BETRAYAL OF JESUS: HOW DID I CONTRIBUTE?

HOMILY ON THE PASSION OF OUR LORD, PALM SUNDAY, YEAR A

BETRAYAL OF JESUS: HOW DID I CONTRIBUTE?

Mathew 26: 14 - 27: 66

Dear friends, welcome to Holy Week. This is the most important week in our lives as Christians. Today’s liturgy begins with a joyful celebration of the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem and later a sudden change of mood during the passion narrative. The passion narrative of Christ is not an interesting story, it is all about betrayal, torture and death. Am I guilty? 

The passion begins with a movement from a disciple; a close friend and a companion, Judas Iscariot, to the chief priests and elders to demand, “What would you give me if I had him over to you?” What will you give me, is a request to exchange a friend for money or wealth. This is the problem of the world today. Many have allowed the quest for money and material possession to take control of them. It is about taking unnecessary advantage of others, especially the helpless. It is about using our positions to extort and exploit  others, like our employees, those under our care, the poor, the needy. Most times, this is carried out by those we trust, those who eat with us from the same table and from the same dish, those we thought would never do us any harm even after swearing and promising, “Surely, not I.” The betrayal of one is the betrayal of Jesus for “whatsoever you do to others, you do unto Him (Mt 25:40).

What is more saddening is that we have all journeyed into the Mount of Olives with Jesus like the disciples when we accepted baptism, Holy Eucharist and Confirmation and have like Peter promised that even if everyone will leave You, I will not leave You, Lord. Has it been long before we started denying  we do not know Him? Has it been long before we stopped going to Church because we are too busy with our personal concerns? Are we proud enough to insist that we are His disciples and insist on the truth, even in the face of persecution and even if such belief will lead to our death? Do we not deny Jesus when we celebrate and receive the Holy Communion in an unworthy state? 

Jesus is inviting us today to come and keep watch with Him even if for an hour. This invitation is a reawakening of our consciousness to what we have forgotten, to come back to Jesus, to offer him a little of our time otherwise, we fall into temptation. Are we to sleep away in our slumber, enjoying worldly pleasures and killing the spirit of God while Jesus is awake and inviting us to come and experience the fruit of the blessed resurrection? 

Dear friends, even if we have sinned, the cock is crowing to remind us that the time is now. Let Peter let us cry to the Lord and ask him for mercy for He will surely turn and look at us with pity. Let us not join the crowd to jeer at Jesus and make mockery of him by turning away from him after a joyful singing of Hossana at our baptism and now asking that He will be crucified by our negative actions. Let our actions of neglect not make us spit on His face and condemn Him to die. Let us not be among those who clamour for less doctrine and more liberty otherwise we join those who preferred the release of Barabbas to the release of Jesus. 

Let us turn to the Lord now for now is the appointed time, now is the time of mercy, now is the time of grace. Let us accompany Him through His passion by a change of heart  and wait at the foot of the cross and cry out with the man crucified on his right, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Only then will He remember us in his paradise.

Homily by

Rev Fr Chukwuemeka Vincent Livinus, SMMM.*