WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK - updated with music

Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, "Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me." The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. One of his disciples--the one whom Jesus loved--was reclining next to him; Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "Do quickly what you are going to do." Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, "Buy what we need for the festival"; or, that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night. When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:21-35)

"And it was night." We enter now the darkest part of the Fourth Gospel. And yet, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him."

The Evangelist sees the glorification of Jesus in his being lifted up on the Cross. That is where God's glory, and the glory of the eternal Word, is truly found--in the condemned and executed man who commands us to love.

This so overthrows not just the tables of moneychangers but all our perceptions and preconceptions. It upends our world and our hearts. Everything seems to conspire to tell us it cannot be so.

But the One who vindicates is near, even in this: this darkest night, this utter folly, this complete "failure."

"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

We have so very far to go to keep this one thing he asks of us.

Κυριε, ελεησον
Χριστε, ελεησον
Κυριε, ελεησον

Popule meus by Giovanni Palestrina - the Reproaches


Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
--the BB