Spy Wednesday, the Wednesday before Easter, is the day we remember Judas Iscariot’s meeting with the chief priests, during which he agreed to give Jesus to them in exchange for thirty pieces of silver. The sum was not nothing – after Judas was stricken with remorse, it was used to purchase a burial ground – but the money was of no value in comparison to what Judas had to give up in order to gain it. Jesus once said that anyone who understood the value of the Kingdom He was initiating would give up all they possessed in order to obtain it. Yet, on this day, we remember the blindness of Jesus’s friend who sacrificed Him for the value allotted to a slave or a worthless, faithless shepherd. Judas’s act was the height of folly, the definition of stupidity.
Yet how often do we ourselves sacrifice Jesus for financial reasons? On January 31 of this year, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) issued a call to Catholics asking them to petition their government representatives to restore U.S. foreign aid programs in the wake of a freeze initiated by government reviews aimed at placing the American economy first. While there was some response to these petitions, the restoration of aid has been partial and damage has already been done to the infrastructure that once facilitated the operations of USAID programs. As a result, many essential programs remain defunct and the few that are operational are overburdened and do not always receive the funding they are promised. Consequently, on April 2, a representative for the USCCB and CRS testified before a House subcommittee, asking that – at a minimum – the most essential international aid programs be prioritized and receive government funding. This included funding for programs that work to combat HIV/AIDS. Experts estimate that, without this program, over the next half-decade 5 million additional children will die and 3 million will be orphaned in sub-Saharan Africa alone. In fact, the impact of disrupted funding is already being felt.
It is difficult to gaze into the faces of our brothers and sisters who are unnecessarily dying of AIDS when we have effective treatments for them and not to see parallels with Judas’s willingness to give up the Savior of the World for a few pieces of silver. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus told us, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Pope Francis reminds us that “If we truly start out anew from the contemplation of Christ, we must learn to see him especially in the faces of those with whom he himself wished to be identified” – in this case, those dying from HIV/AIDS. Pope Francis cautions that we must not think of these verses in Matthew as “a simple invitation to charity.” Instead, “it is a page of Christology which sheds a ray of light on the mystery of Christ. In this call to recognize him in the poor and the suffering, we see revealed the heart of Christ.” Yet, in Africa, we see Christ in the sick and turn them over to be ravaged by a deadly disease, sacrificing them in exchange for money – our own thirty pieces of silver.
In 1989, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the United States Catholic Conference published Passion and Responsibility: A Response to the HIV/AIDS Crisis. At the time, only one treatment had been approved for use in HIV/AIDS patients. It carried serious side effects and was less than optimally effective. Worse, its effects were time limited as patients eventually became resistant to it. Thus, while there were ways of temporarily extending the life of HIV/AIDS patients (some sources suggest that lives were extended for a single year), it was a death sentence – one which carried immense stigma and brought unimaginable suffering. Consequently, efforts focused on education, testing and prevention. It took years before cocktails of treatments allowed HIV/AIDS to be considered a largely treatable disease. Even in this context of limited agency, however, the Catholic Church of the United States in the 1980s recognized that, “The Gospel demands reverence for life in all circumstances. Compassion – love – toward persons infected with HIV is the only authentic gospel response.” They said, “Social justice also requires that public and private agencies seek creative ways to meet the health and human service needs of those who are HIV positive” and “in the case of HIV and AIDS, the entire Christian and human community is called to respond with compassion, love, and support.”
Some may argue that the political maneuverings of a government should not be subjected to the dictates of faith, but – while this may be true in some cases – in situations involving social justice, such an argument conflicts with the teachings of our bishops and the last several popes. In Passion and Responsibility, U.S. Bishops reiterated that “The United States must play a significant role in responding to the worldwide dimension of the disease (HIV/AIDS).” This reflects the teachings of Pope Paul VI who said, “Economically advanced nations have a very grave obligation to help developing peoples,” an idea that was later reiterated and expanded by Pope Bendict XVI when he said, “Anyone who needs me, and whom I can help, is my neighbor. The concept of ‘neighbor’ is now universalized, yet it remains concrete.” In a world that is so intricately bound by universal ties and relationships, no one can be left out of our concept of “neighbor.”
It is common knowledge that Pope Francis exhorts us to care for the most vulnerable in society and to do so without regard to international borders. In Let Us Dream, he tells us to “go to the margins,” and writes, “God meant the goods of the earth for all…This is not altruism, or goodwill; it is what love demands. The early Church fathers made clear that giving to the poor is just giving back to them what is theirs, for God intended the goods of the earth for all, without excluding anyone.” It is for the common good that we work to harvest and subdue the earth. The very purpose of human productivity and economic systems is, in light of God’s Kingdom, the facilitation of the good of all people. For Christ and our Pope, “Human life is never a burden,” and it is for the sustenance of this life that we must orient our purposes if we wish to faithfully accept the will of God as the Virgin Mary did with her fiat. Pope Francis asserts, “The laissez-faire market centered approach confuses ends with means. Rather than being seen as a source of dignity, work becomes merely a means of production; profit turns into a goal rather than a means to achieving greater goods. From here we can end up subscribing to the tragically mistaken belief that whatever is good for the market is good for society…I decry the all-too-common scenario where ethics and the economy have been decoupled.”
Where money becomes an idol, what is truly good and valuable is sacrificed for mere chaff in the wind. Ethics and economy is decoupled. That is the story of Judas. It is often our own. On this day, as we remember Judas’s incomprehensible act of folly, I encourage you to take some time to read the stories of those people who are currently being sacrificed for a few small coins. May we, unlike Judas, recognize the futility of our economic idolatry before our actions cause the crucifixion of those Christ identifies with Himself.
Image: “Spy Wednesday” (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) by Lawrence OP
Ariane Sroubek is a writer, school psychologist and mother to two children here on earth. Prior to converting to Catholicism, she completed undergraduate studies in Bible and Theology at Gordon College in Wenham, MA. She then went on to obtain her doctorate in School and Child Clinical Psychology. Ariane’s writing is inspired by her faith, daily life experiences and education. She is currently writing a women's fiction novel and a middle-grade mystery series. Her non-fiction book, Raising Sunshine: A Guide to Parenting Through the Aftermath of Infant Death is available on Amazon. More of her work can be found at https://mysustaininggrace.com.
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