Is It I?

Gospel: Matthew 26: 14-25

How odd that everyone at the table objected at the suggestion that one of them would betray the Lord! Did they not know their own condition and actions? Why object if one were innocent? Perhaps it is because in one sense they were subconsciously aware of their human condition - that they all had it within themselves to betray the Lord.  Perhaps their objections were to protect their fragile egos that continually need reassurance.  Perhaps they knew that in one way or another they have betrayed the Lord.  

It is the same in our own cases.  We too object at the suggestion of betraying the Lord.  We invent categories like "faithful Catholic" and other fictions to insulate our egos, to put ourselves among the chosen, to run from our consciences and avoid facing the reality that we are indeed betrayers of the Lord in some way: in our neglect of the poor; in our abandonment of the elderly, handicapped, and mentally ill; in our creation of refugees and our subsequent rejection to help them in their need.  We betray the Lord in betraying our neighbor, in betraying humanity.

To care for the poor, to feed a hungry person, to visit the sick and imprisoned, to care for immigrants and refugees - this is to stand at the cross with the Lord.  To show compassion (literally, to suffer with another) and mercy is to not betray the Lord. It is to carry the cross with the Lord.