Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 5, 2023
One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests and said,
“What are you willing to give me
if I hand him over to you?”
They paid him thirty pieces of silver,
and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the disciples approached Jesus and said,
“Where do you want us to prepare
for you to eat the Passover?”
He said,
“Go into the city to a certain man and tell him,
‘The teacher says, “My appointed time draws near;
in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.””‘
The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered,
and prepared the Passover.
When it was evening,
he reclined at table with the Twelve.
And while they were eating, he said,
“Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
Deeply distressed at this,
they began to say to him one after another,
“Surely it is not I, Lord?”
He said in reply,
“He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me
is the one who will betray me.
The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”
Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply,
“Surely it is not I, Rabbi?”
He answered, “You have said so.”
Spiritual maturity results from developing a deep and abiding confidence that we are beloved children of God. This identity cannot be earned by trying to prove our love for God, but rather this identity builds up through a relationship of prayer and the experience of God’s unconditional love for us. Only when one is confident in this identity can one have the spiritual maturity to live their life as a gift for others.
What we find juxtaposed in today’s gospel is the spiritual immaturity of Judas with the spiritual maturity of Christ. While Judas seeks to take care of his own needs by asking, “What are you willing to give me?” Christ speaks of his readiness to lay down his life for others.
As a seminarian trying to live a life centered on Christ’s crucifixion, I still find so many ways in which I am spiritually immature—moments when my first instinct is to take rather than to give; to be self-reliant rather than trusting in God. In these moments, I must remind myself of the power of the resurrection. If Christ rose from the dead, he too can raise up my fickle heart to a deeper trust in him.
As we enter into Holy Week, may we ask for the grace of a deeper trust in our identity as beloved children. From this place of confidence, we can join Christ on the cross and live our lives as a gift for others.
Prayer
Father in heaven, while Judas looked for an opportunity to betray him, your Son anticipated his betrayal with steadfast faithfulness to your will. With the days when we commemorate his life-giving death and resurrection nearly upon us, help us to enter into the Triduum with prayerful attentiveness to these stories of our salvation. May our participation in these upcoming liturgies help us to mirror his faithfulness, who lives and reigns with you and the Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Vincent Ferrer was the most famous missionary of the 14th century.
He was born in 1350 to an English noble family living in Spain. When he was a child, his parents received an omen that Vincent would become a great holy man, and they taught him prayer and fasting and care for the poor. He joined the Dominican order and became a brilliant student. He progressed quickly through his education and took on a chair in philosophy in the best university of the region at the age of 21. He became known as a great preacher and teacher.
Vincent lived during a great schism in the Church, when rival popes were reigning from Rome and Avignon. He was called upon to serve as confessor and advisor to one of the rival popes, and his pleas for unity were ignored. His role was a great strain on him and he became sick. During his illness, he received a vision from Sts. Francis and Dominic, who told him that he was to go about preaching penance as they had done. His health was restored and he got permission to leave the papal court.
Thousands would gather to hear him preach as he traveled from town to town, and some even started to follow him around. Eventually, those who remained close to him were organized into a religious community; some of the group would stay behind in a place he visited to help people establish greater devotion and faithfulness in their lives.
Conversions and miracles were reported when people heard him preach. He spoke mainly on the realities of sin, death, hell, and eternity, and he preached with such vigor that many sobbed and some fainted. Though he only spoke in Spanish, he could be understood by those who spoke French, Italian, and German, as well as many who spoke other languages.
The disunity in the Church continued to trouble him, and his advice helped finally to bring about a resolution. He died on this date in 1419, during Holy Week, and his relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Vincent Ferrer, great missionary and miracle-worker—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Vincent Ferrer is in the public domain. Last accessed February 17, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
