Isaiah 49:1-6 / John 13:21-33, 36-38 (2020)
There is a saying that goes like this: One can be on guard against the enemy from without, but yet there is no defense against the traitor from within.
Traitors and betrayers appear everywhere and anytime, from the level of the country right down to the level of the family.
In the gospel, we heard that Jesus was having the Passover meal with His disciples.
It was a sacred meal, a memorial of the marvelous event of freedom from slavery in Egypt, a meal in which the partakers renew God's covenant with them.
Yet at that sacred meal, there was a traitor, that even made Jesus troubled in spirit and He even said it openly that one of His disciples will betray Him.
Besides wondering who it might be, the disciples may also be wondering how can this kind of treachery happen.
Even we might ask: How can it be that when Judas had taken the bread, Satan entered him?
Well to put it simply, where there is sin, the devil will be able to infiltrate.
So we have to seriously examine ourselves as we come to the Eucharist - Is there any sin in me that I have not confessed, regardless of whether it is mortal or otherwise?
We certainly don't want to partake of the Eucharist only to end up as traitors and committing betrayal.
May the Lord Jesus grant us knowledge and enlightenment of our sins, and may we be reconciled with Jesus and stay united with Him in the Eucharist.