I will be extracting certain passages and verses from the Passion of Jesus Christ, the Gospel last Sunday 17th April 2011 and elaborating it further.It's going to be a long post, I think but if it is please bear with me as Holy Week is upon us.

Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ +

“What are you willing to give me
if I hand him over to you?”
They paid him thirty pieces of silver,
and from that time on he looked for an opportunity
to hand him over.

Judas Iscariot sold his master, Jesus Christ for ONLY 30 pieces of silver. Before you start being in disgust over this act, maybe saying "I will never do that to God" or something similar, we all have sold Jesus for something thing else in one way or another. How many times have we chosen to skip mass and spending time with God to be with our friends?Boyfriend?Girlfriend?Cause we're tired?lazy?Homework?Test?Exam?

Often we choose the 3 P's as Bishop would put it that is Power,Popularity and Pleasure. We exchange Jesus for something else, temporal pleasure instead of eternal salvation. Again we keep saying to ourself that we always put God ahead of anything else? Stop lying cause even Jesus knows we had and will continue to pick other things over Him.

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?”
He said in reply,
“He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me
is the one who will betray me.
The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”
Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply,
“Surely it is not I, Rabbi?”
He answered, “You have said so.”

We go to mass every week or so I hope but we really must ask ourselves is it because we want to?Because we want to spend time with God?Cause we want to receive the Eucharist?Because we want to be at peace with God? Or is it because our parents told us to?Because it is a obligation?Because we want to see our friends? It's clearly stated that Jesus said it would be better if that person who did not follow God to be never born? We can keep saying "We will never leave you, we will never stop loving you!" Jesus reply? "You have said so" or in other words "We'll see"

Then Jesus said to them,
“This night all of you will have your faith in me shaken,
for it is written:
I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be dispersed;
but after I have been raised up,
I shall go before you to Galilee.”
Peter said to him in reply,
“Though all may have their faith in you shaken,
mine will never be.”
Jesus said to him,
“Amen, I say to you,
this very night before the cock crows,
you will deny me three times.”
Peter said to him,
“Even though I should have to die with you,
I will not deny you.”
And all the disciples spoke likewise.

It's always like that right? When everything seems to be going fine in life it's soo easy to say "I will trust in God forever!" but....that is not the case when the problems in many forms start to come into our life and then we question God. You know, God knows we are going to struggle in life and there will be times when we question God, when we get angry at God. But God wants us to know that it's fine. His not going to strike lightning onto you. Why? Very often we usually come back to Him full of remorse, full of regrets this happens sometimes even before our problems is solve so to speak..because very often when our problems, sadness, anger,loneliness is it's peak and no one and I seriously mean NO ONE , we get down on our knees, we start to cry and say something like " God I need you, be with me please...I can't take this anymore..." and do you think God is gonna laugh with Jesus at you? No. He loves us yesterday,today and tomorrow even if we don't.

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane,
and he said to his disciples,
“Sit here while I go over there and pray.”
He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee,
and began to feel sorrow and distress.
Then he said to them,
“My soul is sorrowful even to death.
Remain here and keep watch with me.”
He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying,
“My Father, if it is possible,
let this cup pass from me;
yet, not as I will, but as you will.”
When he returned to his disciples he found them asleep.
He said to Peter,
“So you could not keep watch with me for one hour?
Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Withdrawing a second time, he prayed again,
“My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass
without my drinking it, your will be done!”
Then he returned once more and found them asleep,
for they could not keep their eyes open.
He left them and withdrew again and prayed a third time,
saying the same thing again.
Then he returned to his disciples and said to them,
“Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?
Behold, the hour is at hand
when the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.
Get up, let us go.
Look, my betrayer is at hand.”

