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!
While Judas did have a choice, Jesus was fully aware of what choice he would make when He called Judas to be one of His Twelve Apostles. The Catholic Church believes in a doctrine of predestination, as is evident from the writings of St. Augustine and other medieval philosophers. However, unlike the Calvinists, the Church’s concept of predestination recognizes the importance of man's free will.
Our free will is a gift from God, and at first, it would seem that it is at odds with any doctrine of predestination, as Boethius argued. However, this predestination consists of God's Divine Providence having foreseen what is going to happen, for God is omniscient and eternal. In this way, God is fully aware of whether a particular soul will choose to go to Heaven or Hell; He fully possesses this knowledge, but He does not use it to control or override man's free will, as the Calvinists believed.
Thus, from the beginning of time, God knew what choice Judas would make: that He would allow the devil to enter into his heart and betray Our Lord, despairing at the end and hanging himself. Jesus knew with certainty that this was going to happen; there was no hope for any other outcome in the situation. Yet He chose Judas anyway.
Perhaps another reason He did so, besides what you have already mentioned, is the reason medieval philosophers gave in their discussion of theodicy: to show how God uses everything -- even that which is most evil, as in the case of Judas' betrayal -- to bring about good. It is often difficult to see how God is doing this in one's own life, but to see it so clearly in the life of Jesus -- for Judas' betrayal led to Christ's Passion and Death, and through them, to the Resurrection -- gives one immense hope and confidence in the goodness and mercy of God.
Thank you for this, it is simultaneously illuminating and confounding and I find whenever I am confused in this way I am on the cusp of understanding more of the mystery of God's creation.
Predestination and omniscience are deeply challenging topics and so, begging your patience with me, I would like to share what I recently learned through discussions on this topic elsewhere. It's possible my discussions were either in a different school of thought, hopefully still orthodox but if there is any error I beg your correction as well.
God has a few modes of knowing. In one sense, outside of time, he sees the sum of all things. God at t=1 knows perfectly what God at t=2 knows, because God is outside of time and so can see both times equally. In another sense, God exists in an eternal now (it was described to me as "nunc" to avoid confusion). God knows perfectly our potential acts at t=2 (Judas betrays, judas does not betray), but only our completed acts are actual (t=0, Judas arrives at the passover meal).
If you are pressed for time, here is the relevant excerpt from the comment:
"He is before all things in the order of logic, but not in the order of time. In the order of time, he is contemporaneous with all things. So, while it is true that at your birth he knew what you would do with the [sandwich you are eating for lunch], nevertheless he doesn’t learn of what you are doing with the sandwich right now until you do it."
This is relevant for Judas because the question was raised that goes something like this: If God knows with perfection that Judas would choose in such a way that results in damnation, and he still made him, that means God created someone for hell, and that would be antithetical to Catholic teaching. Everyone has to have an opportunity for salvation, and my (perhaps mis)understanding of your comment is that Judas had no potential pathways that lead to heaven.
This is a rambling and poorly explained description of my understanding upon arriving at this post. Perhaps what I am saying agrees with your reply and I haven't understood it. Any correction would be appreciated, likewise if there are any resources you can recommend where I might better educate myself, I would be grateful.
Firstly, I do apologize for my severely delayed reply; I had a personal situation arise last week, and between that and Easter, I had been unable to finish writing my reply. Please forgive me.
I found the quote from Boethius to which I referred in my first post; it might help give some context here:
“[God] sees all things in his eternal present as you see some things in your temporal present. Therefore, this divine foreknowledge does not change the nature and properties of things; it simply sees things present before it as they will later turn out to be in what we regard as the future…. [W]hen God knows that something will happen in the future, and at the same time knows that it will not happen through necessity [— that is, something that occurs because of our free will, like Judas’ betrayal of Jesus —], this is not opinion but knowledge based on truth… [I]f Providence sees anything as present, that thing must necessarily be, even though it may have no necessity by its nature. But God sees as present those future things which result from free will. Therefore, from the standpoint of divine knowledge these things are necessary because of the condition of their being known by God; but, considered only in themselves, they lose nothing of the absolute freedom of their own natures” (Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, Book V, Prose 6).
