Spy Wednesday

I learned something interesting this week thanks to Fr. B. In his homily on Palm Sunday, he talked in depth about Holy Week, examining each day and talking about the significance of the day, how we celebrate it, what the Gospel reading for that day says, etc. Of course, having been a Catholic for 10 years now, I already knew most of it, but I learned something new. We have something called Spy Wednesday! 

No, not a day when we watch 007....

On Spy Wednesday, we hear the account of Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. The account of Judas' is recorded in all three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). This year, the reading is from Matthew's gospel and begins with these verse:

The entire reading is Matthew 26:14-25.

Notice that it says that Judas "looked for an opportunity to hand him over." Sounds a lot like spying to me. So not only does Judas sell Jesus out by handing him over, but he's actively looking for a chance to do it. They go on to plan their celebration of the Passover meal and Judas is looking. Then they meet in the upper room to celebrate together and he's looking. What's more, Jesus, being truly divine as well as truly human, knows that Judas is looking. 

Can you imagine how heart-breaking that must have been for Jesus to sit at the table side by side with all the disciples, looking at their faces, washing their feet, and sharing this meal all the while knowing that Judas was looking for an opportunity to betray Him? Jesus' human nature must have felt a great dismay at this knowledge and I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for Him to carry on with the meal as normal. 

One of the things that happened at the Last Supper was that Jesus washed the disciples' feet. This act is the institution of the priesthood as Jesus was showing them how they were to lead in His absence -- as servants. Prior to this, at supper, Jesus indicates to the twelve that one of them will betray Him and it is after supper that He washes their feet. Given that He had just told them that someone would betray Him, this would seem a good time for Him to refuse to wash the feet of His soon-to-be betrayer. 

But He doesn't. 

Jesus washes Judas' feet as well. He shows Judas grace and love and mercy, even as He knew what Judas was about to do. With the action of washing Judas' feet, Jesus shows everyone in the upper room and all of us who read the story today, the entirety of His message -- love, grace, mercy, hope, and forgiveness. That single action bears witness to the love of the Father, Christ's mission on earth, and the purpose of the Holy Spirit. 

Paul says this in his letter to the Romans:

"But God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (5:8)

If anyone was unworthy of such a gift, one would think that Judas Iscariot, the disciple of whom John writes, "Satan entered into him" (John 13:27a) would be unworthy to have his feet washed, to be shown love and mercy. But Judas was, like the rest of us, a sinner who was very much loved by Jesus. Even though Judas spied on Jesus, looking for an opportunity to betray him, he was no worse than any of the rest of us. We are all sinners and yet, Christ died for us.

How often do we allow the temptations of Satan to enter us and stay until we betray Jesus? 

How often have we been so mired in our sin that we have even looked for an opportunity to hand Him over?

We are all Judases in our own way. At every moment, He is Love Incarnate.

We all spy on Him, sick in our sin, and hand him over to be crucified again and again. And despite this, He washes our feet, shows us the depths of His love for us, and although He knows who we are and what we are about to do, allows our sin to hand Him over to the guards and nail Him to the cross.

And every heartbreaking time we come to Him in our sin, He offers to wash us clean again -- not through water poured over our feet -- but through the forgiveness that He made available to us through the cross. We need not be like Judas who was so full of bitter regret and despair, that he ran away from Jesus and toward death. All we need do is come to Him with a contrite heart, confess our sins, and receive His mercy and forgiveness.

Theology Wednesday: Fasting, Almsgiving, and Prayer

Normally this post is Theology Thursday, but given the significance of today, I thought I'd do it a day early. Today is Ash Wednesday and as such, it is the beginning of the liturgical season of Lent. On the outside, it might seem like Lent is a super somber, funereal type of season -- especially given the fact that all most non-liturgical Christians know about it is that people get ashes on their foreheads at the beginning of it and usually give up something they really like.

Update: Out of the Depths

Hello friends!

It's been a solid week since I last posted. Well, actually, that's not quite true. My last post was this past Saturday, but after I posted it, I had second thoughts about it and wound up pulling it. I don't normally do that (this was the first time), but it was a very personal sort of post and while I don't regret having written it, I questioned my judgment at the time that I published it as it was very late and I was very tired. When I looked at it again in the light of day, I realized that perhaps it was better off kept to myself. I apologize to anyone who might have read it and then went looking for it again later.

This has been a very difficult week or so since my last published post. To be honest, this illness that I struggle with has been kicking my butt up one side and down the other and has been rather unrelenting. I am very grateful to Gray and Pendragon both. They have been helping me to sort out my thoughts and try to work through things and process things. My dear "big brother" Chez has been praying for me like mad and has served as a sounding board for my frustrations during this too. To say I am thankful for all the support I have in my life is quite the understatement. Eventually, I want to do some writing about what has been on my mind this week, but now is not the time. For now I will say that after nearly a week and a half of stumbling and falling through the murky depths, I am finally starting to feel that fog lift a little. I feel a little more even-footed, if still a bit weak.

