Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

It’s Holy Thursday. Jesus is washing the feet of his disciples, in particular Peter. We can learn both from Jesus and from Peter.

Before Jesus begins his act of service, he interiorly recollects who he is. “Knowing the Father had given all things into his hands and knowing he had come from God and was going to God,” he rose… Jesus remembers his ultimate identity, his whence and whither, his coming and going to God. This is the contextual and permeating Mystery of his life. This God is a loving Father who has empowered him to serve others.

How often do we remember this ultimate truth of our lives? How often do we allow our identity as one who “comes from and God and goes to God and to whom all things have been given” to empower us to give and we have received?

Peter will not let Jesus wash his feet. He will not receive Jesus’ loving service. It has something to do with Peter’s image of Jesus as a Lord who receives the homage of others but does not serve them. It might also be Peter’s sees the implications: if Jesus serves and he follows Jesus, he will have to serve also. Whatever his inner motivations for refusing, the stubborn fact is he refuses. “You will never wash my feet.”

What keeps us from refusing God’s love? What keeps us from refusing the love of others whose care for us may reveal God’s deeper care? Take a look at the obstacles we set up. Remove them.

Bio: Jack Shea is the Program Director for the Ministry Leadership Center in Sacramento California. http://www.jackshea.org/

In John’s description of this Last Supper scene, Jesus goes straight to the feet. We’ve all seen feet that are pretty and perfect- the kind that are on sandal ads and in the windows of pedicure parlors. We’ve also seen feet with toes which are crooked, skin that is cracked and bruised, nails that that are dirty and fungal. Even my own feet, admittedly, have a couple of warts on them. In Jesus’ time, feet were almost always dusty and well trod. Yet, Jesus goes straight to the feet.

For me, our feet represent the place of greatest need in our lives. Feet are messy- you can never be quite sure what you’re getting into; what kinds of odors, sores, diseases, and total decay might come to the light. Feet represent the hidden brokenness we keep from everyone, even ourselves. Jesus goes there.

Feet also represent our journey. There is no where you have been that your feet haven’t touched. When you walk through a dirty subway, down a hospital corridor, or through the park by the lake, your feet touch these places. Even as you are careful to touch nothing with your hands, your feet make contact. Feet also have powerful memory receptors. The textures and pathways on our journey are strong memories, burning into our subconscious the places we’ve been, and impacting the roads we choose in the future. Our feet carry the story of our daily living- our most mundane and our most exotic experiences. Jesus goes there.

When I read this passage, I imagine myself at table with Christ, and my closest friends. Jesus gets up from his seat, removes his shirt (the barrier between his body and me), gets a towel and a bowel, and kneels down at my feet. Against my protests, he takes my feet in his hands, unties my shoes, removes my socks, and, gently cradling my feet, Jesus suddenly becomes intimate with my story. My life journey is there, in his lap. My greatest needs and fears are exposed; my cracked and broken feet are comforted by the soothing water and warm hands. Unexpectedly, my guard falls, and I realize that Christ is with me, in my place of deepest, greatest need. Holding me close, keeping me safe, comforting my sores, and preparing me to step out anew.

Then he turns to me, and in a soft voice with confident eyes he says, “What I have done for you, you must do for my people. Meet them in their place of greatest need- do not be afraid of what you will find. Be intimate with them; bring them comfort along their journey. Help them to know that I am there.”

Bio: Patrick earned his BA in Theology from Loyola University in 2005, and has over 7 years of professional and volunteer ministry experience, highlighted by time spent with Charis Ministries and Chicago’s Young Adult Ministry. Currently, Patrick and his wife Heather live in Oak Park where he works as a competitive swimming coach at the YMCA. Lent is one of Patrick’s favorite seasons in the Church because during this time Christ challenges us to simplify and re-center, and in doing so, to find restored hope and new life in the Resurrection at Easter.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” These words of Judas resonated with me as I read today’s Gospel. They seem so callous and casual. Judas is asking “what can you do for me?” knowing he has information the priests would bend over backwards to get. This scenario is a reminder of our original sin – illustrated through Judas’ human selfishness and greed. Judas not only betrays Jesus with this utterance, but his own fear of what is to come. Perhaps he doesn’t know that certain death awaits Jesus, but he surely knows that nothing good can come from his actions and is doing whatever is necessary to keep himself from harm (and in the process, line his pockets). I can only imagine the shame and guilt Judas must have felt, sitting down to the Passover supper with Jesus and the apostles, feeling the weight of the silver on his own conscience.