Judas had free will, which he could have used to resist evil. However, he chose not to, and Jesus knew from all eternity that he would not. Judas’ fate was sealed by his own free will and confirmed in the eternal present of the divine knowledge. There was no possibility for his making any other choice because in the eternal present, God knew what choice he would make. For this reason, as Jesus said in St. Luke’s Gospel, “it were better for him, if that man had not been born” (Mat 26:24 DRB). God continually offered Judas the grace to repent, right up until he despaired and committed suicide, but he chose not to accept it. He possessed the ability to repent, because the Catholic view of predestination does not deny man’s free will or the power of God’s grace and mercy; however, God foresaw from all eternity that he would not.
Nevertheless, this does not mean that God created Judas — or anyone else who is damned — for Hell. As the Baltimore Catechism so beautifully says, “God made me to know, love, and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.” This is true for every single person whom God has created, regardless of their predestination. God creates men to glorify Him; even though He knows that they will abuse their free will, He creates them to glorify Himself and to shower His graces upon them, continually offering them the chance to repent, rather than be damned.
In the quote you gave about the sandwich — “[God] doesn’t learn of what you are doing with the sandwich right now until you do it” — unless I am misunderstanding what the writer truly meant, this seems to limit God’s omniscience. God is outside of time; in His eternal present, every human event is just that, eternally present. Therefore, He is not limited by the bounds of human time in learning what I am doing with the sandwich right now; He has always known it. Only man learns of things in time.
Here are some relevant articles from Aquinas’ Summa theologiae that explain the Catholic doctrine of predestination:
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!
While Judas did have a choice, Jesus was fully aware of what choice he would make when He called Judas to be one of His Twelve Apostles. The Catholic Church believes in a doctrine of predestination, as is evident from the writings of St. Augustine and other medieval philosophers. However, unlike the Calvinists, the Church’s concept of predestination recognizes the importance of man's free will.
Our free will is a gift from God, and at first, it would seem that it is at odds with any doctrine of predestination, as Boethius argued. However, this predestination consists of God's Divine Providence having foreseen what is going to happen, for God is omniscient and eternal. In this way, God is fully aware of whether a particular soul will choose to go to Heaven or Hell; He fully possesses this knowledge, but He does not use it to control or override man's free will, as the Calvinists believed.
Thus, from the beginning of time, God knew what choice Judas would make: that He would allow the devil to enter into his heart and betray Our Lord, despairing at the end and hanging himself. Jesus knew with certainty that this was going to happen; there was no hope for any other outcome in the situation. Yet He chose Judas anyway.
Perhaps another reason He did so, besides what you have already mentioned, is the reason medieval philosophers gave in their discussion of theodicy: to show how God uses everything -- even that which is most evil, as in the case of Judas' betrayal -- to bring about good. It is often difficult to see how God is doing this in one's own life, but to see it so clearly in the life of Jesus -- for Judas' betrayal led to Christ's Passion and Death, and through them, to the Resurrection -- gives one immense hope and confidence in the goodness and mercy of God.
Thank you for this, it is simultaneously illuminating and confounding and I find whenever I am confused in this way I am on the cusp of understanding more of the mystery of God's creation.
Predestination and omniscience are deeply challenging topics and so, begging your patience with me, I would like to share what I recently learned through discussions on this topic elsewhere. It's possible my discussions were either in a different school of thought, hopefully still orthodox but if there is any error I beg your correction as well.
God has a few modes of knowing. In one sense, outside of time, he sees the sum of all things. God at t=1 knows perfectly what God at t=2 knows, because God is outside of time and so can see both times equally. In another sense, God exists in an eternal now (it was described to me as "nunc" to avoid confusion). God knows perfectly our potential acts at t=2 (Judas betrays, judas does not betray), but only our completed acts are actual (t=0, Judas arrives at the passover meal).
