The WORD
today (see http://usccb.org/bible/readings/041217.cfm)
reminds me that every time I commit sin, I hurt and betray God.
Jesus is both human and divine.
Being human like us, he can feel what we feel. He experienced what we
experience. We know that he was tempted by the devil in the desert when he was
fasting, when he was weak – as a human being would be in that situation. As a
human being, we know that Jesus experiences pain and suffering, just like what
we see in the first reading and the psalm. And in the gospel, we see Jesus
being hurt and sold – by one of his own apostles.
Everytime we sin, we hurt and betray God. And He can feel every
inch of it.
Judas came to the chief priests
and asked what they would give him if he betrayed Jesus. We may not directly do
this, but everytime we sin, we do this to God. Everytime we sin, we tell God what it takes
for us to betray and hurt him. everytime we do something bad, we
show God how more important that sin is compared to Him. Everytime we choose to
do our will, we tell God we love ourselves more than we love him. When we sin,
we tell him how little he is to us, what his equivalent in our life is - that
we choose that over Him.
This
holy week, we are challenged. God has given us so much. God has proven his love
for us in so many ways. We should never forget these things, and we should
allow ourselves to be loved by God. As we experience his love, we will be
better. We will be whole. We will be more like him.
May
we desire to prove to God how much we love him, that he is more important than
sin in our lives. May we be moved to show and prove to God how much we love Him
by doing good and avoiding sin.
Father God,
Thank you for
today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for another chance to
experience your love. Thank you for being patient with me. Lord, sorry for the
many times I sin. Sorry for choosing myself and my desires over you. sorry for
choosing the easier path over your path. Sorry for not learning my lesson and
continuously sinning. Sorry for not trying hard enough to live pleasing to you.
Lord, as I allow you to love me, I ask that you help me be stronger for you.
Help me see you in everything. Help me live right. Help me focus on you.
Change me to be more like you. May I have a heart like yours, a heart
that hates sin and loves God above anyone and anything. Amen.
Blessed
Holy Wednesday!
In
Christ,
-g-
April 12, 2017
Wednesday of Holy Week
Lectionary: 259
Reading 1 Is 50:4-9a
a well-trained tongue,
That I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
And I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
My face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.
The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
He is near who upholds my right;
if anyone wishes to oppose me,
let us appear together.
Who disputes my right?
Let him confront me.
See, the Lord GOD is my help;
who will prove me wrong?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 69:8-10, 21-22, 31 and 33-34
For your sake I bear insult,
and shame covers my face.
I have become an outcast to my brothers,
a stranger to my mother's sons,
because zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak,
I looked for sympathy, but there was none;
for consolers, not one could I find.
Rather they put gall in my food,
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving:
"See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not."
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
Verse Before the Gospel
you alone are compassionate with our errors.
Gospel Mt 26:14-25
went to the chief priests and said,
"What are you willing to give me
if I hand him over to you?"
They paid him thirty pieces of silver,
and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the disciples approached Jesus and said,
"Where do you want us to prepare
for you to eat the Passover?"
He said,
"Go into the city to a certain man and tell him,
'The teacher says, My appointed time draws near;
in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.'"
The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered,
and prepared the Passover.
When it was evening,
he reclined at table with the Twelve.
And while they were eating, he said,
"Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."
Deeply distressed at this,
they began to say to him one after another,
"Surely it is not I, Lord?"
He said in reply,
"He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me
is the one who will betray me.
The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born."
Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply,
"Surely it is not I, Rabbi?"
He answered, "You have said so."
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