The minuteness of John's description is striking. It lists seven distinct actions: rising, laying His garments aside, taking a towel, putting it about Himself, pouring water, washing the feet and wiping the feet with a towel. One can imagine an earthly king, just before he returns from a distant province, rendering a humble service to one of his subjects; but one would not say that he was doing it because he was about to return to his capital. Yet Our Blessed Lord  is described as washing the disciples' feet because He is to go back to the Father. He had taught humility by precept: "he that humbles himself shall be exalted" - Luke 14:11 - by parable as in the story of the Pharisee and the publican; by example, as when He took a child in His arms; and now by condescension.

The scene was like a reenactment of His Incarnation. Rising up from the Heavenly Banquet in intimate union of nature with the Father, He laid aside the garments of His glory; wrapped about His divinity the towel of human nature, which He took from Mary; poured the laver of regeneration, which is His Blood shed on the Cross to redeem men; and began washing the souls of His disciples and followers through the merits of His death, Resurrection and Ascension. Saint Paul expressed it beautifully.

His Nature's is, from the first, Divine, and yet He did not see, in the rank of Godhead, a prize to be coveted; He dispossessed Himself, and took the nature of a slave, fashioned in the likeness of men, and presenting Himself to us in human forms; and then He lowered His own dignity, accepted an obedience which brought Him to death, death on a cross. - Phil. 2:6-8 -

Once Peter's protests are stilled, the other disciples are motionless, lost in mute astonishment. When humility comes from the God-man, as it does here, it is obvious that it will be through humility that men will go back to God. Each one would have withdrawn his feet out of the basin were it not for love, which pervaded their hearts.

But Our Lord Jesus was still not willing to abandon Judas. Once more He tried to arouse him to realization of what he planned.

And you are clean now; only, not all of you. - John 13:10 -

It was one thing to be selected as an Apostle; it was another to be elected to salvation through observance of the corresponding obligations. But the Apostles would understand that heresy or schisms or treachery in their ranks was not unexpected, Jesus cited Psalm 40 to show that it had been anticipated by the prophets.

The man who shared My Bread has lifted his heel to trip Me up. I am telling you this now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe it was written of Me. - John 13:18-19 -

The reference was to David's sufferings at the hands of Ahithophel, a disloyalty now identified as a prefigurement of what David's royal Son would suffer. The lowliest part of the body, the heel, was described in both instances as inflicting the wound. In Genesis 3:14, God told the serpent that the woman would crush him while he lay in ambush at her heels. It now seemed that the devil would have a momentary revenge by using the heel to inflict a wound on the seed of the woman - the Lord. On another occasion, Our Lord Jesus said:

A man's enemies will be the people of his own house. - Matt. 10:36 -

Only one who has suffered such betrayal from within the household can even faintly grasp the sadness of the Savior's soul that night. All the good example, counsel, companionship and inspiration are fruitless with those who will to do evil. One of the strongest expressions of sorrow expressed by Jesus now fell from His lips to describe His love of Judas and to lament the renegade Apostle's free decision to sin.

Jesus bore witness to the distress He felt in His Heart; Believe Me, He said, believe Me, one of you is to betray Me. - John 13:21 -

There were twelve questions in all. Ten of the apostles asked, "Is it I, Lord?"

They were all full of sorrow, and began to say, one after another, Lord, is it I?" - Matt. 26:22 -

One, however, asked: "Lord, who is it? - John 13:26 -

This was John himself. The twelfth had little choice but to continue his pretense.

Then, Judas, he who was betraying Him, said openly, Master, is it I? - Matt. 26:25 -

Notice that eleven called Him Lord - but Judas called Him Master. It is a perfect illustration of Saint Paul's insistence that "it is only through the Holy Spirit that anyone can say, Jesus is the Lord." - 1Cor. 12:3 - Because the spirit that filled Judas was satanic, he called Him Master; the others called Him Lord, in full confession of His divinity.

