Homily for Tuesday of the Holy Week Year A
Theme: Discover your God-given role and live it
By: Fr. Benny Tuazon
Homily for Tuesday April 7 2020
(John 13:21-38) Tuesday of Holy Week
In today’s Gospel Jesus and His disciples were having the Last Supper and Jesus told them that one of them will betray Him. Questions were asked but one knew the answer. Jesus told Judas to do what He planned to do. Peter, on the other hand, promised He will protect Jesus all his might. But we know the story. Jesus will be sold for some pieces of silver. He will be betrayed and arrested, then put to death. People around Jesus played a role. They were not forced into it. They had a choice. But their own agenda did them in.
Jesus is the main character in our lives. God had assigned us a role to play and live in this world. It is for our own good to play and live that role. At times we may not agree with the role, nevertheless, in obedience to God, we ought to do them. We say that it was unfortunate for people like Judas to have been given a villain role. Well, it should be clear to us that God had given us good roles. If we fall into an evil role, it was not because that was our call but because we chose it. God will never give us gifts contrary to His nature of being good and holy. But we have to participate in that plan. God may have preferences but we are still free to agree or disagree. A loving relationship with God is never forced.
Judas, after the betrayal, was not hopeless. He had a choice to repent and still follow God’s will. But his human weakness prevailed. He did not use his freedom to humble himself and accept his sin. He became more absorbed in his own self pity and pride that he ended up hanging and killing himself. Peter, on the other hand, also committed a great sin against the Lord by denying Him three times. When he realized it, he repented. He made use of God’s grace to eat his pride and accepted his sin. In other words, he repented. And we know that before the Lord, repentance is always welcome.
Now, we turn to ourselves. What is the role assigned to us by God to play in the stage of life? Certainly, we have God-given which will enlighten us to determine what God wants us to accomplish. Let us discern well those gifts and our call. Once we recognize them, like the Lord Jesus, let us live them with full commitment.