4/13 Spy Wednesday

Spy Wednesday

Spy Wednesday is the name given to Wednesday of Holy Week.  It marks the fact that on this day, Judas Iscariot agreed with Jewish officials to betray our Lord, for the price of 30 pieces of silver.

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Excerpt from the Hours of the Passion
Third Hour:  From 7 to 8 PM

O Jesus, You now arrive at the cenacle together with Your beloved disciples and You begin Your supper with them.  How much Sweetness, how much Affability You show through all Your Person, as You lower Yourself to taking material food for the last time!  Everything is Love in You.  Also in this, You not only repair for the sins of gluttony, but You impetrate the sanctification of food.

Jesus, my Life, Your sweet and penetrating gaze seems to search all of the apostles; and also in this act of taking food Your Heart remains pierced in seeing Your dear apostles still weak and listless, especially the perfidious Judas, who has already put a foot in hell.  And You, from the bottom of Your Heart, say bitterly, “What is the usefulness of My Blood?  Here is a soul so favored by Me—yet, he is lost!”

And You look at him with Your eyes refulgent with Light and Love, as though wanting to make him understand the great evil he is about to commit.  But Your Supreme Charity makes You bear this sorrow and You do not make it manifest even to Your beloved disciples.

And while You grieve for Judas, Your Heart is filled with joy in seeing, on Your left, Your beloved disciple John; so much so, that unable to contain Your Love any longer, drawing him sweetly to Yourself, You let him place his head upon Your Heart, letting him experience Paradise in advance.

And it is in this solemn hour that the two peoples, the reprobate and the elect, are portrayed by the two disciples:   the reprobate in Judas, who already feels hell in his heart; the elect in John, who rests and delights in You.