Throughout the first part of the Passover meal, both Our Lord and Judas had been dipping their hands in the same dish of wine and fruit. The very fact that Our Lord Jesus chose bread as a symbol of the betrayal might have reminded Judas of the Bread promised at Capernaum. Humanly speaking, it would seem that Our Lord should have thundered out His denunciation of Judas, but, rather, in a last attempt to save him, He used the bread of fellowship.

He answered, The man who has put his hand into the dish with Me will betray Me. The Son of Man goes on His way, as the scripture foretells of Him; But woe upon that man by whom the Son of Man is to be betrayed; better for that man if he had never been born. - Matt. 26:23-25 -

In the presence of divinity, who can be sure of his innocence? It was reasonable for every disciple to ask if it was he. man is a mystery even to himself. He knows that within his heart there lie, coiled and dormant, serpents that at any moment can sting a neighbor, or even God, with their poison. None of the Apostles could be sure that he was not the traitor, even if none was conscious of a temptation to betray Him. Judas alone knew where he stood. Even though Our Lord Jesus revealed His knowledge of the treason, Judas remained fixed in his determination to do the evil. The revelation that the crime was uncovered and the evil stripped naked did not shame him into withdrawal.

Some recoil in horror when their sins are put bluntly before them. But though Judas saw his treachery described in all its deformity, he in effect declared in the language of Nietzsche, "Evil, be thou my good." Our Lord gave a sign to Judas. In answer to the question of the Apostles ("Is it I?"), He declared:

It is the man to whom I give this piece of bread which i am dipping in the dish. Then He dipped the bread, and gave it to Judas the Son of Simon, the Iscariot. - John 13:26-27 -

That Judas committed his sin freely is evidenced by his subsequent remorse. So too was Christ free to make His betrayal the condition of His Cross. Evil men seem to run counter to the economy of God, to be an errant thread in the tapestry of life, but they all fit into the divine plan. If the wild wind roars from the black heavens, there is somewhere a sail to catch it and yoke it to the useful service of man.

When Our Lord Jesus said, "It is the man to whom I give this piece of bread which I am dipping in the dish" He was actually offering a gesture of friendship. The giving of the morsel seems to have been traditional among both Greeks and Semites. Socrates said that it was always a mark of favor to give a morsel to a table neighbor. Our Lord held open to Judas the opportunity to repent, as He later did once again in the Garden of Gethsemane. But though Our Lord held the door open, Judas would not enter. Rather, Satan would enter in.

The morsel once given, Satan entered into him; and Jesus said to him, Be quick on thy errand. - John 13:27 -

Satan possesses only willing victims. The marks of mercy and friendship extended by the Victim should have moved Judas to repentance. The bread must have burned his lips, as the thirty pieces of silver would later burn his hands. Only some minutes previously the hands of the Son of God had washed the feet of Judas; now the same divine hands touch the lips of Judas with a morsel; in a few hours, the lips of Judas will kiss those of Our Lord in the final act of betrayal. The Divine Mediator, knowing all that would befall Him, directed Judas to open wider the curtain on the tragedy of Calvary. What Judas was to do, let him do quickly. The Lamb of God was ready for sacrifice.

The Divine Mercy did not identify the traitor, for Our Lord hid from the others the identity of the betrayer. the practice of the world, which loves to spread scandals, even those which are untrue, is here reversed in the hiding of what is true. When they saw Judas leave, the others assumed that he went on a mission of charity.

None of those who sat there could understand the drift of what He said; some of them thought, since Judas kept the common purse, that Jesus was saying to him, Go and buy what we need for the feast, or bidding him give some alms to the poor. - John 13:28 -

But Judas has gone out to sell, not to buy. He would minister not to the poor, but to the rich in charge of the temple treasury. Though Our Blessed Lord knew the evil intention of Judas, He still continued to behave kindly. He would bear the ignominy alone. In many instances, Jesus acted as though the effects of the deeds of others were unknown to Him. he knew that He would raise Lazarus from the dead, even when He wept. He knew who believed Him not and who would betray Him, yet this did not harden His Sacred Heart. Judas rejected the last appeal, and thus despair remained in His heart.

