Father Rick’s Two-Minute Homily for Wednesday of Holy Week

April 1, 2026, Matthew 26:14-25

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040126.cfm

We Have No Suspects.

If I owned a major sports team like the Bucs or the Rays, I would select the best players I could afford, avoiding anyone who might betray the team, me, or the fans. However, Jesus intentionally chose Judas to be His disciple. It’s so easy to wonder how Judas could do such a thing, knowing Jesus for three years.

If we are not careful, we will miss the point of today’s Gospel: Jesus, not Judas, is our focus. We heard in the Gospel from Palm Sunday that Jesus willingly, and I say, lovingly embraced His sufferings and Cross without coercion. He knew who would betray Him. “The one who dips his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me.”

Jesus also knew he was fulfilling the prophecy of the Suffering Servant we heard in our first reading: “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.”

Put yourself in Jesus’ shoes. Think of the heaviest cross you ever carried that cost you the most suffering. If you had the opportunity not to undergo that pain and suffering, would you take it? Would we not avoid that suffering given the opportunity when it was happening?

Gospel Challenge: 

It’s a mystery I cannot begin to fathom: The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity knew from all eternity what would happen to Him if He chose to become a man with all the properties that made Him human, including pain and suffering. What is even more of a mystery is what He sees in all of us, saint and sinner alike. “

That we are worth every ounce of His torment and pain. The more I contemplate this mystery, the more I hate sin and what it does to Jesus and to us. God have mercy on us all!

Love Your Neighbor

Fr. Rick Pilger, IC www.bscchurch.com