Gospel Reflection For The 27th day of March in the year of Our Lord, 2024
Gospel
Matthew 26:14-25
14 Then went one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, to the chief priests, 15 And said to them: What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you? But they appointed him thirty pieces of silver.
16 And from thenceforth he sought opportunity to betray him. 17 And on the first day of the Azymes, the disciples came to Jesus, saying: Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the pasch? 18 But Jesus said: Go ye into the city to a certain man, and say to him: the master saith, My time is near at hand, with thee I make the pasch with my disciples. 19 And the disciples did as Jesus appointed to them, and they prepared the pasch. 20 But when it was evening, he sat down with his twelve disciples.
21 And whilst they were eating, he said: Amen I say to you, that one of you is about to betray me. 22 And they being very much troubled, began every one to say: Is it I, Lord? 23 But he answering, said: He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, he shall betray me. 24 The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed: it were better for him, if that man had not been born. 25 And Judas that betrayed him, answering, said: Is it I, Rabbi? He saith to him: Thou hast said it.
Is it not amazing that we lie to God? Consider this Gospel. Judas has agreed to betray Jesus. He knows what he has said and done. Yet, he says to Jesus, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” In this instance, it becomes clear that Judas did not believe in the divinity of Christ that Saint Peter and likely the other Apostles had professed. Judas thought that our Lord was a mere man. We do not have that excuse.
But, you may say, “I would never lie to God!” Yet, when we go to Reconciliation the priest merely stands in the person of Christ. The man is present, but it is God who hears our confession and gives us forgiveness. The priest is the vehicle. How often do we minimize our sin, justify it or even leave something out that we know we should confess? That is extremely dangerous. It is actually a sin against the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which is a mortal sin. That sin is gravely compounded if we receive the Eucharist knowing that we have not made a full and complete confession. When we lie to God, we commit sins that are similar to Judas. That is a stark and terrifying reality. But, it is truly better to have never lived or to die when young and innocent than to die in a state of mortal sin.
We must realize that our lying to God begins in lying to ourselves. The Bible says that the human heart is full of deceit. We are clever and cunning and can justify most any sin. We know the Church teaches that we should avoid all unnecessary work on Sunday so that we may honor the Sabbath as God commanded. So, we sit there and justify mowing the lawn on Sunday because we have to work weekdays…. But is the reason we didn’t do it on Saturday because we watched a ballgame or found another excuse? Do we justify contraception because children “just wouldn’t be convenient right now”? Do we vote for politicians who support abortion because they are “so good” on other issues? Those are all serious sins. If we began listing our many venial sins, the list would be very long. We know this if we are honest with ourselves.
We must remember that God already knows. He knows everything we think, say and do. He knows what we have done and will do just as He knew what Saint Peter and Judas had done and would do. We can fool ourselves, but we will never fool God… if we refuse to admit our failings though, we will truly be fools.
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Gospel passages are taken from the Douay Rheims Bible.