ODM Daily Inspirational Devotional Messages Bible Verse and Prayers ODM
Gospel Reflections Wednesday April 1st 2026 Bishop Robert Barron
DAILY REFLECTION – WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK
April 1, 2026
Source: Word on Fire
FIRST READING
Isaiah 50:4-9a
The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens— wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.
The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty? All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
PSALM
Psalm 69:8-10, 21-22, 31 and 33-34
I have become a stranger to my kindred, an alien to my mother’s children. It is zeal for your house that has consumed me; the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. When I humbled my soul with fasting, they insulted me for doing so.
They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Let their table be a trap for them, a snare for their allies.
This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs. For the Lord hears the needy, and does not despise his own that are in bonds. Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them.
GOSPEL READING
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.”
REFLECTION
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus asks his disciples to go into Jerusalem and prepare a Passover supper.
At the heart of the Passover meal was the eating of a lamb, which had been sacrificed, in remembrance of the lambs of the original Passover, whose blood had been smeared on the doorposts of the Israelites in Egypt. Making his Last Supper a Passover meal, Jesus was signaling the fulfillment of John the Baptist’s prophecy that he, Jesus, would be the Lamb of God and the definitive sacrifice.
This sacrifice is made sacramentally present at every Mass—not for the sake of God, who has no need of it, but for our sake. In the Mass, we participate in the act by which divinity and humanity are reconciled, and we eat the sacrificed body and drink the poured-out blood of the Lamb of God.
COMMENTARY
The Suffering Servant and the Betrayal
This Wednesday of Holy Week presents us with two parallel movements: the prophetic oracle of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah and the betrayal of Jesus by Judas in the Gospel. Both converge on the central mystery of this week—the passion of the Lord.
Isaiah 50: The Obedient Servant
The Servant speaks of a vocation given by God: “The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.” This is a mission of comfort, of speaking to the exhausted and burdened.
But this mission comes at a cost. The Servant has his ear opened to listen, and he does not rebel. Instead, he offers his back to those who strike him, his cheeks to those who pull out his beard, his face to insult and spitting. He does not hide from shame.
Yet he declares: “The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced.” His confidence is not in his own strength but in the help of God. He sets his face like flint, determined to fulfill his calling regardless of the cost.
This is the voice of Jesus, who in the coming days will endure the very things described—striking, spitting, insult—yet will not turn back. His face is set toward Jerusalem, toward the cross, toward the redemption of the world.
Matthew 26: The Price of Betrayal
In the Gospel, we see the other side of the story. Judas Iscariot goes to the chief priests and asks, “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” The price is set: thirty pieces of silver—the price of a slave, the price of betrayal.
The narrative then moves to the preparation of the Passover. Jesus is in control; he directs his disciples to a specific house, a specific room. His time is near, but he is not a victim of circumstances. He is the sovereign Lord who ordains even the details of his betrayal.
At the meal, Jesus announces the unimaginable: “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” The disciples are deeply distressed. Each asks, “Surely not I, Lord?” They cannot imagine such a thing of themselves. And yet one of them has already made the deal.
The Passover Fulfilled
The setting of this betrayal is the Passover meal. The Passover was Israel’s great memorial of liberation—the night when the angel of death passed over the homes marked with the blood of the lamb. Jesus, by making his Last Supper a Passover meal, signals that he is the Lamb whose blood will bring deliverance not only from Egypt but from sin and death itself.
John the Baptist had announced it: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Now, at the table, the Lamb prepares to offer himself. The betrayal is the beginning of the sacrifice.
The Two Faces of Discipleship
In this Gospel, we see two responses to Jesus. One is Judas, who calculates the value of Jesus and finds him worth thirty pieces of silver. He eats with Jesus, dips his hand in the same bowl, yet his heart is already turned away.
The other is the rest of the disciples, who, though flawed and soon to scatter, at least in this moment cannot imagine betraying their Lord. Their question, “Surely not I, Lord?” is the question each of us must face. Am I capable of betraying Christ? Do I know my own heart?
The Woe and the Mercy
Jesus pronounces a woe on the betrayer: “It would have been better for that one not to have been born.” These are terrible words. Yet even these words are not without hope. Judas is given every opportunity to turn back. Jesus warns him, names him, loves him to the end. The tragedy is not that Judas betrayed; it is that he did not return.
PRAYER FOR WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK
Lord Jesus, as we enter deeper into this holy week, we look upon the Servant who did not turn back, who set his face like flint toward the cross. Give us the courage to follow you, even when the way is hard.
Protect us from the spirit of Judas—the calculation that reduces you to a transaction, the betrayal that comes from a heart turned away.
As you prepared the Passover meal, prepare our hearts to receive you. May we eat your body and drink your blood worthily, not as those who betray, but as those who love.
And when we ask, “Surely not I, Lord?” let the answer not be in our own confidence but in your grace. Keep us close to you in these holy days.
Amen.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- How do I respond when following Jesus requires suffering or sacrifice? Do I set my face like flint, or do I turn back?
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Where do I see the spirit of Judas in my own heart—the desire to calculate the cost, to value other things above Christ?
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How can I prepare my heart to receive the Lord in the Eucharist, as the disciples prepared the Passover?
SCRIPTURES FOR THE DAY
| Reading | Reference |
|---|---|
| First Reading | Isaiah 50:4-9a |
| Psalm | Psalm 69:8-10, 21-22, 31 and 33-34 |
| Gospel | Matthew 26:14-25 |
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