This kind of transaction is familiar to us even today. Whether from a prison snitch, a mobster turning his bosses over to the government, or a friend asking for a favor before telling you the latest juicy gossip, we all know the art of bargaining and the fact that knowledge is power. What we choose to do with that knowledge can either be for personal gain or collective benefit, and often it is difficult to choose the high road. Humanity faces dilemmas like this all of the time, and today it is perhaps illustrated no better than through the lens of the climate crisis. We, like Judas, have information that can change the world. We can choose to make personal sacrifices and stand our ground in the face of large corporations and governments that choose to ignore the devastation of our planet, or we can turn our lives over to the highest bidder and keep living without consequences.

Judas was unable to face the hardship ahead of him and so decided to do what was best for him in the present, and this choice serves as an important lesson. Acting in our own self-interest and refusing to face the future is the ultimate betrayal. No matter how hard it may be to use less energy, feed the poor sustainably, and care for the Earth responsibly, in choosing to do so we escape the guilt and shame that accompanies actions like those of Judas Iscariot. When we turn away from God and each other, we all suffer the consequences.

It is easy for us to judge Judas and his actions, but self-preservation is a far less challenging choice to make than one of honor and sacrifice. As we near the end of Holy Week and the start of the Triduum, it is important to reflect on this penchant for sin. It is because of and for our sinful natures that Jesus died on the cross. He bears that burden for us and we re-live it each year as a reminder that we are imperfect, but still loved by God. By choosing to act for each other and not for ourselves, we are opened to a life of grace and love with the Lord.

Bio: Logan Turner is a RCIA candidate and active parishioner with St. Clement Church in Lincoln Park. She is a graduate student at DePaul University in the School of Public Service and is discerning a call to lay ministry. She is happily married and a proud owner of the world’s best Boston Terrier, Carey.

In this passage from Matthew’s gospel we come face to face with Judas. We are face to face with betrayal and deceit. They are ugly. There is no way around it. “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” The words are so cold, absolutely unconscionable. It is incredibly easy to judge Judas, to shake our heads and “tsk tsk” each time we hear this passage. And yet, each year, in her wisdom, the Church gives us this gospel right in the middle of Holy Week to listen to and pray with one more time. No more excuses. No more pointing a finger at someone else. Today we come face to face with the betrayal and deceit each of us is capable of in our lives. This is a difficult passage to hear, like the disciples we are “deeply distressed”.

For the last five weeks we have been preparing ourselves by praying, fasting, choosing sacrifice for the sake of becoming more faithful as the Body of Christ in our world. In our present context of virtual farms, virtual travel, virtual shopping, virtual you name it! -it is all too easy to think of the suffering of the Body of Christ as virtual as well. But the suffering is real.

Today we stop to acknowledge the suffering of the Body of Christ and our complicity in that suffering. Rather than pointing at Judas and shaking our heads, let us look inside ourselves. Look, but do not despair, for we are at the table with Jesus and like Judas, we are welcome at the table just as we are.

Bio: A former teacher, campus minister, and vocation director, Sr. Elyse Marie Ramirez, a Dominican Sister of Springfield, IL, presently serves in the Archdiocese of Chicago Office for Religious as Coordinator of Religious Vocations Ministries. She records reflections on the daily gospel once a month at www.word.op.org

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

When I read this passage I can’t help but remember the character of Judas portrayed in Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel “The Last Temptation of Christ.” In this story (at least my memory of it), Judas is a passionate, if angry, disciple who is unsatisfied with the suffering servant Messiah he is following. Judas instead prefers a savior who possesses worldly strength and power, one who will release the Jews from oppression through might and force. What Judas wants, justice and freedom for his people, is not a bad thing. His sin is not trusting in God’s plan for freedom and salvation.

Whether because of impatience, frustration, a lack of understanding – whatever the reason – Judas makes his choice. He chooses to betray his Teacher. “So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.” I’m not sure there is another passage in the Bible that so succinctly and clearly illustrates the personal experience of sin, at least my experience. In that moment of choosing his own will over God’s, Judas cannot stand to be in Jesus’ presence – the folly of his choice is too exposed, too raw. To stay with Jesus would demand conversion, a surrender of self and self-will. In order to hold on to his own will Judas has no choice but to flee. So he runs away from Jesus, from God, and he is in darkness.

I relate to this sin more than I would like to admit. How often am I unwilling to surrender my will to God? Like Judas, the things I want for myself and the ones I love – justice, freedom, security, relief from suffering, joy – are not bad things. If I am honest though, in the final analysis these things are not up to me. To be sure, God calls me, calls all of us, to work everyday for the good (and what a gift this work is!), but as Mother Teresa said, “the results are up to God.” This is a difficult thing for me, to work tirelessly in community to help build the Kingdom, but to surrender completely to God’s plan and God’s results.

