Isaiah 50:4-9 / Matthew 26:14-25
We are always more than ready to say that we are victims of betrayal.
Yes, we can immediately remember the people who betrayed us, be it husband, or wife, or a family member, a friend, a colleague, our superior.
It is never easy to forget the pain and the hurt of a betrayal.
But we may not be that ready to admit that we have betrayed somebody.
So when Jesus said "I tell you solemnly, one of you is about to betray me", each of His disciples, including Judas, started asking Him in turn "Not I, Lord, surely?"
Somehow Judas has become the symbol of the dark side of ourselves.
We don't like to look at Judas, because we see in him, the dark shadows we don't like about ourselves, especially our unfaithfulness, disloyalty and betrayal.
So from "Not I, Lord, surely?", we just have to change the sentence and say "It's I, Lord, have mercy!"
As the 1st reading puts it, "The Lord has given me a disciple's tongue."
As disciples of Jesus, let us first say that we have sinned with our unfaithfulness and disloyalty and betrayed Jesus.
The Lord wants to offer us forgiveness ; we just have to admit to our sinfulness.