Boom clap boom de clap de clap
Remember Miley? Remember when she—?
Oh, Miley!
Gonna pray for her.
Alright. Ready to go.
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
So I was reading this week about Judas' betrayal.
I sometimes like to pray about Judas and I think a lot of Christians like to reflect on Judas' life,
not because we like to see someone fall but I think a lot of us don't want to be that person.
We realize that we have the potential to be that person. We have the potential to be Judas.
So I was reflecting on this and something stuck out to me in John's Gospel chapter 13
when Jesus at the Last Supper announces that "One of you is going to betray me."
And it says the apostles didn't know. They were at a loss as to whom he meant
and so then, Peter says to John, "Who is it?" and so John asked Jesus, "Who is it?"
and Jesus said, The person I'm gonna give the morsel to.
So he does this. He dips the morsel, gives it to Judas and says, "What you're going to do, do quickly," he says.
"Now, none of—" this is crazy, "now, none of those reclining at table realized why he had said this to him.
Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag,
Jesus had told him, 'Go buy what we need for the feast,'
or to give something to the poor."
This is remarkable.
This is the person who's already decided, in other Gospels, it's already very clear
that Judas has already exchanged the money. He's planned on betraying Jesus
but nobody—these thirteen men have been living together, have been praying together,
have been sharing life for the last three years
and no one knew what was really going on in Judas' life.
In fact, he was so good at faking, that they all thought he's probably going to do something really good.
He's probably gonna give money to the poor.
He's probably gonna go do what Jesus wants because that's what Judas does.
And yet, his true intention and his true life and his true self was hidden behind a mask,
and this is the reality for all Christians.
We all have the temptation to hold our real self, our true self behind some kind of mask.
Now, this isn't a call to be super transparent with everybody we meet,
like I have to tell everybody what I'm really wrestling with.
Think about this.
Of these thirteen men, one of whom was also God, Jesus,
that Judas hadn't shared that deepest part of him with any one of them
so that all of them were surprised, they had no idea. Who would it be?
You just imagine. What if Judas had even shared with one other person?
Maybe like Matthew was his guy, you know, Matthew, the tax collector.
Judas can be like, "Yeah, now. You know what it's like to be broken?
Like "Yeah, absolutely!"
So here goes Judas and Jesus says, One of you is gonna betray me,
Judas gets up to go and then Matthew's like, "Wait a second. I know his deal.
I know what's going on in Judas' heart. He's going to go betray Our Lord."
And he goes after him. Maybe he says, "Judas, you don't want to do this. Come back."
It could have—
it could have saved Judas' soul.
Just think about this.
But what happened was Judas was so intent, apparently, or content not being known,
keeping his true self hidden from everybody
that when he came down to that point of decision,
he was unable to rely on anybody.
So here's my invitation.
You know, we can't reveal our true selves to everybody because that's just impractical,
but is there any one person in your life with whom you can be completely transparent?
Is there any one brother or sister in Christ that you can be completely reliant upon?
In the sense of like be able to say, They really know you. They know what your stuff is.
They know what you're wrestling with. They know what you're going through.
So that when you're in those moments of decision, they can also go there with you.
They can go through it alongside of you.
Because if we don't do that, if we aren't transparent with even anyone,
whether it be a spouse or they be a brother in Christ, sister in Christ or a spiritual director or confessor,
then how will we really be transparent to the Lord?
And who will really be there for us when we really need them?
Last thing.
Is there anybody that knows that you can be relied upon, you can be trusted, you can be counted on,
to be that person for them?
If you're not or if you don't have anyone you can count on, I'd invite you to do this:
Ask Jesus.
Ask Jesus to bring someone like that into your life
because that's what he wants for you.
He wants you to be able to have a deep friend, someone you can be connected with,
a brother, a sister, someone you can trust so you don't have to do this following-the-Lord-thing alone.
Pray for that if you don't have one.
And if you do, thank the Lord for that and thank them.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, God bless.