Dear Friends,
Our Holy Week begins! Liturgically, it begins with two stories, the story of a triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the story of betrayal and death. Perhaps we know the stories too well and no longer hear the warning in the stories for us.
Judas departs the Last Supper on the pretext that he was going to buy bread and give it to the poor. Afterall, it was Passover. At the Supper, Christ informed the apostles that one of them would betray him, but each apostle suspected himself. Peter probably heard his friends ask, “Is it I, Lord?” with a certain bitterness, because he will be told in just a few minutes by Jesus that he, Peter, would be the betrayer.
While the Supper continued, Judas informed the chief priests and guards of the location of Jesus, but when they went to the upper room, Jesus was already gone. During Holy Week, Jesus spent his days in Jerusalem and his nights in Bethany, at the house of Lazarus. Jesus never slept in Jerusalem. We can imagine Judas standing on the street outside the upper room and the guards returning a moment later. “There’s no one there,” they would have said. “There’s only one other place Jesus might be,” Judas would have replied. “He often goes to the Garden to pray.”
In the Garden, Jesus told his apostles that his betrayer was at hand, although they continued to believe it was one of themselves. Judas was still in the city in their minds, distributing bread to the poor. Obviously, it was not Judas. The fact that all the apostles keep falling asleep is even more tragic when we understand they each believed one of their own would betray Jesus. Jesus tells them all to stay awake, lest the betrayer alone stay awake and murder the unprotected Lord.
The disappointment of Jesus with the apostles’ inability to overcome their bodily needs is heartbreaking: “Are you still sleeping and still taking your rest? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” As Jesus chides the apostles for falling asleep, He breaks off his thought to gesture towards Judas and say, as it were, “See! This is what happens when you fall asleep on the job. I asked you to stay awake and pray so you could warn me when the betrayer is at hand, but now I’m the one who is warning you. Look, there he is.” The Gospel story shows us the consequences of falling prey to the needs of the body, the human things, the passing things, the things of this world, while the spirit languishes and starves.
When Judas approached Jesus in Gethsemane, he approached him alone. The band of soldiers waits in the wings. In the dark, only a friend of Jesus would be able to discern him from the rest of the apostles. The kiss marked Jesus for the soldiers from a distance. When the soldiers arrived, Judas could plausibly claim to the other apostles, “I was followed! I can’t believe it!” If Judas did not need an alibi, the kiss would not be necessary. The kiss, however, is proof that Judas thought he could get away with it.
The story should warn us. We all use just such excuses. We delight in a reasonable story which accounts for our evil. At the same time, we also want to remain close to Jesus. Both Judas and Peter follow Jesus secretly after the arrest. Judas is present to see Jesus before Pilate while Peter follows at a distance, keeping abreast of the results of the arrest. Judas clearly did not think it would ever go this wrong.
We all act like Peter on a fairly regular basis. We have sworn our fidelity to Christ but excuse ourselves from our commitments because of stress, fear, obligations, or biology. We huddle close enough to Christ that we might be confused as disciples, but far enough away that we might be nothing more than innocent bystanders. We may all be Judas as well. Judas simply regarded his sin very lightly. He did not think a minor betrayal of Jesus to be of much consequence. Until Judas saw that Jesus was condemned to die, then “he was seized with remorse”, which suggests that Judas never thought things would go as far as they did.
Wonderfully, the stories do not end with the death and burial. The Christian story continues with the resurrection, with Pentecost, with the ongoing story of Jesus working in the Church. The story also continues with forgiveness being offered to all of us who act like Peter and Judas. Jesus takes the story of betrayal and turns it into a story of love and forgiveness. May these stories touch your heart this week and move you to a deeper love of the one who redeems you.
Peace,
Fr. Damian