Stand for Something

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The saying goes, "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."

I can't be certain, but I think that phrase has more meaning today than it ever has. Maybe I'm just listening more today than I ever have, but it seems that people everywhere are buying into someone else's idea of what is good. "Yeah, sounds like a good idea." Does anyone today really know a good idea when they hear one? The vast majority of our fellow citizens seem to think everything is a good idea. I am seeing this in politics, in entertainment, and even in religion. No one really has any substance to base their decision on -- just sounds like a good idea.

I think now more than ever we have to be certain that our children know the difference between right and wrong. I think decades of not teaching the difference between right and wrong lands you in, "Yeah, sounds like a good idea."

Besides teaching our children to love God, to love their neighbor, we now have to make certain they can identify evil, and not just overt evil. They have the be able to discern, at a much younger age now, the true meaning of their actions, the implications they may have. Because unless they grow up with the ability to see it, they will agree with anything. "Sounds like a good idea."

Today is Spy Wednesday -- the day Our Lord was betrayed by his beloved disciple.

"When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, 'Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.' Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, 'Surely it is not I, Lord?' He said in reply, 'He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.' Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, 'Surely it is not I, Rabbi?' He answered, 'You have said so.' "Mt 26:21-25

From what has been written about Judas, he didn't start out with the intent to do evil. In fact, the bible tells us: "Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified, "Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me." The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant. One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at Jesus' side. So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant. He leaned back against Jesus' chest and said to him, "Master, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it." So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot. After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him." Jn 13: 21-27

If Judas' act of betrayal didn't begin as an act of evil, then maybe it was "just an idea" that changed the history of the world. Some theologians say that if Judas had not betrayed Christ then someone else would have. Or that He would still have been captured and crucified. Probably so, it was predestined. But still, it was Judas. It was his idea. Because he stood for nothing.

Pope Benedict XVI: "Judas is neither a master of evil nor the figure of a demoniacal power of darkness by rather a sycophant who bows down before the anonymous power of changing moods and current fashion. But it is precisely this anonymous power that crucified Jesus, for it was anonymous voices that cried, 'Away with him! Crucify him!'"

How quickly the voices of the crowds went from chanting "Hosanna" to "Crucify Him." How easily they were convinced that it was "a good idea."

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