1 April 2026 — Daily Mass Readings

 

1 April 2026 — Daily Mass Readings

Wednesday of Holy Week

New Zealand – Christchurch Calendar
Liturgical Colour: Violet · Year A (II)

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First Reading

Isaiah 50:4–9

The Lord has given me
a disciple’s tongue.
So that I may know how to reply to the wearied
he provides me with speech.
Each morning he wakes me to hear,
to listen like a disciple.
The Lord has opened my ear.
For my part, I made no resistance,
neither did I turn away.
I offered my back to those who struck me,
my cheeks to those who tore at my beard;
I did not cover my face
against insult and spittle.
The Lord comes to my help,
so that I am untouched by the insults.
So, too, I set my face like flint;
I know I shall not be shamed.
My vindicator is here at hand.
Does anyone start proceedings against me?
Then let us go to court together.
Who thinks he has a case against me?
Let him approach me.
The Lord is coming to my help,
who will dare to condemn me?

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Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 68(69):8–10, 21–22, 31, 33–34

It is for you that I suffer taunts,
that shame covers my face,
that I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my own mother’s sons.
I burn with zeal for your house
and taunts against you fall on me.

For food they gave me poison;
in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Let their table be a snare to them
and their festive board their ruin.

I will praise God’s name with a song;
I will glorify him with thanksgiving.

The poor when they see it will be glad
and God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord listens to the needy
and does not spurn his servants in their chains.

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Gospel

Matthew 26:14–25

One of the Twelve, the man called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you prepared to give me if I hand him over to you?” They paid him thirty silver pieces, and from that moment he looked for an opportunity to betray him.

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus to say, “Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the passover?”

“Go to so-and-so in the city,” he replied, “and say to him, ‘The Master says: My time is near. It is at your house that I am keeping Passover with my disciples.’”

The disciples did what Jesus told them and prepared the Passover.

When evening came he was at table with the twelve disciples. And while they were eating he said, “I tell you solemnly, one of you is about to betray me.”

They were greatly distressed and started asking him in turn, “Not I, Lord, surely?”

He answered, “Someone who has dipped his hand into the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will, but alas for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born!”

Judas, who was to betray him, asked in his turn, “Not I, Rabbi, surely?”

“They are your own words,” answered Jesus.

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Reflection

Wednesday of Holy Week confronts us with decision.

Isaiah presents the Servant who does not resist, who sets his face “like flint.” This passage reveals Christ’s conscious acceptance of suffering. The Catechism teaches that Jesus freely embraced the Passion in obedience to the Father’s will (CCC 609–610). He is not a victim of circumstance; he is the obedient Son fulfilling the Scriptures (CCC 601).

The Psalm deepens the suffering — mockery, rejection, vinegar for thirst. The Church sees here a prophetic foreshadowing of the Crucifixion (CCC 574; 713). What the Psalmist endures finds its fulfilment in Christ.

The Gospel brings the tension to the table.

Judas negotiates betrayal for thirty silver pieces — the price of a slave (cf. CCC 1851 on the gravity of sin against Christ). His betrayal is deliberate. It is not weakness in the moment; it is calculation.

And yet Jesus remains sovereign. “The Son of Man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will.” The Passion unfolds not as chaos but as providence (CCC 599–600). Human freedom acts — but God’s saving plan stands.

Each disciple asks, “Not I, Lord, surely?”

The question echoes through every generation.

Sin rarely announces itself loudly. It begins quietly — in compromise, in justification, in small disloyalties. The Catechism reminds us that repeated sin darkens the conscience (CCC 1865). Judas’ path did not begin at the Last Supper; it was formed over time.

Holy Week sharpens everything.

Christ sets his face like flint.
Judas sets his heart on silver.

Two directions. Two decisions.

The Servant knows suffering is near — yet he does not turn away.

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One line to carry today

Faithfulness is chosen long before betrayal appears.