A reflection for the Readings on Spy Wednesday: Holy Week is a story told in three acts.
Act 1: Love Portrayed. All Lent we have seen Love Portrayed: Jesus transfigured on the mountain top. The glory of God revealed and yet what would seem to be the final scene of the play is but the beginning. We’ve more to hear, more to see. Especially in the daily gospels we have acts of love. A man born blind who now sees. Lessons on unlimited forgiveness. Teachings on the great commandments of loving God and neighbor. And so many more scenes of love portrayed. The disciples believe because they have seen and heard the power of God in the world.
Love is portrayed by the people of the city of God, Jerusalem, who welcome Jesus with palm branches waved and laid upon the road as one who greets the arriving king. Cries of “Hosanna…. hosanna in the highest” The cry reserved for the Messiah. Their love is portrayed in the hopes they pray the Nazarene can fulfill. All believe – in the enthusiasm of the moment it is easy to believe.
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Today is known as “Spy Wednesday”, a reference to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot for thirty silver coins. This event is described in the three Synoptic Gospels: 
When I was a child, I used to walk five miles to school in the snow, just to let them know that I was too sick to come to school that day.” So my father used to tell me. Hmmm…? Really – but hey, dad was really old, right? He probably grew up in the ice age and maybe the weather was very different back then. Such are the stories of our youth as parents try to teach us the lessons of life, sometimes wrapped in yarns, tall-tales, and memories of a different time and place. I still wonder how the to-and-from the store was uphill both ways. 
friarmusings 