I was trying to avoid going back to the place where I talked about this to reference it but I had to because I got turned around: Please see here, and the first comment: https://timesdispatch.wordpress.com/2022/02/27/ccxcii-scoot-and-hambone-talk-about-stuff-again/
If you are pressed for time, here is the relevant excerpt from the comment:
"He is before all things in the order of logic, but not in the order of time. In the order of time, he is contemporaneous with all things. So, while it is true that at your birth he knew what you would do with the [sandwich you are eating for lunch], nevertheless he doesn’t learn of what you are doing with the sandwich right now until you do it."
This is relevant for Judas because the question was raised that goes something like this: If God knows with perfection that Judas would choose in such a way that results in damnation, and he still made him, that means God created someone for hell, and that would be antithetical to Catholic teaching. Everyone has to have an opportunity for salvation, and my (perhaps mis)understanding of your comment is that Judas had no potential pathways that lead to heaven.
This is a rambling and poorly explained description of my understanding upon arriving at this post. Perhaps what I am saying agrees with your reply and I haven't understood it. Any correction would be appreciated, likewise if there are any resources you can recommend where I might better educate myself, I would be grateful.
Thank you!
Firstly, I do apologize for my severely delayed reply; I had a personal situation arise last week, and between that and Easter, I had been unable to finish writing my reply. Please forgive me.
I found the quote from Boethius to which I referred in my first post; it might help give some context here:
“[God] sees all things in his eternal present as you see some things in your temporal present. Therefore, this divine foreknowledge does not change the nature and properties of things; it simply sees things present before it as they will later turn out to be in what we regard as the future…. [W]hen God knows that something will happen in the future, and at the same time knows that it will not happen through necessity [— that is, something that occurs because of our free will, like Judas’ betrayal of Jesus —], this is not opinion but knowledge based on truth… [I]f Providence sees anything as present, that thing must necessarily be, even though it may have no necessity by its nature. But God sees as present those future things which result from free will. Therefore, from the standpoint of divine knowledge these things are necessary because of the condition of their being known by God; but, considered only in themselves, they lose nothing of the absolute freedom of their own natures” (Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, Book V, Prose 6).
Judas had free will, which he could have used to resist evil. However, he chose not to, and Jesus knew from all eternity that he would not. Judas’ fate was sealed by his own free will and confirmed in the eternal present of the divine knowledge. There was no possibility for his making any other choice because in the eternal present, God knew what choice he would make. For this reason, as Jesus said in St. Luke’s Gospel, “it were better for him, if that man had not been born” (Mat 26:24 DRB). God continually offered Judas the grace to repent, right up until he despaired and committed suicide, but he chose not to accept it. He possessed the ability to repent, because the Catholic view of predestination does not deny man’s free will or the power of God’s grace and mercy; however, God foresaw from all eternity that he would not.
Nevertheless, this does not mean that God created Judas — or anyone else who is damned — for Hell. As the Baltimore Catechism so beautifully says, “God made me to know, love, and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.” This is true for every single person whom God has created, regardless of their predestination. God creates men to glorify Him; even though He knows that they will abuse their free will, He creates them to glorify Himself and to shower His graces upon them, continually offering them the chance to repent, rather than be damned.
In the quote you gave about the sandwich — “[God] doesn’t learn of what you are doing with the sandwich right now until you do it” — unless I am misunderstanding what the writer truly meant, this seems to limit God’s omniscience. God is outside of time; in His eternal present, every human event is just that, eternally present. Therefore, He is not limited by the bounds of human time in learning what I am doing with the sandwich right now; He has always known it. Only man learns of things in time.
Here are some relevant articles from Aquinas’ Summa theologiae that explain the Catholic doctrine of predestination:
https://www.newadvent.org/summa/1023.htm#article3
https://www.newadvent.org/summa/1022.htm
https://www.newadvent.org/summa/1014.htm#article10