A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. Our lord reclining with his disciples grew deeply troubled and he went on to give this testimony. This is the last supper. I tell you solemnly, one of you will betray me. The disciples looked at one another puzzled as to whom Jesus might meet.
One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, of course, that's John himself, Reclined close to Jesus as they ate. Now, Simon Peter signaled John to ask Jesus whom he meant. He leaned back against Jesus' chest and said to him, Lord, who is he? Jesus replied, the one to whom I give the bit of food I dip in the dish. He dipped the morsel and then took it and gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot.
Immediately afterwards, Satan entered his heart. And then Jesus addressed himself to him. Be quick with what you are about to do. Naturally, none of those reclining at table understood why Jesus said this to to Judas. A few had the idea that since Judas held the common purse, Jesus was telling him to go out and to buy something for the feast or to give something to the poor.
No sooner had Judas eaten, the more so, then he went out. And it was night. Once Judas had left, Jesus said to the rest of them, now is the son of man glorified and god is glorified in him. If god has been glorified in him, god will in turn glorify him in himself and will glorify him soon. My children, I am not to be with you much longer.
You will look for me, but I say to you now what I once said to the Jews, where I am going, you cannot come. Simon Peter spoke up at that and said, Lord, where do you mean to go? Jesus answered, I am going where you cannot follow me. But later on, you shall indeed come after me. Lord, Peter said to Jesus, why can't I follow you now?
I will lay down my life for you. Good old Peter. And our lord said to him, look, Peter, you will indeed lay down your life for me, will you? And Jesus answered, I tell you truly Peter, the cock will not crow before you have three times disowned me. And this is the gospel of the lord.
In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. Last night, we had a very successful, very appealing, inspirational, penitential service which ended with the confession of important sins. Every sin is important of course, but we make a distinction between those that are more important than those are that are most important. And in hearing confessions, as we do now occasionally, every time I sit in and listen, I can't I take this opportunity of bringing it home to you.
There is so much feeling involved today. You see there's a big in the sixteenth century, one of the greatest marks, one of the greatest characteristics of the Reformation was the rejection of reason, intelligence, demonstrable proof, and an appeal to feeling, to individual reaction, to being comfortable, to being inspired, to being enthusiastic, to feeling good with your religion, to feed to be feeling safe. And I emphasize the word feeling because Luther did. It's one of his most a very frequently used German verb. Now, the Church of Jesus Christ has never been set on feeling.
And there's two things to be said about feeling. Don't exaggerate it and don't neglect or ignore it. A book on psychology came out about three years ago. The very first sentence, the very first sentence in this book of psychology says, we are creatures of feeling. What do you think of that?
We're just like cats and dogs. Now, a man it's absurd. It's ridiculous. It's any word you want to deny feeling. It's it's just as ridiculous to claim that man is a disembodied spirit and nothing but a mind which you can convert with a syllogism.
Newman said, there was never a person converted by a syllogism. I know that. I know that. But when people come to confessions and are kneeling there before God Almighty and they're saying I I feel bad because I can't feel sorry for my sins. Who said they're supposed to feel sorry for sin?
What what do you mean by feel sorry? As parents, as as any adult with any kind of responsibility, is how you feel about the responsibility a criterion of your allegiance to that responsibility? Is it in your own lives? Well the answer to that is in many instances, yes. And that's why we have so many divorces.
Time and again I hear people say that how do you resolve questions of conscience? Make your decision. Are you comfortable with your decision? If you are, it's the right one for you. That's see that's the contemporary thought.
Guy Staple Lewis, the night that he came back from the zoo and fell on his knees believing in God Almighty, not a Christian, on God Almighty. He said, I was the most reluctant believer in England. Reluctant. He didn't want to believe. Don't let feeling run away with you.
By that I mean, it's such a loss. Remember, the reason people commit sin is not that sin is ugly, it's because what we want is attractive and don't deny that. Nobody commits sin because they're pursuing the ugly, the reprehensible, the repulsive. It's absurd. Now, when you go to God and say, I'm sorry to have offended you, you mean you can do a transformation all of a sudden?
Of course, you can. Are you going to try to force yourself into that kind of an artificial mold? Don't do that. Don't be honest with yourself. Be honest with God.
You commit sin because something was attractive. And it's still as attractive maybe when you after you turn to God as we say. How you feel about it? It's absolutely irrelevant to the case. Now, it's not irrelevant to you, but it's irrelevant to the case of salvation.
It's irrelevant to your way of life. It's irrelevant to your to the tranquility of mind and of soul you should have when you fall on your knees before God and say, Lord, I'm a prodigal. Remember, his arms are open for you. It's not how you feel about it, it's what you do about it. Christ just just think of this.
Three times in the Garden Of Gethsemane, Christ the son of God, who knew all about what he was going to have to do, begged his father three times three times to be spared. He wasn't Because at the end, Christ said, but not my will, but thine be done. He wasn't comfortable with the thought of Calvary. He wasn't comfortable with the thought of his passion. Christ was not comfortable with the prospect of the cross.
Any more than Colby was comfortable when he went into the dungeon to be starved to death. So don't let feeling be your master. Don't be a slave to your feeling. We are not creatures, only a feeling. We are human beings, daughters and sons of God made to him his image.
His image. And the glory of a human being is not our identity with animals. It's our identity with angels. Name of the father, son, the holy spirit. Amen.