One good thing that has come of all of this is that I have come to realise through this recent difficulty that there is something I need to do for myself and as of tomorrow, I am going to be taking a rather huge step towards doing it. I will be talking about this in time, but for now, I'll suffice to say that it's something I have been discerning for a good year now.

Now that things are shifting back to some semblance of normal (although it's not really "normal" but a less intense state of depression that is easier to muddle through), I am going to endeavour to get back to writing more frequently. This means that since tomorrow is Friday, I'll have a Five Minute Friday post for you and I'm going to resume my Daybook Journal on Tuesday and Theology Thursday next week. There might even be another post or two thrown in for good measure if the mood strikes me.

Pax Christi! 

Theology Thursday: Catholics and Communion

For the Catholic Christian, there is absolutely nothing more important than Holy Communion, or as the sacrament is more properly called, Holy Eucharist. It is so important, that the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that:

The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life." The other sacraments and indeed, all other ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the church, namely Christ himself, our Pesach. (CCC 1324, quoted phrase is from the encyclical Lumen Gentium, paragraph 11)

It is so important that the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is offered every day of the week, 365 days a year! Because the Catholic Church is represented in nearly every country on the globe in some way or another, it is often said that Holy Mass (and thus the Holy Eucharist) is being celebrated at every moment of every day. I mention Holy Mass, because that is, primarily, where you will find the Holy Eucharist being offered to the Catholic faithful.

For Catholics, the whole point of going to Mass is not about the scripture readings or the preaching or the songs that are sung -- although those are an important part of the liturgy too -- but about receiving Holy Communion. The very simple reason for this is that we believe that the Eucharist is Jesus's actual Body and Blood. It's not symbolic. It is Him, truly present under the guise of bread and wine. When we receive Holy Communion, we are receiving Jesus Himself into our bodies, not merely bread and wine that we are partaking in to remember Him. It is an intimate moment of worship unlike any other in that although we, like the centurion in Matthew 8, say, "Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof" that the Lord of All Creation, Jesus Christ Our Redeemer, deigns to do just that and comes to us under the appearance of the consecrated bread and wine so that we might receive Him under our our roof and so be nourished body and soul by His Body and Blood.

The Biblical basis for this belief that Jesus is truly present in the Holy Eucharist comes from what is known as The Bread of Life discourse in John 6. The entire chapter is a really good one to meditate on and pray on, but the specific passage is John 6:22-71. Of course, there are other scriptures which also form the basis for this belief, but this passage is the main one. The basic thrust of the passage is that Jesus is telling his followers that He is the bread that came down from heaven and He will give them His flesh and blood to eat and drink. He also says that they must eat and drink of his flesh and blood or they will have no life in them. They take Him literally and are both shocked and confused. Many of his followers leave him to go back to their old lives. Had He been speaking symbolically or metaphorically and they turned to leave, He would have certainly have stopped them and explained Himself further as He did on a number of other occasions when those following Him misunderstood His meaning.

As you can see, it is a very, very serious thing and as such, Catholics are admonished not to receive Holy Communion if they are not in a state of grace because by receiving when they are in a state of mortal sin, they may, as St. Paul said, eat and drink judgment upon themselves (1 Corinthians 11:23-30). Catholics who are born into the faith (aka "cradle Catholics") generally have their First Holy Communion around the ages of 7-9 years old, although it may vary from diocese to diocese. Our eldest, M2, is preparing for hers this coming spring and we are very excited! :) It is a momentous occasion not only because it is a rite of passage, but more importantly, because it is the first of what, I hope and pray, will be many thousands of times in her life that she will approach the Table of the Lord and receive Him and the graces of this sacrament.

As Catholics, we believe that receiving the Holy Eucharist gives us graces from God to help us live holy lives, to resist temptation to sin, to follow God's will for our lives more closely, to love our neighbours with more charity, and ultimately, to reach our heavenly reward. We also believe that it brings spiritual and even sometimes physical healing to receive it and as such, it is often a part of the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick and is always a part of the Last Rites (which is comprised of three of the seven sacraments in one).

Holy Communion is a vital part of a healthy Catholic faith life and those who receive it regularly often report feeling weaker and less able to deal with the slings and arrows that life throws when they must, for some reason, go for a period of time without receiving it. I know this is certainly true for me. Our family attends Mass at least once a week and I always receive. If, for some reason, I must miss Mass (which is usually due to my own sickness or family sickness), I feel rather empty for having missed and sort of spiritually anemic. It really does help strengthen me and gives me food for the journey of life. 

There is so much more I could say (there are volumes upon volumes written about this sacrament!), but I need to wind this up so it's not too too long. To end, here's a little recap and a YouTube video which, I think, gives a lot of interesting information on the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist (the video is a really cool cartoon drawn as you watch!):

Feel free to steal this graphic if you want!