Today’s Gospel is a continuation of St. John’s Last Supper account. In it, we receive the sobering words regarding the fate of Judas Iscariot. Our Lord tells us in His prayer:
“When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” John 17:12.
While praying to the Father, Our Lord reveals the grave dichotomy between the election of the eleven faithful apostles and the damnation of Judas.
While this is certainly unsettling, the spiritual benefit of meditating on the Four Last Things (death, judgment, heaven, and hell) has been continually reaffirmed by the great spiritual writers, saints, moralists, and the Church Herself. Meditating on them allows the faithful to put their lives into the perspective of eternity. One might see this Gospel as a warning by Our Lord that even those who are called to such a high state of holiness can be lost.
The treachery of Judas is foreshadowed in the Old Testament in the figure of Ahithophel who sought to betray and kill King David to the benefit of Absalom.1 When reflecting on this Old Testament narrative, the parallels between Ahithophel and Judas are staggering. To begin, Our Lord is of the House and lineage of King David, He is the successor to the throne, who was promised by God to institute an everlasting reign.2 Further, we see Ahithophel acting in much of the same way that Judas does:
“Moreover, Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose twelve thousand men, and I will set out and pursue David tonight. I will come upon him while he is weary and discouraged and throw him into a panic; and all the people who are with him will flee. I will strike down the king only…” 2 Samuel 17:1-2
Here, we can see that Ahithophel seeks to come upon David at night just as Judas leads the temple authorities to Christ in the night during His agony.3 The king is said to be weary and discouraged just as Christ is weak and discouraged from His agony and the fact that His apostles are sleeping.4 The betrayal causes the people to leave David just as the Apostles flee out of fear.5 The king is then said to be struck down. Of course, for David, this does not happen, but Christ is struck down by the betrayal of Judas. The most striking parallel comes in Ahithophel’s demise:
“When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, and went off home to his own city. And he set his house in order, and hanged himself; and he died, and was buried in the tomb of his father.” 2 Samuel 17:23
Clearly, the Old Testament figure of Ahithophel is meant to foreshadow the tragedy of Judas Iscariot.
But what can be gained from this? I think the important reality that must be gathered is that even those who are called to the heights of holiness can be lost. It does us no good to go through life assuming that we are already saved and fall into the sin of presumption. Until we cross the threshold of the Judgment Seat and are found worthy, we cannot have any guarantee of our salvation. This is why St. Paul tells us to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Philippians 2:12. While initial justification comes through faith, final justification and salvation are something that no one on this earth has yet attained and so there is a chance that we too, may be lost as St. Paul likewise tells us, “lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:27.
The final lesson that the tragedy of Judas can teach us is that of repentance. There is no sin too great that God cannot forgive if we seek forgiveness. God desperately desires our salvation just as He desires the salvation of Judas. Christ did not call Judas just damn Him. Christ called Judas to be an Apostle and to sit on a throne in Heaven. Judas rejected it and instead put his love into money and worldly things. But even after betraying Him unto death, Judas could have still returned to Our Lord and sought forgiveness and it would have been given. Truly, this is the most tragic part of Judas’ sin. It was not the sin itself, but it was the final impenitence with which he hung himself, falling into the sin of despair.
Interestingly, both presumption and despair are sins against the virtue of Hope. The tragedy of Judas is permitted by God to teach us hope. We must not fall into the presumption that our salvation is already secured since it is possible to fall from a great height, as Judas did. But on the other side, we must continually hope in the mercy of Christ, who desires all men to be saved and has thus opened up the unfathomable depths of His mercy to those who seek it out. The danger of Judas is ever present to all the faithful, but through the grace of God and the Theological Virtue of Hope, we can conquer both despair and presumption and be counted among the saints of heaven, when our time comes.
See 2 Samuel 17.
See 2 Samuel 7:14.
See Matthew 26:47-56.
See Matthew 26:36-46.
See Matthew 26:56.