16 April 2014 - should have guest it

16 April 2014 - should have guest it

‘The teacher says, “My appointed time draws near;
in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.”`

We are preparing to celebrate the Passover of the LORD, when he passes from death to life.  We celebrate the Passover from our own sinfulness to freedom and grace.  So let's not let the disciples at our door take us by surprise as we get ready for the Mass which starts tomorrow and ends on Easter.  How do these modern disciples we find in the Church call us to prepare?  They call us to show them the "guest room" which we have open for Jesus.  In other words, we need to have the space within our hearts to welcome Jesus.  How do we ensure this?

There is a reason that a week of penance services precedes Holy Week.  We need to examine our consciences.  We need to make sure there is nothing taking the throne of our hearts which Jesus should occupy.  We need to make sure our guest room is not filled with other concerns, with no room for Jesus.  We ought not just assume he is first in our hearts without examining our lives to see how that theory actually plays out day to day.  We ought to recognize our own weakness, our own tendency to self-deception.  We should ask Jesus himself if he holds the position he wants to hold.

And while they were eating, he said,
“Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
Deeply distressed at this,
they began to say to him one after another,
“Surely it is not I, Lord?”

Let us join with the Church in searching our own hearts to see if there is anything in them which might betray Jesus.  Hopefully we hear from him that it is not us.  But even Paul tells us to, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling"  (cf. Phi. 2:12).   Knowing his own weakness he even says that, "I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession" (cf. Phi. 3:12).

We need to recognize that we all have the potential to turn traitor.  At one point Judas was a sincere follower.  We read that he "became a traitor" (cf. Luk. 6:16) not that he always was one.  What pushes Judas over the edge?  We can guess.  It seems like Jesus isn't fulfilling his role of Messiah in the way that Judas prefers.  Judas ultimately wants Jesus to be a proxy to his own will and plans even though these plans aren't necessarily bad at the beginning.  By time Mary anoints the feet of Jesus with the aromatic nard Judas is already pretty far gone.  He "used to help himself" to what was in the money bag.  He objects to the anointing, not really because it doesn't go to the poor, but because it doesn't go through him to it's destination.  Perhaps he still imagines that he might do some good with it.  But the drive to have these resources in his own control may be the reason he accepts the price of thirty pieces of silver for the life of the man who was once his friend.

Let's keep our guestroom open for Jesus.  We might be able to get thirty silver coins for it, but they are so infinitely much less than the Passover he wants to celebrate in us. 

Who disputes his right to this guestroom?  At times we all do.  At times we are  the ones who pluck his beard, beat him, and spit on him.  But even so morning after morning he does not rebel from the mission to save us.  The glory of Easter vindicates his claim on the guestroom of our souls.  Let us examine ourselves so that we may be witnesses to the resurrection and avoid the fate of Judas.  Even though we all deny him at times as Peter does yet we may still hope to witness the resurrection like he does, forgiven and new.