April 1, 2026
Wednesday of Holy Week
Fr. Francesco Ielpo, Custos of the Holy Land
The Lord give you Peace. I am Fr. Francesco Ielpo, Custos of the Holy Land and I speak to you from Jerusalem.
Today's Gospel introduces us into the dramatic atmosphere of the Passion through betrayal. We are not yet on Calvary, we are not yet beneath the Cross. We are inside a house, around a table. And it is precisely there that the drama unfolds.
Judas goes to the chief priests, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?". Thirty pieces of silver. The price of a slave. The life of the Son of God treated as merchandise. Matthew is sober, he does not comment, he does not judge, he simply recounts.
And yet, while Judas plots in the shadows, Jesus prepares the Passover. Jesus does not undergo the Passion as an accident of history. He lives it as the fulfillment of the Passover. The Eucharist first, the Passion then, are a single movement, the gift of self.
During the meal Jesus announces, "One of you will betray me". He does not say, "There is a traitor among you", but "one of you". Betrayal does not come from outside, it comes from within the circle of those who live in intimacy with Him. This is what makes the scene even more painful. And each one asks, "Is it I, Lord?".
This question is important. The Christian community, from the beginning, has always celebrated the Eucharist remembering "the night in which he was betrayed". Not to be scandalized, but not to be deluded. Sin is always possible. Infidelity can arise even within familiarity with Jesus.
But it is precisely here that the greatness of Christ's love emerges.
Jesus knows. He knows who betrays him. He knows how much that act will cost. And yet, he does not interrupt the meal. He does not publicly expose Judas. He does not send him away. He offers him the morsel. He shares the bread with him. It is a gesture of friendship, of communion.
And here the whole persistence of God's love is revealed.
Betrayal does not extinguish the gift. On the contrary, it makes it shine even more brightly. Jesus takes the bread, gives thanks, breaks it, gives it. He takes the cup, offers it. His body is given, his blood is poured out "for many".
It is a love that does not withdraw in the face of rejection. It is a love that continues to give itself even while knowing it will be rejected. It is a love that does not wait to be returned in order to offer itself.
The Cross is not the failure of the gift, but its fulfillment.
Today the Gospel places before us two possibilities.
The first is that of Judas, reducing Jesus to a means, using him for one's own calculations, yielding to the logic of self interest, closing the heart when expectations are not met.
The second is that of Christ, continuing to love even when wounded, not allowing oneself to be determined by the evil received, remaining a gift even when betrayed.
Holy Wednesday places us in a space of silence and truth. It reminds us that the community is not made of the perfect, but of sinners called to vigilance. It reminds us that no one can presume of himself. But above all it reminds us that the foundation of the Church is not our fidelity, but the persistence of Jesus' love.
In these holy days let us ask for the grace not to be scandalized by the sin that also runs through our communities, but not to stop believing in the power of love that gives itself.
Because it is only this love, a love that allows itself to be broken and continues to give itself, that conquers betrayal, sin and even death.
Peace and good from the Holy Land.