Sometimes, regrettably, I knowingly put my will ahead of God’s, and like Judas, I find myself in darkness. Probably more often, though, I find myself in darkness or seeking escape and realize it is because I have not surrendered some area of my life. Thankfully, I have but to admit my fault and turn back to God to experience freedom. Like Judas, it was I who left and went out into darkness – Jesus is always present, ready to receive me in loving mercy.

Bio: Michael is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago’s M.A. in Social Justice Program and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Brother David Darst Center, a retreat center in Bridgeport offering unique urban-immersion experiences to young people from around the country. He is also a leader with Public Action for Change Today (PACT), a retreat facilitator with the Ignatian Spirituality Project, and part of the leadership team for Dream Job Chicago. In his day job, Michael is a mortgage banker at Chicago Bancorp. He and his wife, Joyce, live in Rogers Park and attend St. Gertrude Parish where they serve as FOCCUS Facilitators with engaged couples. They are expecting their first child this summer.

Every Lent we walk into the desert with Jesus and we let go of attachments that are preventing us from entering into a fuller relationship with God. This year I entered into the profound understanding that Jesus, being like us in all things, really and truly could have chosen to live His life in other ways. He was lead by the Holy Spirit into the desert, perhaps to discern His calling after His baptism. We, like Jesus, can feel called to a life of ministry, or a particular vocation, but we can be scared or distracted by other easier paths. Like Jesus we need a period to discern life’s options and then chose the path that will best use our gifts. Like Jesus we can choose what will be for the glory of God and not our glory. While Jesus was in the desert, He was tempted with a worldly sense of “power and glory” (Lk 4:6). Yet, He chose to say no to those temptations and the path He chose was humble service and love.

In the Gospel we just read, Jesus’ mission reaches a critical juncture. He could have left Jerusalem and fled His impending death as Peter had once urged Him to do (Mk 8:31-36). But instead Jesus stayed firm with the vision of God’s mind, and He spends His last day in loving intimacy and service to His brethren, teaching them God’s way of love. Many of us read this passage, and it is easy to go straight to the betrayal and denial aspect of this Gospel passage. But if we read the first line we see that Jesus is engaged in an intimate meal of fellowship, and we hear that His heart was “deeply troubled.” Jesus is emotional. There is sorrow, anguish, and possible fear over what is about to be done. Yet He verbalizes His awareness of what is about to happen. The apostles are at a loss of who Jesus meant. If you were an apostle hearing this, would you have been convicted to know your own weaknesses and that it could be you, or would you have looked around suspiciously at everyone else? Since the apostles did not know who it was, this meant that Jesus treated all of them with love and respect, even the one He knew that would betray Him.

Many of us presume that Judas’ betrayal happens on the night of the Last Supper, but really his first act of disbelief and rejection occurred when Jesus said He was the Bread of Life. Judas was among the disciples that found Jesus’ Bread of Life discourse impossible to believe. “For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray him” (John 6:64). It is interesting that the bread, which was going to be the Eucharist, in this moment is being used to indicate His betrayal. Was Jesus still reaching out to Judas to give him another chance at repentance? Or did Judas’ heart reject Jesus which allowed Satan to enter in? If we notice, Jesus still did not call out Judas’ sin before the others, they were still left wondering. If Jesus did not call out Judas’ sin, nor did He condemn the adulterous woman, why do we?

Judas has left. Jesus now focuses on His crucifixion being at hand. It is here we see the emotions and passions of Peter wanting to follow Jesus and even to die for him. I found it interesting that Peter’s sin of denying Jesus was called out when Judas’ was not. It is almost as if Jesus is allowing for his future forgiveness to be known. Peter, who is named the Rock, does not live up to His name here, but in the future he will stand firm.

Finally, I have been struck by what it means to be glorified in God’s eyes. It was not at the Baptism when the voice said, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased,” in which Jesus was glorified. Nor was His glorification at the transfiguration. But it was through the cross and resurrection that Jesus would be glorified. It is in love that Jesus is glorified. The Church chose to remove the verses in this passage that speak of the New Commandment, to “love one another; as I have loved you.” (Jn 13: 34-35) Yet, they were of vital importance because when in the desert that is what Jesus chose. It was Jesus’ mission of love and forgiveness lead Jesus to the cross, and His final commandment was for us to do the same.

Bio: Theresa is convinced that our hearts are restless until they rest in the Lord. She has a BA in Theology from Loyola University, and is currently pursuing a MDiv and MA in Spiritual Direction.

Jesus clearly had reason to be troubled at the beginning of this passage. Wouldn’t we feel the same if we knew that one of our closest friends was about to betray us? The precise reason that Jesus feels so troubled by these actions is because he feels such tremendous LOVE for his friends, including his betrayer, Judas. When we care that deeply about someone and they turn against us, we, too, feel hurt and sad. This must be how God feels each and every time we sin against Him. He loves us so much, but yet we make decisions and do things that hurt Him in a profound way. After all, sin is a rejection of God’s great love for us.

