Heart in Harmony

Matthew 26:14-25

Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What will you give me if I betray him to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him. On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?" He said, "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, 'The Teacher says, My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.'" So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover meal. When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve; and while they were eating, he said, "Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me." And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, "Surely not I, Lord?" He answered, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born." Judas, who betrayed him, said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?" He replied, "You have said so."

Have you ever been in the presence of obvious betrayal? Have you ever been deceived? Or have you ever been rejected...discounted? On this Wednesday of Holy Week we are invited closer to the deepest heart of human pain.

When everything good that we can be is counted as "nothing"....

When the people we have loved most and trusted most intimately turn from us with little or no recognition.....

When our hearts break and grieve over the human capacity for violence, mockery and scorn....

Our sighs, our furrowed brows, our bended knees, our utterances lifted in prayer all align us with everyone who has ever experienced the world's darkness.

In those moments of awareness our hearts are beating in harmony with the heart of the one who experienced the totality of human pain. Can you imagine your heart, your deepest center, pulsing in perfect rhythm with the heart of God? Can you experience the depth of love that flows from that intimacy?

On this Wednesday of Holy Week, compassion is pulsing...a compassion that both enters your heart and flows from your heart. Even as Jesus was approaching the awfulness of humanity, he was loving...forgiving...instilling every heart that would beat in any age with the fullness possible through God's infinite love.

How mysterious...how incomprehensible! How can it be that I am at the same time one of the ones who betrays AND one of the beloved children of God?

Aahhh....Holy Jesus....Thank you!