I was reading the Lenten book by Jill Duffield. Today, she was talking about “thirty pieces of silver” and that Judas got paid for his betrayal. How many sermons, movies, Sunday School lessons have been taught about Judas betraying Jesus for those pieces of silver? It seems logical and it fits with our modern society and its materialism.
So, I started with the idea that she is right, we get enticed by things, money, having the most and we betray our spiritual lives. Then I thought more like a therapist. The thirty pieces of silver seemed to be the justification, not the reason. Judas sold Jesus out long before he got the money. Think about it, Judas had followed Jesus, seen the good and purity that was the man Jesus. I cannot believe that the High Priest just dangled a bag of money out there for Judas to give all of that up.
Then, it dawned on me, the betrayal was an attempt on Judas’ part to fill a gap in himself, an emptiness. Isn’t that what we all do once we get beyond the necessities? In our culture, things are not the answer, they are the demonstration that we have filled up all of the gaps in our lives, that we are whole! I am rich, I am fulfilled. I have a Mercedes, I am successful.
Then, I got to Lent. During Lent, we give up something to remind us of Christ’s sacrifice and to participate in the simplicity of such a life sacrificed. To repent from things we ought not to be doing. But, are we missing the point. Do we ever examine the gap that whatever we give up has been filling? If you give up chocolate, repent from it, you have shown restraint and self-control and given up something meaningful to you but have you looked at the gap chocolate fills in your life?
I think we have been missing the point of giving up things for Lent. We choose representative things and give them up but Lent is a time for self-reflection. Repentance means to turn and go another way, to change our mind. So, Lent is taking a new direction for me, to do a personal “gap analysis” and to see that the things I need to give up are performing a function and that as a contemplative, I should be finding ways to close those gaps. Come to think of it, isn’t that the point of a faith community?
TMM