\u2019 deceitful question to Jesus our own: \u201cSurely not I, rabbi?\u201d Notice that right after Jesus refers to himself as the \u201cSon of Man,\u201d a reference to the Incarnation and the Word of God made flesh, Judas uses the strictly human term \u201crabbi,\u201d revealing perhaps even unwittingly his lack of faith in Jesus as divine. That was as great as sin as his betrayal.<\/p>\n The good news, however, is that we are all forgiven. As Presentation of Mary sisters Rita Bisson and the late Raymonde Arcand pointed out, with whom I ministered for years, we are not so much \u201csinners who are forgiven,\u201d but rather \u201cgood people who have sinned\u201d (fallen short of the mark, or harmatia<\/em>), and are forgiven.<\/p>\n The fullest meaning of the passion and resurrection is that Jesus has forgiven us fully. He has set us free from sin (that which we do) and sinfulness (that which makes us do it \u2013 our painful emotions, negative attitudes and addictions), and ultimately death. All we have to do is to trust as he did in the love of the Father, turn to him for forgiveness, try to follow him by not sinning anymore, and love as he did.<\/p>\n The saints are those who took this message to heart and truly lived it heroically. They are an inspiration to us.<\/p>\n The Eucharist is a living out of these readings. Jesus our teacher is sustaining us with his word. We would be dipping our hands in the bowl with Jesus today, if we were receiving communion. Short of that, our pondering of God\u2019s Word commissions us to go and spread the Good News of God\u2019s love and forgiveness through our lives of faith, integrity and love.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HOMILY WEDNESDAY of HOLY WEEK Trust the Father and Follow Jesus (Is 50:4-9; Ps 69; Mt 26:14-26) ***************************************** \u201cLord, in your great love answer me.\u201d This psalm response and the readings today invite us to trust in God the Father as Jesus did, and emulate him who was without sin, by letting go of any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies","category-lent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3448,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446\/revisions\/3448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}