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“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