Wednesday of Holy Week

We sometimes hear of people betraying other people for one reason or another. Sometimes the reason could be personal pride, greed, money, jealousy, rage, etc. What some of these betrayers do not realise is that they may not necessarily get the "reward" promised to them at the end. We hear of cases where a person betrays another for an agreed reward, only to be put to death by those who hired the betrayer, as they may decide to destroy any evidence of involvement and they may not trust the betrayer to keep silent. As some say, dead men tell no tales.

Today, we see Judas receiving 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus. We are already reminded in Monday's Gospel that Judas "was a thief; he was in charge of the common fund and used to help himself to the contributions." So 30 pieces of silver seemed a nice sum for him and something hard to resist. The problem is, is friendship so cheap that it can be sold for 30 pieces of silver, which is the price of a slave? Like Judas, some of us give little thought to the consequences of our sins. Some of us only look at self-gratification and temporary pleasure we get from committing such sins, and never stop to think about its long-term consequences. We are blinded by our personal interests, and we forget that we are selling our souls just for a measly sum. Why do we commit such acts only for temporary gratification but could lead us to an eternity away from God? Do we consider ourselves so cheap and worthless that even that temporary sinful act is enough for us, only to suffer eternal consequences?