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Readings: Isaiah 50: 4-9 -- Matthew 26:4-25 -- Psalm 69
Today we read again of God's Suffering Servant. He is well spoken to those who are weary. His
words bring life and resuscitation. He gives his back to be beaten, his face is not shielded from
blows and spit. He is steadfast and certain throughout persecution and will triumph over those
who persecute him.
And we read again of the betrayal of the Messiah for the price of 30 pieces of silver. A sellout to
greed. There are those who say every man, and every woman, has his or her "price". But even
without considering "ultimate temptations", how often do we sell our principles for the
equivalent of a fast-food lunch? We are silent before those who mock the poor, who heap new
burdens on them. When what is due to the poor by right (rights recognized by the Church both in
the explicit teaching of the magisterium, the explicit teaching of Holy Scripture, and accessible
by discernment through natural law) is taken from them by angry violence and given to the rich,
the powerful, the ruling political and economic elites, do we cry out to expose such injustice, or
do we give in to the conventional wisdom and say to ourselves, "Well, they really should get a
job.".
We willingly participate in the sins of the modern era and plead as an excuse, "Well, isn't
everybody doing thus and such? What Judas did was monstrously wrong, but before we rise up
against him, shouldn't we first ask ourselves how we have betrayed the Jesus who is among us
today?
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