By Fr. Antony Christy, SDB –
‘One of the Twelve’…not necessarily just one of the twelve as the Gospel begins today, but almost all of them were proving traitors in there own turn. They were anywhere between mere onlookers and involved game players, when it came to the climax of Jesus’ ministry: the passion and death! It begins of course, with Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve! Today can be called the Spy Wednesday as it was today that Judas agrees with the Jewish leaders to betray Jesus!
Jesus outlook on the twelve never changes: I call you friends, he had said! They were his friends but friends who turned traitors each in their own respect but Jesus’ continuous confidence in them as friends, brings them back and they were ready to give their life for Christ’s message. They were ready to pay the price of being true friends. A true friend can never be lost!
But Judas failed on that count too – he did not give even the goodness of the Lord, the possibility of working on him! At times people say Judas just played a role that he had to! Let us not be carried away by that type of an interpretation, because Judas had the time and the freedom to choose otherwise. Jesus had given him ample chance to fall in line and think as Jesus would have it: in terms of God’s will and not our own schemes!
I remember a quote from the famous writer Paulo Coelho: a mistake repeated more than once is a decision. Out of our deliberate choice, out of our habit or out of a psuedo-inability to decide otherwise, we make wrong choices sometimes and those choices are actually moments when we turn traitors!
As the letter to the Hebrews challenges us: are we ready to fight sin to the point of shedding our blood? (cf. Heb 12:4). Are we ready to pay the price to defend our title as FRIENDS of the Lord? Then, are we ready to belong to the Reign of God in every way, come what may, instead of taking the easiest way out!
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.
The writer of the above report has stated: “It’s on Spy Wednesday that Judas agrees with the Jewish leaders to betray Jesus.” Actually it was the priestly class led by the head priest Caiaphas which decided to kill Jesus to ensure its hegemony over the faithful. This is clearly explained in John Chapter 11: 47-50 as follows:
47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”
49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
We might soon see some alteration of the above chapter on lines of recent revision of Class XII history chapters on the Mughal rule and Gandhiji’s assassination by NCERT!
Is Judas a spy, a man worthy of nothing? Judas is a much maligned man. He is cursed by most Catholics, clergy and laity combined. In my opinion, Judas was just doing his part, somebody had to do it. He was made the fall guy who subsequently genuinely repented. Far from being a man commonly believed by Catholics as roting in hell, he is going to be sharing stage on judgement day. “Verse (Mathew 19:28)
New International Version
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel”. Judas is in the same class as Peter who had no qualms in denying Jesus thrice. Guys if you venerate Peter then you have no right to condemn Judas. Happy Easter in advance.