Blessed Holy Wednesday to you brothers and sisters in Christ! I hope that this far into Holy Week all of you have remained faithful and enduring for Christ, listening closely to what our Lord has to say during the final week of his earthly ministry, and with the Grace of the Holy Spirit understanding what he is teaching us who will listen to him. On this day, Holy Wednesday of the Holy Week, a significant event occurs: Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles, chosen by Jesus Christ himself, one of twelve Jews who were in the most intimate knowledge and love of Christ, the Son of God, Judas betrays Jesus, for thirty pieces of silver, equivalent to four months' wages back in Jesus' time. Although this betrayal is one of the saddest events in the entire Bible and of the life of Christ, this event holds significant truth for our Christian lives today, and hold valuable lessons for our faith even today. And it is fitting to know them.

For a good visual guide to the Holy Gospel and a good understanding of what happened, here is a clip from The Chosen depicting Judas selling his loyalty to Christ for thirty pieces of sliver:

If it does not load, here is the link to the clip

As you can see my friends in Christ, this marks one of the saddest parts in all of Holy Scripture. However, even in this, there are many valuable teachings and lessons that God wants to communicate to us, so that we might live faithful, hopeful, and loving lives not only for God, but for God's people and all people around us.

Firstly, God shows that this is entirely Judas' choice, and shows to all of us that we all have free will. It was prophesied that one of the twelve of the Messiah would betray the Messiah, but it was never prophesied about who exactly that one would be. All the twelve Apostles had the same choice to either remain loyal and loving to Christ, or to leave and betray Christ. All but Judas chose to remain loyal to Christ, and it is Judas' own choice to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. God shows us here to use our choices and decisions wisely, and in every point in our lives when we are given a choice, we are called to ask God for the Grace of the Holy Spirit to aid in our decision-making, so that we might choose wisely the right choice so that we might be pleasing to God, loving to God, faithful to God, and not only to God, but also to the people around us, for they also bear the image of God. In every choice we are faced with, we must have the Grace of the Holy Spirit to aid us, so that we, using our power of free will, a wonderful gift God has given us, we might choose wisely and in a way that aligns with God's Holy will.

And this brings us to our second point: why Judas sold Jesus for thirty pieces of sliver. With a damaged free will, Judas on his own initiative and choice seeks to betray Jesus. It is important to note that throughout the history of the Church, even to this day, there has always been some debate as to what was the motive of Judas' betrayal, but it has been declared by the Holy Church Fathers and some liturgical hymns of the Orthodox Church that greed was the primary motive of Judas' betrayal. We can see from Judas that if one of our sinful desires, like greed in Judas' case, if this sinful desire gets out of control, this is dangerous, and it would risk our Christian lives within the Church. The sinful desire would lead us to sin, sin separation from God, and separation from God is a separation from life itself. This is a very important observation, and the lesson here is simply two things: we need the Grace of the Holy Spirit to lead us in our lives, and we need to remember Christ's teaching: "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands and cast into hell." If Judas Iscariot simply remembered these two things and put them into practice, he would have never betrayed Jesus. But his shortcoming in doing so made him weak to the demons, and so as a result of this weakness, Satan entered him through his sinful desire and shortcoming to put Christ's teachings into practice, and Judas as a result betrayed Jesus.

This also brings up an important observation: Judas always had a place for Satan in his heart. Because of his sinful desire of greed that he could not control, he unwittingly had a place for the demons in his heart. Combine that with his damaged free will, his uncontrollable desire for sinful greed, and his shortcoming to put Christ's teaching and Grace into action, it was all too easy for Satan to accomplish his task through Judas. And so Judas, because of all this, betrayed Jesus Christ our Lord for only four month's worth of wages, thirty pieces of sliver.

So therefore my brothers and sisters in Christ, even in one of the saddest moments in all of Holy Scripture, there are many important teachings and lessons that we can take from it and apply it to our lives, so that we can truly live pious, faithful, and loving Christian lives. Let us always call upon the Grace of the Holy Spirit to always lead our lives, let us cut off anything that does cause us to sin, including any of our sinful desires that are hindering our ability to worship God, let us also put Christ's teachings into full practice with full faith in him, and let us ask God to heal our free will so that we might do things according to the will of God. And remember, the Triune God is willing to do anything for you to have these things, as it is also seen with Judas, as Jesus washed his feet and gave him the Eucharistic bread and wine, in an effort to make him repent and turn fully to himself. All what you have to do is ask with faith, and then act with faith.

Have a blessed Holy Wednesday my friends in Christ, and always trust in Christ our Lord, forever and ever. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever unto the end of the age. Amen.