We are in the middle of Holy Week. Today, Tuesday of Holy Week, is the day we normally celebrate the Chrism Mass in our Diocese. Due to the crisis going on our country with the Coronavirus, we are continuing our streaming of masses and liturgies, unable to have public masses in honor of the protocol in place in churches throughout the world. Holy Week is not even going to be commemorated at St Peter’s in the Vatican this year.
Our Gospel today may be difficult to hear. Lent is a time when we focus upon repentance and conversion, when we become more aware of the sins we have in our lives. Perhaps it has been very surreal concentrating on these Lenten disciplines in the midst of this pandemic. Today's Gospel is a foreshadowing of the human weakness that allow Peter and Judas to fall into sin, to miss the mark, to betray Jesus.
Judas and Peter find themselves in challenging situations. Perhaps we, too, are learning a lot in these weeks of the pandemic of how we respond to God in the midst of our challenges and our difficult situations in life. I think it can often be a natural human response to try to avoid difficult, challenging situations altogether. Judas and Peter were two men who were very close to Jesus, yet they turn away and do him wrong. For sure, Judas and Peter were in life threatening circumstances just by associating with Jesus. They were concerned about how the authorities would lash out to Jesus and his disciples. They may have felt pressure from the religious authorities in Jerusalem. They may have had little time to reflect and pray about their reaction and the choice of actions they could take.
Yet, the events we hear today are an integral part of Jesus' passion. We understand these events in the light of Jesus' death and resurrection, in the light of the salvation which Jesus brings us. We understand these events through the presence of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent among us. These are the events that give us hope as we struggle through our own human weaknesses, through our challenges and struggles in life, as we struggle with all that keeps us from God and that weigh us down on our journey. Let us pray for a greater understanding of the events that lead to Jesus' journey to the cross, for a greater understanding of what we are trying to overcome as we walk with Jesus.
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