Gospel (Mt 26,14-25) - At that time, one of the Twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said: "How much do you want to give me so that I hand him over to you?". And they gave him thirty pieces of silver. From that moment he looked for the right opportunity to hand over Jesus. On the first day of Unleavened Bread, the disciples approached Jesus and said to him: "Where do you want us to prepare for you, so that you can eat the Passover?". And he replied: «Go into the city to a man and say to him: “The Master says: My time is near; I will celebrate the Passover with you and my disciples". The disciples did as Jesus had ordered them, and prepared for Easter. When the evening came, he sat down at the table with the Twelve. While they were eating, he said, “Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me.” And they, deeply saddened, each began to ask him: "Is it me, Lord?". And he replied: «He who put his hand in the dish with me is the one who will betray me. The Son of man goes away, as it is written about him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born! Judas, the traitor, said: "Rabbi, is it I?". He replied: "You said so."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

The story of Judas' betrayal always arouses feelings of pain and bewilderment. Judah goes so far as to sell his Master for thirty denarii (the price of a slave's ransom). And how much bitterness is there in the opening words of the Gospel that we heard today: "One of the Twelve"! Yes, one of the closest friends. One that Jesus had chosen for himself and that he had loved and cared for, and also defended from the attacks of his adversaries. And now he is the one who sells it to his enemies. Judas had allowed himself to be seduced by wealth and had thus deepened his distance from the Master to the point of conceiving and then carrying out the betrayal. Jesus, moreover, had clearly said: "You cannot serve God and wealth" (Mt 6:24). Judas ended up preferring the second. And he set out on that path. But the conclusion of this adventure is very different from what he thought. And perhaps the anguish began precisely with the worry of finding the way and the moment to "hand over Jesus". The moment was about to arrive, it would have coincided with Easter, the time of the immolation of the lamb in memory of the liberation from the slavery of Egypt. Jesus knew well what awaited him: "My time is near." He asked the disciples to prepare the Passover dinner, the lamb's dinner, thus showing that it was not Judas who "handed him over" to the priests, but he himself "handed himself over" to death for the love of men. Jesus could have moved away from Jerusalem and retreated to a deserted place. He would certainly have escaped capture. But he didn't. He remained in Jerusalem. And he decided to celebrate the dinner in which the Jews remember God's decision to reclaim his people, freeing them from the slavery of Egypt. The question of love posed by Jesus that evening continues to resonate in the ears of every disciple, indeed of every man: the passion of Jesus is not over. And the need for love arises above all from the poor, the weak, the lonely, the condemned, those whose lives have been martyred by wickedness. And we must all be careful to distance ourselves from that instinct of betrayal hidden in everyone's heart. That evening, to hide his soul from the others, Judas also dared to say: "Rabbi, is it me?". Let us ask ourselves about our betrayals, not to let ourselves be crushed by them, but to bond us even more to Jesus who continues to take on his shoulders the sins of the world. Ours too.