by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

We all value friendship. In good times, friends make the joy greater, as one celebrates together with them the pleasant things of life. In times of doubt and darkness, friends are the source of counsel and the light to guide us through trials. And in times when we are abandoned by all, the friends who remain are the gold and fire that keeps us from despair.

But imagine what it would be like, to have a friend who was a friend in good times and bad, in times of darkness and in abandonment, but who nevertheless without warning stuck a knife into your back, without so much as a thought or regret, but repented of it shortly afterwards.

How would we humans regard such a friend?

I think we would agree to avoid him whenever possible, because we would always be fearing the next knife attack.

But when we consider that God has blessed us with everything under heaven which is good for us, and has forgiven us of all our sins, after having redeemed us on the Cross, and YET is still willing to take us back, after we stab Him in the back, we can begin to understand IN A SMALL DROP OF A WAY, the vast immense ocean of God’s Mercy and forbearance.

And if you recognized that you are a habitual sinner, then this consideration should be made at length, in quite, alone, until tears burst out of both eyes.

And if we are to find this grace, it is this Holy Week, most of all, that we should seek it. For it is in this way that we can truly sanctify this  time.

And this is the time to make reparation for all our treacheries to Jesus Christ, especially by worthily receiving the Most Blessed Sacrament as an act of reparation for our own sins throughout life.

Indeed, only when we make this attitude our perpetual state of mind, can we be reckoned among the elect of God. The rest shall be reckoned with the Iscariot.