Villainy, Judas Iscariot and reconciling our will to God’s

his blog is an article for the Together Paper of Wagga Wagga Diocese May Edition.

We’re told a picture tells a thousand words, but I have just come across one that requires
more. More words, more thought and more introspection.

Big call I know.

However, I recently came across an image of Judas Iscariot as depicted in the Serbian
Orthodox Church in the Monastery of Podmaine in Montenegro. Judas Iscariot you say, he of
the villainous traitor who handed Our Lord over for thirty pieces of silver. Yes, the one and
the same.

Consider the image closely though: on the left is the halo, the treasure of sanctity that could
have been his and, on the right, Judas literally turning his back on Our Lord.

It is a depiction of Judas that is both simple and profound. The icon presents a truth that, to
us, appears black and white. We know Judas made the wrong choice. We know that he later
despaired of that same choice and took his own life.

We villainise him; we direct our feeling of betrayal and blame at his feet. It is his fault that
Our Lord was taken to His death – despite being equally cognizant that Jesus came to die
for us and our sins. Not just those of Judas.

How could Judas betray Jesus? We ask ourselves, we can’t see how this could be possible.
Why would he choose to follow the Messiah, to leave his previous life and join the disciples
in their nomadic existence, only to later turn Jesus over to the very people who wanted to kill
him? It makes no sense to us.

Nor should it. Through the Gospels we are given the light and grace to see the whole of the
Passion of Our Lord, with all of the benefits of revelation, context, biblical and prophetical
surety, and historical hindsight.

Judas had some, but not all of these. Our position in human history gives us a different view
of those events. But, like Judas, we daily, sometimes hourly, make decisions based on our
own personal circumstances. Like Judas, we make the wrong choices, through flawed
reasoning, impulsive decisions or reactive behaviours. And other times, we make bad
decision with full knowledge and full consent.

Judas, a reflection

Imagine you are a young Jew, hamstrung but the Roman oppression of your home and
religion. You, and your people, have spent years awaiting the coming of the Messiah. And
now here He is. Here in your midst is the one to save you from your bondage.
Young, impulsive, enthusiastic, you gladly throw aside your old life to hang on his coattails.
To follow Him is to be victorious, to be triumphant.

But, over time, you begin to see that His way is different. He is clearly impressive – miracles
you have seen with your own eyes, tasted with your mouth – but He is not a conquering
hero. He is meek, gentle and instructive.

And though you love Him, you are disappointed. He is not what you expected, and nothing
you say or do will change His mind. All of your dreams of triumph, of victory, evaporate.
Perhaps you start planning your way out, your way of distancing yourself from Him once
things begin to spiral out of control. Maybe you give too much heed to the voice in your ear,
from the great divider, and you think that Jesus’ arrest will spurn Him on, to see why your
way is the right way. That your Messianic dream is superior to His. And that in following it,
you will both be glorified, victorious. Heroes for your long-oppressed people.

This section is only 288 words. One might go on, or start again. The truth is, we will not know
this side of Heaven why Judas chose what he did.

What we do know, for certain, is that we too are engaged in the lifelong battle against
concupiscence. We might not actively hand over Our Lord to His enemies who will nail Him
to the cross.

But we each make decisions that lead us closer to our ‘halo’ or turn our back on Jesus
Christ. We are not so dissimilar from Judas in that respect. But we do have many
sacramental aids including the Confession – as well as great knowledge of the mercy and
love of Our Lord.

Having only recently celebrated the Resurrection of Our Lord, and Divine Mercy Sunday, it is
the perfect time to re-orient our own personal journey.

The hardest part of all of this is choosing God’s will over our own, and really meaning it.
Praying ‘if it be Your will Lord’ when we’re too attached to our own will, desires, sinful
inclinations, doesn’t quite cut it.

We must desire to want what God wants, even when it’s the opposite of what we want. At
the risk of oversimplifying this idea, the following picture is one that turns up on social media
every so often. It is a tad simplistic, but you get the idea.

When we surrender our will to God’s, we can expect more than we imagined or even
anticipated.

Including our own sanctification!