4/15/2014 – Tuesday of Holy Week – John 13:21-33, 36-38

        We are now in the middle of Holy Week as we continue our journey toward Easter.  The Gospel story today may be a bit disconcerting 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.  Lent is a time that helps us focus on those human weaknesses that we need to address in our lives. 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.  I wonder, how do we respond to God when we are challenged, when we find ourselves in difficult situations?  Many of us may try to avoid such a troubling situation altogether, which may be a natural human response.  Judas and Peter were two men who were very close to Jesus, yet they turn away and do him wrong. To be sure, Judas and Peter were in life threatening circumstances just by associating with Jesus.  They were concerned about how the authorities would respond 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 narrative.  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 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 those human weaknesses that we struggle to overcome as we walk with Jesus. 

3/26/2013 – Tuesday of Holy Week - John 13:21-31, 36-38, Isaiah 49:1-6

        “Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,
yet my reward is with the Lord,
my recompense is with my God.”  As we hear these words from the prophet Isaiah, we may reflect upon how often on our journey of faith, we may be following what we think is the will of God in our lives, and we may feel like we have no results to show for it.  That is what the message of our secular culture is all about – success concerns results, getting things done, producing something useful, making money or accumulating material possessions.  In our work or in our personal lives, we are often impatient if those results don’t come quickly, And if the results don’t come quick enough, we can feel need to change course in order to show that we are getting things done.  When I was a missionary, results were often hard to recognize, and if I had judged what I was doing by the criteria set by our secular world, I probably would have given up in a sense of failure and lack of accomplishment. 

         Yet, the ways of our world are not often God’s ways.  God’s plan is to lead us to salvation, not to bring us earthly accomplishment and glory. Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord says his people: I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. 

         As we commemorate Holy Week, as we accompany Jesus as he carries his cross, we hear Jesus tell his disciples how this week will end for him, all a part of God’s plan of salvation for all of humanity.  May we never forget that God’s ways are often so very radical compared to the ways of our world.  As we complete our journey with Jesus during Holy Week, may we never lose sight of where we are going.