WEDNESDAY REFLECTION
Mid-week Reflection
31st March 2021
Today is Wednesday in Holy Week. Many years ago, I don’t know how many, an elderly man, a widower, asked me to call on him. He was troubled in spirit as he told me that his eldest son had been arrested and put in prison. This fellow, a grown man himself, had caused years and years of grief for his family and yet, here was this old man weeping for his son. In spite of all, he still loved him.
This week, we encounter Jesus, also troubled in spirit, as he reflects on Judas, who in spite of his betrayal, is still loved by Jesus. Reading the Chapter 13 in St John’s Gospel is like looking at a painting by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio with his dramatic use of lighting contrasting with darkness. Rembrandt,Vermeer and Goya employed chiaroscuro but none so famously as Caravaggio. We probably all remember Anne Widdicombe grabbing the public’s imagination and possibly destroying Michael Howard’s hopes of winning the Tory leadership when she said that,” there was something of the night about him.” Certainly, those words in St John’s Gospel,”Night had fallen” send a shiver down your back. There is something ominous about to happen. Jesus, the Light of the World, is shunned by Judas, his heart darkened and overtaken by Satan. Treachery at its worst. And Jesus still loved him. In one swift moment of dipping bread into the cup, gone were love and loyalty. The one given an honoured place at table and a favoured morsel, hurries, scurries away from the One who, time and time again, had shown signs of special affection. And Jesus still loved him.
St John tells us it was night. It is always night when we separate ourselves from Jesus. It is always night when we turn away from the good and the pure and the holy. It is always night when the things of darkness seem more attractive than the things of the day. And yet, Jesus still loved him…..and he still loves us.
Monsignor Monaghan
