Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today on this Tuesday of Holy Week all of us are reminded ever more of God’s salvation which has been fulfilled through Christ, the Son of God Incarnate, Who has embraced our Human existence and nature, becoming one of us and one like us in all things but sin, becoming the means for our salvation and liberation from the tyranny of sin. Through everything that He has done during the time when He endured His Passion, all the obstacles that He has to bear through and overcome amidst His efforts in bringing us all, His lost children and scattered lost sheep from the darkness all over this world. We are reminded that the Lord has done all these because He loves us all generously and genuinely, showing us truly great love that surpasses all things, and is greater even than our sins and wickedness.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah regarding the words of the Lord for His people reassuring them all of His salvation that He would send unto them through His Saviour, the One that He would send into their midst to gather those who have been scattered around this world, made to wander around in suffering because of our sins. And this Holy One of God would be marked from before He was even born, given the Name above all the other names, and by the will of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, He was given the most important task to bring the Light of God, God’s Good News and love, God’s mercy and compassion to all of His people in this world, to all of us sinners who are still separated from the light of God’s salvation and from His grace.

In that prophecy of the prophet Isaiah that we heard today, we heard the prophet speaking as if he was the Saviour that God had sent, speaking in the first person, proclaiming everything that God would do through this same Saviour, the Word of God Incarnate. And through this manifestation of God’s love, His generous mercy and compassion which He has lovingly poured out upon us, and which He has constantly given to us despite our many sins and disobedience, God wants us all to be healed and to be reunited with Him. And the only way that this can be done is through His Son’s coming into this world and what He had done in redeeming us all from the clutches of sin and death. God has made His only Begotten Son to be our Eternal and one True High Priest to redeem us all from destruction and death, to be the Paschal Lamb of Sacrifice, the perfect offering and the only One that is worthy to redeem us all.

Then, from our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist we heard of the moment during the Last Supper between the Lord and His disciples, the Passover meal that He had planned to have with all of them, where He revealed how one among them, namely Judas Iscariot would betray Him to the chief priests and hand Him over to them to be condemned to death and crucified by the Romans. This was part of what the Lord had predicted through the various prophecies and messages that He had given to His disciples throughout time and history. But God also gave us all the freedom of will and the freedom to choose our path in life, whether we want to embrace His righteousness and virtues or whether we want to follow the path of sin and darkness.

Judas Iscariot chose to listen to the temptations of the evil one, who have often tempted him on many things, such as what we have heard in our Gospel passage yesterday, on how he had often stolen from the common funds of the Lord and His disciples to enrich himself, giving in to selfishness and wicked desires. Judas Iscariot also likely clashed with the Lord on other matters that might not have been highlighted or shown in the Gospels or elsewhere, but regardless of the details or specifics, what matters is that Judas chose the easier path of embracing the temptations of desire and greed, the desire for money and wealth and the acceptance of the world over the Lord’s often rather controversial teachings and ways, including how Judas himself was chastised after he criticised Mary for anointing the Lord’s feet with expensive perfume.

Judas clearly had the freedom to choose his path in life, just as Mary, the Mother of Our Lord and God had been given the same freedom to choose. While Mary indeed had the advantage of being free from the taint of original sin due to her Immaculate Conception, she was no doubt also tempted by the various sins and evils of the world around her. Yet, she trusted in the Lord completely over those temptations, fears and uncertainties. That was why she was greeted with the words, ‘Hail Mary, full of grace’ by the Archangel Gabriel. Mary chose to obey the Lord and to trust in Him, while Judas chose to give in to the temptations, to his fears and desires, and that was how he fell into sin, in betraying his Lord and Master for a mere value of thirty pieces of silver, the price for a slave, the price that is to pay for our salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what we are all reminded today through these readings from the Sacred Scriptures are the revelation of God’s ever enduring love for us and also all the opportunities that God had given to us, in sending unto us His Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord, to be our Lord and Saviour, to be the One to heal us all from our faults and iniquities, and to lead us all one by one, all to the Throne of the Mercy of God. And we have also been reminded of the free will and the freedom that God has given to each and every one of us in choosing our path in life. Let us make the conscious effort and choice in our respective lives, directing ourselves towards the Lord because it is in Him alone that we shall find true satisfaction and happiness, and not in all the distractions and temptations that are around us in this world.

May the Lord our God, our Crucified Saviour and King continue to lead and guide us all to Himself, and continue to strengthen us in our faith and commitment to Him, so that in everything that we say and do, in our observance of this sacred period of the Holy Week, this holiest week of all weeks in the year, we will continue to grow ever more committed to God and that we will become more aware of the great love that God has shown us through His Son, Our Saviour and King, and also of our own sinfulness and unworthiness before God. Let us all make the concrete effort and strive to commit ourselves, our time and our whole being to embrace this Holy Week period with dedication and true desire to be reconciled and reunited with our loving God and Father. Amen.