TREACHERY

* Holy Thursday: To get the proper impact, we must attend to the night's anti-hero, Judas, a true rat who turned in the nicest guy who ever lived, for money. Disloyal, venal, devious, scheming, a collaborator with evil men, he saw his opportunity and took it. Jesus could tell what was happening. But he did what he had to do anyhow.

THE SPIRIT MOVED THEM

* 6th Sunday "of" (that is, after) Easter:

-- 1st reading, Acts 10, big news is the Spirit descending on non-Jews in the house of one, the centurion Cornelius. But we're used to that; if we don't get it by now that Christianity is open to the uncircumcised, where have we been the last 1,930 or so years?

Secondary news is more to the point: Cornelius, greeting Peter, dropped to his knees, but Peter told him to get up. "I'm only a man," said the first pope. So much for genuflecting before prelates. Or kissing rings. They are only men.

-- 2nd reading, 1 John 4, re-makes the point that love is essential. We're used to that too, but should note that it's not we love God and are loved, but the other way around. This is consoling, because lots of times we don't feel lovable and probably aren't.

-- Gospel, John 15.9-17: Jesus' love for us is modeled on his Father's for him, which is worth packing away for further repeated consideration. Not that the Father was so good to Jesus in the short run. In fact, if Jesus had ever shown he was capable of irony, we might see a certain threat here.

We are Jesus' friends, picked by him, the passage says. Again, the first move was his. He spotted us in the crowd and came at us with a big smile, hand out for shaking. Furthermore, when we go to the Father for something, we should say Jesus sent us.

BEING PICKED ON

* 7th of Easter:

-- 1st reading, Acts 1: Can we imagine picking a pope this way? By drawing straws, as the 11 do to pick Matthias as the 12th apostle, to take Judas's place? It was their way of letting God decide. (The Romans had "auspices" discerned in entrails.) We don't do it that way. Should we?

-- 2nd reading, 1st John 4: "God is love" here. Not eros, but the other kind, altruism, caring for the neighbor. The good pagan stumbles into God this way? Why not?

-- Gospel, John 17, has Jesus praying for us, because we are to be hated for our allegiance to him. How does that work? Rather, in our day in the U.S., who of us feel hated as Christians? Depends what you mean by Christian, but in general we aren't. Of course if we're stubborn about it, people's irritation shows. Maybe that's how it works.

Not so everywhere else, however. The pope was clearly so worried about disturbing the Iraqi status quo for fear of stirring up anti-Christian activities among the Shiites.