Daily Gospel Reflection for April 16, 2025: Wednesday of Holy Week

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Today's Gospel: Matthew 26:14-25

Whenever my kids and I discuss today’s Gospel, their righteous indignation comes out. They can’t believe that a man who was a close friend of Jesus could betray Him for money! I am like this, too, sometimes, when I witness others speaking ill of Jesus and His church, or committing obvious sins. I shake my head in disapproval as though I would never do such a thing. I am like the Apostles reacting to Jesus’s announcement that one of them will betray Him. Surely it is not I who would mock, disobey, or otherwise betray Jesus. 

The fact is, though, we are all sinners capable of turning our backs on our Lord. Sometimes, we simply deny the possibility that we might be traitors. Other times, like Judas, we know we are guilty of grave sin and try to convince ourselves that we are not. We pat ourselves on the back for being Jesus’s friends, blatantly ignoring all of our shortcomings. 

Hopefully, Lent has been a wonderful time of repentance, and we have worked diligently to rid ourselves of Judas-like pride. If not, however, Holy Week is the perfect time to meditate on our Lord’s Passion and to admit the times we have chosen the promise of some attractive worldly offering over devotion to our Savior. While Judas’s pride led him to permanent separation from God, such that it would be better if he’d never been born, we do not have to follow the same path. Rather, we can humble ourselves, reflect on the ways we have drifted away from our Lord, and make things right again in the confessional. 

It is better for us to say, “Yes, Lord, that was me” and accept the mercy He offers us rather than to save face and lose our souls. 

Ponder:

Is there anything I need to bring to our Lord in Confession before Easter Sunday arrives?

Pray:

Dear Jesus, help me to humbly recognize the ways I have strayed from You and to truly repent of those betrayals. 

Copyright 2025 Katie Fitzgerald