Wednesday of the Holy Week

Official Translation

Reading 1 – Isaiah 50.4-9a

The Lord God has given me
a well-trained tongue,
that I may know how
to sustain with words him who is weary.
Morning after morning,
he has opened my ear to hear,
and I was not rebellious,
neither turned away backward.

I gave my back to the strikers,
and my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
I did not hide my face from shame and spitting.
For the Lord God will help me;
therefore I have not been confounded:
therefore have I set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be disappointed.
He is near who justifies me;
who will bring charges against me?
Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
Let him come near to me.
Behold, the Lord God will help me;
who shall condemn me?

Responsorial – Psalm 69.8-10, 21-22, 31+33-34 Resp. 14c

R. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me!

Because for your sake, I have borne reproach.
Shame has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my mother’s sons,
Because zeal for your house consumes me,
and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

R. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me!

Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness.
I looked for some to take pity, but there was none;
for comforters, but I found none.
They also gave me gall for my food.
In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

R. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me!

I will praise the name of God with a song,
and I will magnify him with praise.
Let the poor see and rejoice:
seek God, and your soul shall live.
For the Lord has heard the poor:
and has not despised his prisoners.

R. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me!

Gospel – Matthew 26.14-25

One of the Twelve,
who was called Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests, and said,
“What are you willing to give me,
that I should betray him to you?”
They weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver.
From that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

Now on the first day of unleavened bread,
the disciples came to Jesus, saying to him,
“Where do you want us
to prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
He said, “Go into the city to a certain person, and tell him,
‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand.
I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.”’”

The disciples did as Jesus commanded them,
and they prepared the Passover.
Now when evening had come,
he was reclining at the table with the Twelve.
As they were eating, he said,
“Most certainly I tell you that one of you will betray me.”
They were exceedingly sorrowful,
and each began to ask him, “It is not I, Lord, is it?”

He answered, “One who has dipped his hand with me in the dish,
Is the one who will betray me.
The Son of Human goes,
even as it is written of him,
but woe to that human through whom
the Son of Human is betrayed!
It would be better for that human
if he had not been born.”

Judas, who betrayed him, answered,
“It is not I, Rabbi, is it?”
He said to him, “So you said.”