Wednesday of Holy Week

We have come to the final full day of the Lenten season, known traditionally as “Spy Wednesday.”

Isaiah is a faithful prophet in the face of much adversity. There is no disgrace or shame when he is attacked and beaten since the Lord is on his side and will uphold his righteousness. The Lord is with him whenever he is confronted.

Matthew knew that many religious elite bitterly opposed Jesus and his teachings. Judas was ‘the prize of the spies’ for the priests and Pharisees who met secretly in the back rooms and dark corners of the Temple precinct. He was a paid betrayer who put himself among the apostles and knew Jesus well, taking blood money from the plotters to direct an attack on these close companions and the arrest of their Rabbi. The Temple elite, deathly afraid for their position and power, had concocted a vile stew of charges — sedition and blasphemy – which they could triumphantly push before the Roman occupiers. Only these gentile overlords could force trial, torture, and execution.

Jesus knows what Judas has done. We stand with Our Lord on the threshold of the three holy and solemn days called the Triduum. We are with Jesus and all the apostles (including Judas), ready to enter the Cenacle, the upper room prepared for the Passover meal. They sit at a table with Jesus and break bread together for the final time. His calm words about a betrayer eating that meal in that room hit them with a force to shake body and soul. With Saint Peter Julian, such a passionate lover of the great mystery unfolding before us in the Cenacle, we focus our whole life and true belief on the institution of the Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist!

Let Us Pray:

Dear God, please increase our faith and shore up our strength as we remember the holy days to come. From the depths of despair to the heights of exaltation, may we endure and come ever closer to your son Jesus, our Lord, our Savior, our true Eucharist! Amen.