This passage stresses the importance of prayer is for Jesus, the Son of God so by right isn't this even more important to us? Even when face with DEATH he wanted the will of God to be fulfilled rather His own. Do you think Jesus wanted to be crucified? No. He prayed and prayed and prayed because He needed the Father's strength and love to go through this. Same thing with us we need to break this stereotype behavior of ours which is pray when everything is fine and complain when things are not. Yes it is human nature to react in such way but we need to continue praying whether it is during the good times or bad times so when the bad time do come our foundation is strong, our faith won't be as shaken, the PEACE and LOVE of God will be instill in you.

But many times we fail to do this. Even staying attentive in mass is hard for us. Is it so hard to spend 5 - 10 minutes a day reading scripture, praying and so on? Even a short sincere 1 minute prayer will do for God because there comes a time I believe in everyone's life that we want not 1 minute with God, we want to be with God until the storms of life settle. We want to take refuge in Him. Basically we just want to hide behind Jesus' back and wait for Him to do a miracle. We realize how irreplaceable, how valuable that quality bonding between you and God really is. I tell you honestly, listening to the homily is one of the hardest thing for me in mass whether I'm serving or not but I really do try my best and when I'm going through a dilemma, I swear I try to hear every single word in the hope that it is the answer to my prayer, to my problems. Nevertheless if it isn't I always find sooner or later that homily I listened to will come in handy in the future,trust me on this one.Yes we know we should be praying but we don't, it is because like Jesus said "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak"

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard.
One of the maids came over to him and said,
“You too were with Jesus the Galilean.”
But he denied it in front of everyone, saying,
“I do not know what you are talking about!”
As he went out to the gate, another girl saw him
and said to those who were there,
“This man was with Jesus the Nazorean.”
Again he denied it with an oath,
“I do not know the man!”
A little later the bystanders came over and said to Peter,
“Surely you too are one of them;
even your speech gives you away.”
At that he began to curse and to swear,
“I do not know the man.”
And immediately a cock crowed.
Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken:
“Before the cock crows you will deny me three times.”
He went out and began to weep bitterly.

Again how many times have we denied Jesus in front of our friends and so on? You know how people knew Peter was one of Jesus' followers? His accent! As simple as that. He was from Galilee and had this accent that only Galileans had. He said that he would die with Jesus and never betray Jesus...so what did the passage above say he did? He rejected Jesus 3 times but when the cock crowed he remembered the word that Jesus had told him and he began to cry, he was ashamed. Many times we go through this cycle. We betray, we feel guilty, we repent, we go back to God and the cycle repeats itself. Why do we feel guilty and repent? It is because often enough we remember how good God has been to us. We remember the many times He was there for us, to listen to us no matter how big or small the problem was, no matter what time it was, no matter how many times we repeated the problem. He was there when no one else was or when when nobody else could help. We remembered the many times He gave us gifts, gifts we know we did not deserve. Faith is NOT - NOT having doubts. It is okey to have doubts but it means going ahead without hesitation. For example you are scared of moving schools/countries but you know God is in control, despite your anxiety or worries you just do it because you know God is in control and that He has a plan for you.

Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned,
deeply regretted what he had done.
He returned the thirty pieces of silver
to the chief priests and elders, saying,
“I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.”
They said,
“What is that to us?
Look to it yourself.”
Flinging the money into the temple,
he departed and went off and hanged himself.

After we do something sinful or bad, we usually regret and we feel distant from God. Why? Sin is a barrier between you and God. So basically the more sins we commit the more distant we are from God. God never moves, it is us who move. So it is solely our fault why we are so distant from God. In the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ we can contrast between two characters Judas Iscariot and Peter. Both betrayed Jesus but..they have two different conversion. Judas felt guilty and hanged himself, he did not feel like God could forgive him for what he have done but in truth God could have whereas Peter also betrayed Jesus but he did not hang himself, he felt guilty but he knew God still love him, God could and will forgive him if he asked which he did later on when Jesus appeared after His resurrection. Instead of doing nothing we should run back to God as soon as possible. How? Through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. God doesn't want us to hang ourself so to speak instead he wants repentance.

I will stop for now,will continue either later or tomorrow. Few more passages to cover not much left.

Rated R Loser at 5:23 AM