One of the great burdens I carry in my heart are the many times I have betrayed people – sometimes even for something less than thirty pieces of silver. I have betrayed people I love and those closest to me. I have betrayed people I consider as dear friends. I have betrayed people I have pledged to serve. I have reneged on my sworn commitments to others. I have failed in my responsibilities to them. I have turned my back on them when the going got tough or when I was too engrossed in my self-gratification.
I have betrayed my own true self many a times too. I have turned my back on my values and my principles for the expediency of the moment. I have taken light the word I have spoken to avoid having to tough it out. I have sat down where I had pledged to keep standing. And I stood up in pride when I should have bowed down in shame, begging for forgiveness.
The Holy Week reminds me of all my weaknesses and frailties. It brings me face to face with my sinfulness and all the dark consequences of my sins. There is pain and suffering in my life because of all the betrayals I have been guilty of. I put my trust in God’s great love and mercy to rescue me from myself, from my weaknesses, from my sins as I spend the next few days in remembrance of His passion, death and resurrection.
Lord, in your great love, answer me.
One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests and said,
“What are you willing to give me
if I hand him over to you?”
They paid him thirty pieces of silver,
and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
Matthew 26:14-25