Betrayal Overcome: Homily for Easter

Easter                                                                                                                          April 8, 2023
Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette

Part I of the Triduum Series here

Part II of the Triduum Series here

Betrayal is the second worst thing there is. This has been our theme for the Paschal Triduum that now comes to a close today, the holiest day of the year. Holy Thursday led us in preparing for the inevitability of betrayal by Jesus’ own example of washing the feet of Judas. It showed us that, despite the risk of betrayal, we must offer our trust, love, and vulnerability anyway. It also taught us to be prepared to forgive those who will one day betray us.

This readies us to follow Christ on Good Friday as he bore witness to how one acts during the very moments of betrayal. Keeping his heart disposed to forgiveness, rejecting all resentment, and striving to love others even in the midst of his own suffering, Jesus not only endured his betrayal, but embraced it. Embracing it, he turned the sinful actions of others into his own freely chosen offering of love to the Father and testified to us that, in all our suffering, we are not alone; he is there too.

What, then, of what comes after betrayal? If we have been faithful, it is victory. Betrayal can at most hurt and kill us, but our souls united to Christ on the cross can be impervious to anything worse. Claiming victory over death by his Easter Resurrection, Jesus incorporates us into this new life, this conquest over all evil and death. The certainty of this victory is what made everything prior to it possible. Only because he knew that his Father would raise him could Jesus make the offer of loving forgiveness even to his betrayer. Only because he knew what came next could our Lord endure the cross not only with patience, but with an ever increasing outward flow of love.

In a word, what comes after betrayal is hope. Anchored in the future certainty of resurrection, this hope reaches backwards through time to guide us through the preparation for – and experience of – betrayal. Though it has not been fulfilled in us personally just yet, victory is already present as we choose to trust and love despite the risk of betrayal. It is already effective during those moments of great suffering, making it possible to not only endure them but transform them into offerings of sanctifying love.

Recognizing the future resurrection as something present now is absolutely central to who we are as Christians. Christianity is partly defined by our ability to not only overcome, but even benefit from the second worst thing there is: betrayal. But I’ve left unanswered the question that that raises: what is worse?   

Despair. Despair is the worst thing there is. How is that? Because despair is the deadliest sin in its worst form. It is pride twisted into the most direct kind of self-destruction. By not only choosing sin but also asserting that that sin is beyond God’s power to forgive, we fulfill our own prophecy of damnation. What condemns Judas worse than his betrayal of Christ is his refusal to seek redemption. In fact, it is despair that makes betrayal so bad. The experience of turning against the one you love, of seeking their destruction by betraying them… it drives a person to the deepest depths of self-loathing and thus to despair.

This sin is less a single act and more a chosen state of being. Rebellion in the past can be repented of. Crimes can be atoned for. Sins forgiven. Despair is not just a single choice, but an ongoing one, a continued embrace of evil in the form of denying who God is and what He can do. God is love and he can forgive all who seek that forgiveness.

That is why these most sacred days exist, why the greatest events in all of time and eternity took place. Betrayal is awful. It is terrible, evil, destructive, and poisonous… but it is not the most significant thing that the resurrection of Jesus overcame. Becoming the most preeminent act of hope, his resurrection is the greatest protection against that most grievous of evils, despair of God’s love.

What do we do about it, then? In part, you’re doing it now. Entering into the sacred mysteries that make present both the Resurrection of Jesus and our own resurrection. [Our Catechumens do] / [we did] this for the first time [tonight] through Baptism, Confirmation, and First Communion. We renew our share in this, we make hope physically present here and now through repeated participation in all the sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist.

The profound value of our Paschal Feast – of Easter – makes it easier to see the value in being here for this Mass, but the light and beauty and dignity of this day/night shines through every Mass, if we have faith to see it.

Yet, it goes deeper than meeting minimums and following rules. It is precisely the habit of seeking forgiveness and being united to our Lord in communion that makes possible the impossible tasks I’ve laid before you. Think about it: how can anyone not only take the risk of being betrayed, but also be ready beforehand to forgive their betrayer? How can anyone suffer betrayal to the point of death without any resentment? How can someone in the midst of betrayal and suffering honestly say “I choose this suffering for myself now in order to offer it to you, Lord?”

Only by grace… and the force of habit. Betrayal is bad, but we are honestly more often the perpetrators than the victims. Every time we choose sin, we betray Jesus and ourselves. That vague sense of being less than we are, that sense of unworthiness, the shame, the anxiety… all of these things have some roots in our self-betrayal. But if we meet them with the habit, the discipline, the constant practice of receiving forgiveness in Confession, we are better able to not only forgive ourselves, but also those who have betrayed us and will betray us.

If meet that pattern of divine betrayal – of sin – with the grace of God-made-Man made present in the Eucharist, we find strength to stand even in the weakness of sin. Finding that that grace can overcome our own self-destruction with love, it is suddenly possible to endure the destructive betrayal of others without resentment… to even love them as they betray us.

Antidote to the second worst thing, Jesus Christ is also our protection from the worst thing, that monster, despair. You see, very few people live a life of sinfulness and then turn back at the very end. The habit of sinning without forgiveness, the lifelong experience of returning evil for evil, the pain of knowing deep down we’ve betrayed ourselves and those we love… these harden us. That habit of betrayal solidifies into a quiet despair… a simple, unquestioned conviction that, just as we never learned to love and forgive our betrayers, so God will never love and forgive us for betraying him.

Betrayal is the second worst thing there is, but despair is first. And both of them are overcome in the same way: the merciful love of God revealed in the cross and glorified in the resurrection. If you want to not only survive betrayal, but thrive in its midst… if you want to not only avoid despair, but banish despair from others by your witness, then turn once again to the Lord of Glory, raised from the dead this night/day. Turn to him now in this Mass… in the Mass next week and the week after, which will enable you to turn to him in your hearts each and every day… day by day, week by week not only overcoming betrayal and escaping despair, but becoming full of joy, knowing a peace deeper than pain, and being what you were made to be: a holy people, an easter people, a people so full of hope that the devil himself can do nothing more than watch as we march – broken, but not destroyed, betrayed but not despairing – we march doggedly and triumphantly into eternal life.