April 19, 2011

Tuesday of Holy Week - Spy Tuesday

And he cometh the third time and saith to them: Sleep ye now and take your rest. It is enough. The hour is come: behold the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise up: let us go. Behold, he that will betray me is at hand. And while he was yet speaking, cometh Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve: and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and the scribes and the ancients. And he that betrayed him had given them a sign, saying: Whomsoever I shall kiss, that is he. Lay hold on him: and lead him away carefully. And when he was come, immediately going up to him he saith: Hail, Rabbi! And he kissed him. But they laid hands on him and held him.

In the Traditional Rite this day has been known as Spy Tuesday, as, I believe, because this is he day in which the Gospel of St. Mark begins with the Agony in the Garden with Judas' betrayal with a Kiss..... the day in which Judas looked for a moment in which to betray the Son of Man. Similarly Wednesday also reads the Gospel... but of St. Luke.... wherein Judas betrays Our Lord with a Kiss. I wonder the gaze in that Our Lord would have laid upon Judas before he despaired of God's Mercy. I wonder if it were similar to the one he laid upon Peter when he betrayed him 3 times before the cock crowed, but instead, Peter sought and believed in the Mercy of God and wept bitter tears for his sins.

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