Meditations for Holy Week: Wednesday 5 April
| Wed Apr 5 |
am: 55 pm: 74 |
Jer 17:5-10, 14-17 | Phil 4:1-13 | John 12:27-36 |
WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK Also Known as SPY WEDNESDAY
LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: On Wednesday of Holy Week, the tempo takes an uptick or increases. This is the day widely known as “Spy Wednesday”. For it is the day when Judas Iscariot, a disciple turned betrayer agreed to show the chief priests where they could easily capture Jesus. Every day of Holy Week is marked with special events of Jesus’ life, and Holy Wednesday is no different. After Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, his cursing of the fig tree on Holy Monday, and his Olivet Discourse on Holy Tuesday comes the Holy Wednesday. The name “Spy Wednesday” is said to be of Irish origin, although the Bible never refers to Judas as a spy. His surname, Iscariot, is believed by some to be a corruption of the Latin sicarius, meaning “murderer” or “assassin.”
MEDITATION OF THE DAY: We are reminded today that the Servant of Servants was given over to risk of attack and death. Violence from strangers is bad, but when it comes from your closest friends and associates, the situation gets worse. We are reminded that Jesus and his disciples, even though they were poor, regularly gave alms to the poor. It is the one who handles the treasury that raises his hand against Jesus in betrayal.
This tragic evil remains with us today and the Messiah is ever at risk. Jesus is betrayed, virtually every time that Congress is in session. Jesus is betrayed, as poor people prey on other poor people, committing violence, destroying community, and corrupting young people. Jesus is betrayed, as rich people prey on the poor, destroying their neighborhoods to build pleasure palaces and high rent shopping and apartment districts. Jesus is betrayed, as special interest groups demonize the poor, slander them and bear false witness against them.
PRAYER OF THE DAY: Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Holy Week Discipline – In the Czech Republic, the day is traditionally called Ugly Wednesday, Soot-Sweeping Wednesday or Black Wednesday, because chimneys used to be swept on this day, to be clean for Easter. What is dark around your household that a good cleaning would brighten and then reflect on the dark aspects of your life.
ANCIENT WORDS/PRESENT GRACE: “Although there is no lack of unworthy and traitorous Christians in the Church, it is up to us to counterbalance the evil they do with our limpid testimony of Jesus Christ our lord and savior”. – Benedict the XVI of Rome
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