The question you ask, “why would Jesus call someone to his inner circle knowing he would betray him?” Is an extremely challenging question. Judas presents a difficulty to a lot of Catholic philosophy. I cant claim to be an expert but I have been reading on topics tangent to this quite recently.
Things we have to accept as true:
-Judas had a choice, he was not predestined to betrayal, otherwise he would have no hope for salvation, would be an anti-Mary condemned at his very conception.
-Jesus did know that Judas would betray him. We know this in the philosophical sense that God is omniscient, but also in a basic sense that Christ *tells us he knows*.
-Judas could have repented. Just yesterday I read an article by a Thomist that said the repentance of Judas would have been a world historical event--this connects to Truth #1, that he had a choice. God could have used Judas’ repentance to save the world as much as he did use his betrayal.
So if all three of those are true, again, why did Christ accept him? I like to think that Christ knew what COULD happen--for good or ill--and chose to believe in the best of Judas. Kind of like a couple where one tries to change the other, perhaps to cure him or her of a drinking problem. Why accept them? Because when you love someone, you choose to see the good they could do more than the bad they are likely to do. Christ loved Judas as much as he loves all of us, and died on the cross for his sins, too--even the betrayal that led to the cross in the first place. So Christ accepting Judas could be construed as a testimony of love for his fallen creation, no matter what.
This turned into more of a stream of consciousness than I intended, thank you for the thought provoking post!
The question you ask, “why would Jesus call someone to his inner circle knowing he would betray him?” Is an extremely challenging question. Judas presents a difficulty to a lot of Catholic philosophy. I cant claim to be an expert but I have been reading on topics tangent to this quite recently.
Things we have to accept as true:
-Judas had a choice, he was not predestined to betrayal, otherwise he would have no hope for salvation, would be an anti-Mary condemned at his very conception.
-Jesus did know that Judas would betray him. We know this in the philosophical sense that God is omniscient, but also in a basic sense that Christ *tells us he knows*.
-Judas could have repented. Just yesterday I read an article by a Thomist that said the repentance of Judas would have been a world historical event--this connects to Truth #1, that he had a choice. God could have used Judas’ repentance to save the world as much as he did use his betrayal.
So if all three of those are true, again, why did Christ accept him? I like to think that Christ knew what COULD happen--for good or ill--and chose to believe in the best of Judas. Kind of like a couple where one tries to change the other, perhaps to cure him or her of a drinking problem. Why accept them? Because when you love someone, you choose to see the good they could do more than the bad they are likely to do. Christ loved Judas as much as he loves all of us, and died on the cross for his sins, too--even the betrayal that led to the cross in the first place. So Christ accepting Judas could be construed as a testimony of love for his fallen creation, no matter what.
This turned into more of a stream of consciousness than I intended, thank you for the thought provoking post!