Kiss for 30 Silvers Because of a Jar

Today is one of the most important days for the Catholic faith as this day marks the second to the last day in the human life of Jesus. Maundy Thursday as it is called reminds us of the significant moments in His life before He was led to His persecution and eventual death. My apologies to those who are uncomfortable with this topic but this is more than theological if you would just patiently read through. I am just providing a background of what significance is there for Catholic people today. As my family am here in the suburbs to remember and recollect, I was privileged to still have some internet connection so as to find materials for spiritual reflection. Thanks to a good friend Kevin who posted on Facebook a link where an online retreat can be done. Much to my delight, it was a very good material! The Fugitives of Lent is a retreat of a different kind because instead of featuring the biblical characters who had good images for the Catholic people, it featured the "anti-heroes" in the life of Jesus particularly during His last few moments before His crucifixion. It shall present spiritual reflections on the context of what it so called as the 'fugitive' characters starting today until saturday. It will feature three, one for each day, of the significant 'fugitives' during the Lenten season namely: Judas, Pilate and Peter.

Today, Judas was the focal character for the spiritual reflection. Knowing for the fact that it was he who betrayed Jesus by informing the Jewish leaders of where He can be captured. If we recall how Jesus was handed over by Judas, it was done through a kiss. Thinking of it, how can a gesture of love become a gesture of betrayal? Tracing the scriptures, during the last supper, when Peter asked who will be Jesus' betrayer, Jesus dipped a morsel of bread into the wine and handed it over to Judas (see John 13:21-27).  From this we can interpret Jesus' gesture as an act of remaining a friend even if he knew that He will be betrayed by Judas. And maybe, Judas could reciprocate such treatment by betraying Him by a friendly act in the form of a kiss. If I may ask, are we still friends with those who betray us? Jesus did. On the other hand, can we betray or hurt others (in whatever form), most specially our loved ones, through a symbolic 'kiss'? Judas did. 

Judas gave up his loyalty to Jesus in exchange of thirty pieces of silver. Is this the price of Judas' loyalty to Jesus or is it this the price for Judas' conversion after Jesus' arrest and eventually before taking away of his life? I choose the latter. When Judas went back to the Jewish leaders full of regret after doing his betrayal of an innocent blood, he gave the pieces of silver back to the church leaders for repentance of committing such sin. The church leaders refused to accept them that eventually made Judas more remorseful and decided to hang himself (see Matthew 27:3-5). What does this mean then? Have we, in some time in our lives, chosen material things over friendship? Have we chosen to give up relationships over money? Let us hope and pray that we put more value on what are the most essential: LOVE and RELATIONSHIPS.

What led to Judas' betrayal to Jesus? It was because of an alabaster jar. When Jesus and His apostles went to the house of Simon the leper, a woman went to Him carrying an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard. It was very costly and she broke it pouring all its content to Jesus' head. Violent reactions came about from the people who saw it because it was seen as wasteful and its cost could feed a lot of poor people. However, instead of stopping the woman from pouring the ointment on Jesus' head, He allowed her to do so and this drove Judas to betray Jesus (see Mark 14:3-10). Now what does this mean to us? 

The alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard can symbolize a container of all our most priced ideals and aspirations that we do not want to give up. Judas had his own precious ideas of what becomes to be an apostle of the Messiah and what it is to be the Messiah - ideas that are completely different from what Jesus does. Judas believed that the Messiah was supposed to be a political leader who shall rebel against the Jewish leaders and high priests during that time. Suppose that this is also what Jesus wants. God's will is not what Judas or what Jesus wants (just hypothetically for Jesus). The difference between Jesus and Judas is that Jesus was willing to give up his 'preference' while Judas would not. Are we like Judas who find it difficult to give up our ideals and aspirations? Or are we willing to break our alabaster jars for God's will?

May we find time to reflect on what our life is currently in now. May we not  allow ourselves to be shadowed by our own ideals to the point of being hard on accepting what He wills if it does not fall on what we expect it to be. His plans are far better than ours. Let us continue to have faith.   

(The ideas presented here are interpretations from the material featured. Should there be any similarities with the flow of thoughts between this and the material presented, it just goes to show that the author fully agrees to his ideas. No intentions of plagiarism was intended.)