Daily Reflection on the Gospel of Tuesday, March 26, 2024

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Today, Holy Tuesday, the liturgy emphasizes the drama which is about to develop and will end with the crucifixion in Good Friday. «Judas left as soon as he had eaten the bread. It was night» (Jn 13:30). It is always night when we move away from he who is «light from light, true God from true God» (Nicaea-Constantinople Symbol). 

The sinner turns his back on the Lord to gravitate around the created things, without referring them to its Creator. St. Augustine describes sin as «as a love of self to the point of despising God». That is, a betrayal. A prevarication that is the fruit of «an arrogance with which we want to emancipate from God and be only ourselves; an arrogance which makes us believe we do not need the eternal love; an arrogance with which we wish to become the only masters of our own life» (Benedict XVI). We may understand that Jesus, that night, has felt «distressed in spirit» (Jn 13:21). 

Fortunately, sin is not the last word. The last word is God's mercy. This means, however, a “change” on our side. Inverting the situation to part from all creatures and become attached to God to find again the true freedom. Nevertheless, to change to God we should not wait to become sick of the false freedom we have been using. As Louis Bourdaloue denounces, «we would like to convert when we would get tired of this world or, rather, when the world would get tired of us». We should know better than that. Let us make up our mind right now. Easter time is the adequate time. In the Cross, Christ opens his arms wide to all of us. Nobody is excluded. Every repented thief has his place in Paradise. On condition, however, to change his life and remedy his shortcomings, like the thief in the Gospel: «And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal» (Lc 23:41).