Judas went out, "and it was night" - John 13:30 - an appropriate setting for a deed of darkness. It perhaps was a relief to be away from the Light of the World. Nature is in sympathy at times in discord, with our joys and sorrows. the sky is gloomy with clouds when there is melancholy within. Nature was suiting itself to the evil deeds of Judas. When he went out, he found not the fact of God's smiling sun, but the Stygian blackness of night. It would also be right at midday when the Lord was crucified.

Judas is intelligible only in terms of the Body and Blood of Christ. Clawing at money was the effect, not the cause, of a ruined priesthood.

Bishops, Priests, Clergy can learn much by reflecting on Judas Iscariot and the priesthood.

1. - Those who have been called in the sacred associations of the priesthood know best how to betray Our Lord Jesus Christ. Judas knew where to find Our Lord after dark.

Here there was a garden, into which He and His disciples went. Judas, His betrayer, knew the place well; Jesus and His disciples had often forgathered in it. - John 18:1-2 -

2.- Divinity is so holy that all betrayal must be prefaced by some mark of esteem or affection.

It is none other, he told them, than the Man whom I shall greet with a kiss. - Matt. 26:48 -

3. - No bishop or priest knows the ultimate depth of spiritual sorrow and grief until he has felt the hot, blistering kiss of a brother in Christ who is a traitor.

4. - A priest can always sell Our Lord Jesus, but no priest can buy Him.

Whereupon they laid down thirty pieces of silver. - Matt. 26:15 -

5. - Any pleasure, profit or gain that once receives through rejecting the Eucharistic Lord proves so disgusting that the beneficiary is impelled, like Judas, to throw it back in the face of those who gave it.

And now Judas, His betrayer, was full of remorse at seeing Him condemned, so that he brought back to the chief priests and elders their thirty pieces of silver; I have sinned, he told them, in betraying the Blood of an Innocent Man. - Matt. 27:3-4 -

Could not the money have been given to the poor? Judas never thought of that then.

6. - Many psychoses and neuroses are due to an unrequited sense of guilt. The Lord would have pardoned Judas as He pardoned Peter, but Judas never asked for pardon.

When a man hates himself for what he has done and is without repentance to God, he will sometimes pound his breast as if to blot out a sin. There is a world of difference between pounding a breast in self-disgust and pounding it with the mea culpa of one asking for pardon. Self-hatred can become so intense as to pound the life out of a man. leading him to suicide. Though death is a penalty of original sin and naturally feared by any normal person, some rush into its arms.

The conscience of Judas warned before the sin. After the sin it gnawed, and the rending was such that he could not bear it. Down the valley of Kidron he went, that valley of so many ghostly associations. Jagged rocks and gnarled and stunted trees he chose as the proper place to empty himself of self. Everything around proclaimed his destiny and his end. Nothing was more revolting to his eyes than the gilded roof of the temple, for it reminded him of the Temple of God he had just sold. Every tree seemed the gibbet to which he had sentenced innocent Blood. Every branch was an accusing finger. The very hill on which he stood overlooked Calvary, whereon the One he had sentenced to death would unite heaven and earth, a union he would now exert his final efforts to prevent. Throwing a rope over a limb of a tree, he hanged himself. - Matt. 27:5 -

The lesson is clear. We are Eucharistic priests. Watch a priest say Mass and you can tell how he treats souls in a confessional, how he ministers to the sick and poor, whether or not he is interested in making converts, whether he is more concerned about pleasing the "Bishop" than "the Lord God" how effective he is in instilling patience and resignation in those who suffer, whether he loves the rich, or the rich and the poor, and whether he gives only money-sermons or Christ words. The moral rot of the priesthood starts with a want of lively faith in the Divine Presence, and the sanctity of the priesthood starts there too.

BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN  ( 1895 to 1979 )

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -