WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Hail to you, our King!
You alone have had compassion on our sins.

ISAIAH 50:4-9 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

If I desire to be Your disciple I must follow You closely. I must remain with You. I must make Your Heart my home and open my heart and life so You can make Your home in me. I must emulate You in all things. I must strive to be holy and pure. To be humble and obedient in embracing God's will for my life. I must cease complaining, whining, and grumbling.

Every Christian is called to be a saint. To follow the way of perfection. To pick up whatever cross is given daily and follow You humbly and obediently. You have given us Your Word and Your Church - You have shown us the Way and commanded us to walk in it. Your life on earth is a template on which all Christians must base their lives. There is no other Way but the Way of Suffering and the Way of the Cross. We must die to ourselves if we are to find ourselves. We are to lose our lives if we wish to gain it. You have made it clear that we, like the grain of wheat which falls to the ground must die before it can bear fruit, so must we. 

You have given us the Holy Spirit. He teaches us to pray. He gives us the gifts necessary to live holy lives pleasing to God. He empowers us and with His help, we can live lives that will set the world ablaze with the fire of God's love.

Jesus, meek and humble of heart, may each day of this holiest of weeks enable us to enter more fully into the mystery of suffering and embrace the crosses that we must bear gladly and with grace no matter how great the cost. 

Grant, Beloved, that I do not allow temptations to defeat me with discouragement as I carry the cross, rather, may I keep my gaze fixed on You as You hang between heaven and earth and find healing and strength through Your wounds.

I offered my back to those who struck me,
my cheeks to those who tore at my beard;
I did not cover my face
against insult and spittle.
The Lord comes to my help,
so that I am untouched by the insults.
So, too, I set my face like flint;
I know I shall not be shamed.

PSALM 68(69):8-10,21-22,31,33-34 ©

It is for you that I suffer taunts,

that shame covers my face,
that I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my own mother’s sons.
I burn with zeal for your house
and taunts against you fall on me.

Taunts have broken my heart;

I have reached the end of my strength.
I looked in vain for compassion,
for consolers; not one could I find.
For food they gave me poison;
in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

I will praise God’s name with a song;

I will glorify him with thanksgiving.
The poor when they see it will be glad
and God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord listens to the needy
and does not spurn his servants in their chains.

In your great love, O Lord, answer my prayers for your favour.

MATTHEW 26:14-25 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The Apostle and evangelist St. Matthew, writing this passage with the wisdom of hindsight says of the one who was numbered among the Twelve, 'the man called Judas Iscariot'. His disgust is palpable when narrating Judas' treacherous betrayal of their Master and Lord. Many saints and Scripture commentators have written much about why Judas did what he did yet it is hard to comprehend his actions.  Here was a man, chosen by God and privileged to be numbered as one of the Twelve. You knew he was wicked, a rogue, and a thief to boot, yet You chose him. Before we get too carried away in condemning him though, let us reflect on our own wayward, and often tepid discipleship.

It boggles the mind though that his love for money was so great that for the paltry sum of thirty pieces of silver he was prepared to betray a Man who was clearly so much more. He was a witness to the many miracles You performed. He heard You teaching and preaching. You spent time with him and the rest of the apostles, away from the crowds, while You formed them into disciples, teachers, and leaders and filled them with the power of the Holy Spirit to do the things that You had done. And yet it is clear that his heart was far from You. He remained untouched by grace. Sadly, Beloved, so it is with us.

Judas had the temerity to ask You point-blank whether it was he who would betray You when You revealed that one of them would betray You knowing all the while that it was he. And although he knew that You knew he still went out into the dark night that had entered his soul he betrayed You. 

My Lord and my God, preserve me from ever deliberately doing evil. I am weak and frail and in my weakness, I will fall over and over again but O Lord, do not let me be lost forever but stay with me and help me begin again no matter how many times, and how hard I fall. Thank You, Lord.

When evening came he was at table with the twelve disciples. And while they were eating he said ‘I tell you solemnly, one of you is about to betray me.’ They were greatly distressed and started asking him in turn, ‘Not I, Lord, surely?’ He answered, ‘Someone who has dipped his hand into the dish with me, will betray me. The Son of Man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will, but alas for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born!’ Judas, who was to betray him; asked in his turn, ‘Not I, Rabbi, surely?’ ‘They are your own words’ answered Jesus.