His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant (v. 22). No one knew, or even suspected, that Judas was Jesus’ betrayer. He was one of their friends, and they could not imagine that anyone among them would do such a horrific thing. However, instead of vehemently denying that they could or would ever be part of such a betrayal, one of the disciples simply asks, “Lord, WHO IS IT?” This question really does serve as a reminder that we are ALL quite capable of the worst sin.

As odd as it may seem, the disappointing actions of Jesus’ friends (both Peter & Judas) in this reading, really do serve as encouragement for all of us. We are in so many ways just like Judas and Peter. Thankfully, our Lord is incredibly patient and forgiving. Even after experiencing such horrific betrayal from his most trusted friends, Jesus does not say to his Father, “Nope, not going to hang on that cross for THEM – look at how these people have acted and treated me!!” Instead, while dying on the cross, Jesus speaks of our forgiveness. I read this statement once: “We think so badly of Judas for betraying the Lord for 30 pieces of silver, but how many times do we betray him for nothing?” Ouch! Let us make every effort to call upon God’s strength and guidance so that such betrayal can never be true of us!

Bio: Sharon Hylek lives in Crown Point, Indiana. She is a member of St. Mary’s Parish in Crown Point and serves as one of the co-leaders for the Young Adult Group. She is a graduate of St. Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana, and currently works at a law firm in downtown Chicago.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

When I first read today’s Gospel, the anointing at Bethany, I thought, “Wow, that is an awkward moment between Judas and Jesus. Mary, the sister of Lazarus wants to annoint Jesus’s feet with the most expensive oil. Judas pipes in exclaiming that the money used for the oil should be given to the poor. Jesus says, “actually, no, she was right to buy the best for my feast.”

I have to side with Judas for a moment, not because I am stealing from the church, but I have had similar thoughts. Why do we spend money to build the most elaborate temples while our neighbors go hungry?

But as I as I step back from that thought, I realize that Jesus is right to expect the best of us. Not in money and material things but in our behavior; the way we present ourselves before Him. We are blessed because Jesus is present to us every time we celebrate mass. When we are present before Christ, why don’t we wear our “Sunday best” and practice our most reverent behavior, turn off our cell phones and stay until the priest exits the church? It is easy to become lazy in our weekly worship, to forget what is really going on in our presence, I mean its the same thing every week, right? I pray that during Lent we can all find a renewed spirit in the Eucharist and like Mary, figure out how to give God our best!

Bio: Jenny lives and works in Oak Park. She currently works as a case manager for adults with developmental disabilities. When she is not working, she is busy as a parishioner at St. Edmunds Parish in Oak Park. She is an active member the young adult group, SEYA, and helps to plan many events including Theology on Tap.

She knew what was coming. She had listened to him long and closely enough to understand. He would not back down from what he knew to be true. He’d brought Lazarus back from the dead, but he wouldn’t save himself. He was on the path to martyrdom.

She could feel his sadness, despite his ease at dinner. He was centered and calm but the word on the street was that he was a marked man. How could someone who only spoke of peace, be considered a threat? Why couldn’t he lay low for a while and stop performing signs and calling attention to himself? But then, if he did, who would he be? She had never met anyone like him, anyone who lived in such complete integrity. He would speak his truth in the service of God…..his “Abba”.

She struggled, not knowing how to let him know that she shared his pain. No one else seemed to feel it, or they were denying the Teacher’s precarious position. What could she do? She might not see him again before it had all come to pass. Then it came to her…..

Mary took the precious oil used to anoint the dead for burial. She knelt and anointed Jesus’ feet, drying them with her hair. With every drop of oil, another of her sins came to mind. She had betrayed him every time she ignored his teaching, his beautiful teaching of love and forgiveness; every time she sought revenge. She had betrayed him every time she was silent in the face of evil; every time she passed by someone in need and did not even give them the dignity of a glance. How many times had he talked to her of seeing his face in the least of their brethren?

She felt his hand on her head and raised her eyes to Christ’s where she saw compassion, and forgiveness, and thanks. Healing washed over her, and when he said “…you do not always have me”, she nearly wept. All she could think was “He is doing this for us….for me.” And his love would not end with his death. Somehow she was certain of that. It would be there for all those who followed him. Did God need his sacrifice? No…in his eyes she saw the answer….man needed it.

Bio: Pam Coster is the Executive Director of Charis Ministries, a Jesuit ministry to those in their 20s and 30s. She has been in ministry for fifteen years and also served as a parish Director of Faith Formation and consultant in the area of adult formation. Pam is on the boards of Catholics on Call, a young adult vocation program; Loyola Press and Lawrence Hall Youth Services.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.