I cannot fathom a scene that reveals any more deeply the profound respect Our Lord has for our freedom than the scene of Judas at the table at Passover.

Jesus could have stopped it at any moment. He could have flipped the table like He did in the temple. He could have revealed to Judas that He knew who he really was—a traitor and a liar—and turned him out into the night.

But this is not the way of Love, for Love Himself desires to be freely chosen, even if the freedom results in betrayal and leads to the Cross. Jesus’ countenance remains unchanged as they reclined together for the meal while saying, “One of you will betray me” (John 13:21). It was a sure reality, and Jesus accepted it and loved anyway.

What I want to meditate on as we approach this Holy Triduum is the reality that I am not a slave to this Love, and neither are you.

Our Lord is asking us to approach this great Feast in total freedom and with total emptiness, the fruits of a true love that show us how to freely choose God. Though truly we are indebted, Christ makes it so that our debt is utterly un-repayable anyway.

And so we must sit at the table, incapable and small and unworthy, with the greatest and only gift we have for the King of Kings—the free gift of love.

God deeply desires our free will to choose Him and His love, to want to be with Him, to respond to that call with love instead of feelings of an obligation we’d rather avoid. It is in this place of freedom in love that we will learn to love the One Who is Love Himself, in the school of His death and Resurrection.

A cross freely taken up, a life freely laid down, a love freely given.

listen to today’s devotion

[bctt tweet="Choose Him and His love. // Blythe Fike" username="blessedisshe__"]

Let your heart learn from Love Himself on how to love!