17 April 2025

17 April 2025 - Holy Thursday

Transcript

Reading:  

John 13:8

Write:  

Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”

Reflect:   

I am focusing a little different tonight. I want to take a look at – not the readings for tonight, but the whole of these next few days. Of course, Jesus is the central figure of these days. But there are those who are on the periphery that I think we need to pay attention to as well. The list of support characters is rather long. I want to focus tonight on three: Judas, Peter, and John.

We hear specifically in the Gospels of Peter’s tears. It is easy to imagine Judas’s tears and John’s. Yet the tears of all three are quite different. Judas would have shed tears of despair that were also tears of betrayal, because they are tears without the hope of forgiveness. Peter’s tears were tears of betrayal, but more so of repentance and contrition and they were tears shed on Good Friday itself, with the hope of forgiveness. John’s tears would, probably, have been of confusion, disbelief, hesitation – but with hope – just hope, for there seems to be no betrayal in his life. Let’s look at all three of these a little deeper.

Apply:   

We know clearly what the betrayal of Judas was. And we may think we are exempt from that somehow. But the betrayal of Judas was about his disagreement with what Jesus had planned. Judas tried to force the hand of Jesus to accept a vision of Messiah that Jesus did not have. How many times do we try to… force the hand of God by assuming we understand what he wants. People who try to remake the church in their own image are betraying Jesus in a similar way. Those who try to teach the faith, if they are not faithful, are making another betrayal. Those who focus on such things as “climate change as the most existential problem in our world today” are betraying Jesus and his call to holiness. Judas betrayed a lack of supernatural faith. His betrayal betrayed in him a desire for this world only. According to Judas, Jesus was supposed to be a Savior – but from the Romans, not from sin. The Judases of today say the faith should be about saving the planet, or fighting racism, or any other cause of the day, but not about saving souls.

So let’s turn to Peter’s problems. He was… impetuous. That is what led him to the scene we had in today’s gospel: “You will never wash my feet.” But a few short hours later, as he sat around coal fire, he denied Jesus. How many of us today have sat in silence when the faith is attacked, or when the church is abused, or when we fail to live the fullness of the Faith through sin and weakness. Peter was weak. But the difference between tears of despair – as in Judas – and tears of repentance – as in Peter – make all the difference in this world, and the next. Both Judas and Peter suffered from forms of cowardice. But the difference between the two men, as I said earlier, is in the hope for forgiveness. Despair or forgiveness, death or life, embracing the world or embracing heaven.

Judas did not take to heart Jesus’ promise of resurrection. He saw Jesus’ death as something final and terrible. Peter saw it as terrible, but not final. We can speculate what would have happened had Judas notkilled himself. Would Jesus have accepted him back? We will never know, because Judas, in his despair, sealed his fate. But Peter, because he had been paying attention to Jesus’ preaching, understood the power of forgiveness and with hope embraced it through his tears. Legend says that he cried tears of repentance for the rest of his life and that there were tear tracks down his cheeks that were visible for anyone to see. Despair or forgiveness, death or life.

But, what about John? He did not betray Jesus; he did not deny him. I am sure that he cried many tears standing beneath the cross. How could the beloved disciple not be in anguish? But he, above all other apostles, had a supernatural hope and faith that neither Peter nor Judas had. When John recovered, he spoke clearly about what he had seen and heard in Jesus – he spoke the gospel of redemption.

This weekend we will renew our baptismal promises and there will be people joining the church. It is because of this supernatural hope and faith that the church is renewed by people choosing to follow Jesus. We should shed tears of sorrow – even anguish as we contemplate the sufferings of Jesus. But we need to also be filled with hope. Hope for our own forgiveness. Hope for the triumph of the cross. Hope that Jesus will fulfill all his promises – especially his protection of his bride, the church.

Let Judas be a warning to us; and may both Peter and John inspire and help us on the road ahead. We need forgiveness. We need hope. We need redemption. And now more than ever we need to be faithful to the call to holiness that both Peter and John embraced and Judas rejected.

Lent has ended. We are now in the Sacred Triduum where we are called to witness all that Jesus, Mary, and the apostles endured and passed on to us. I pray your Lent was successful, and I pray that your Good Friday will lead to a glorious Easter. By the way, did you ever think how strange it is that we call the day Jesus died… Good?

Pray/Praise:   

Lord fill us today with hope. Hope that leads us past our sinfulness. Hope that leads us through the cross. Hope that leads us to Easter joy. Amen.

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