YEAR A: HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK (1)

YEAR A: HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK

HOMILY THEME: A CHANCE OF REPENTANCE

BY: Fr. Benny Tuazon

HOMILY: (My. 26:14-25) Wednesday of Holy Week

In today’s Gospel the events leading to Jesus’ death and resurrection are happening one after the other. Judas had come to the point of not only stealing from the coffers but to sell Jesus Himself. At the same time, He was preparing for the Jewish Passover which He will transform into His saving action, the Eucharist. Jesus knew His coming betrayal and His death. He was in full control. The plan of the Father will come into fruition.

The matter of the amount for which Jesus was sold was not the issue. In the first place, Jesus had no equivalent in this world or in any other world. What mattered was what drove Judas to betray Jesus in spite of what he had heard and seen from Jesus? Maybe we can try to answer the same question personally. With so much we have known, specially experientially, about Jesus how can we still continue with our sinful ways? With the benefit of knowing the full story of God’s plan of salvation, Jesus’ birth, life and ministry, and His resurrection, where do we get the nerve to betray Him too through our sins? We hated Judas so much for his betrayal. We hated him so much that his name has been cursed. In the twenty-five years of my ministry, I had not encountered a child being baptized with a name Judas. As if not enough, we call anyone who had made a betrayal, “Hudas!”

Knowing and experiencing the love , mercy, and saving action of Jesus are not enough. Many disciples had better experiences. Yet, we can safely say that not all worshipped the Lord. Knowledge and experience prove to be inadequate. We ought to be touched, humbled, and converted by the Lord. The Lord had done His part. It is now our turn to respond.
We must be touched in the sense that we had appreciated the full import of what Jesus had done for us; from His becoming man to His dying and resurrection.

We ought to be humbled by His love and our sins. We adopt a position of slavery to sin and knowing that only the love of Jesus can rescue us from our predicament. We had lost everything. We had brought ourselves to nothingness. Jesus alone can fill us and will be our enough. Only then will we see what He had done for us and what we have done to Him.

Finally, conversion. While we ought to be fascinated and awed by His glory, we need to belong to that glory. Jesus’ saving action was not only meant to be known, seen, and marveled at. Jesus meant it to be received. And the only way is to go back to God and leave our wicked ways. Once done, the journey to the Kingdom begins. The moment of conversion was not the end. It was the beginning of a beautiful, meaningful, and fruitful love affair with God.

Judas missed it. Peter did in the beginning but stayed to realize it. Be like Peter and forget what Judas did.