Traitor

“…who became a traitor.” (Luke 6:19). 

Only God Can Judge (Minh Hang)

There are a few different types of sin.

There is Original Sin – and that is the first sin committed by humankind, when first Eve and then Adam ate from the tree that was forbidden in the Garden of Eden – the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  What this sin really was, was a sin of Pride and Disobedience.  This was the moment when humans decided that they wanted to judge things for themselves.  They no longer wished to listen to God and do as He asked.  That was not good enough for us.  Instead, we wanted to make ourselves gods – in a way.  We wanted to decide what was right and wrong.  We wanted to know all things so that we could judge God rather than allowing God to judge us.  This is the sin that each human is born with (except Adam and Eve – who were created as sinless, and the Blessed Virgin who was immaculately conceived to be worthy of her Son and Saint John the Baptist, whose sins were forgiven in the womb during the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin, and – of course – Christ, who is God Himself)…

And then there are venial sins.  These sins stain our souls and require us to repent and seek reconciliation with God and then require some form of retribution – we need to make up for the sin.  In the Shakespearean Play, “Hamlet”, the villain prays begging forgiveness for the murder of his brother, but also acknowledges in the same prayer that God cannot forgive him if he does not make reparation by forgoing all the benefits that murder provided him with.  This is why we have the GIFT of Purgatory, where we may go after our death to finalise our purification to become ready to be in God’s presence.

And finally, there are mortal sins.  These sins, as their name implies, are mortal or deadly.  These sins cause us to die – spiritually.  And that is what Hell is for.  Hell is the place where dead souls go.  And again, through repentance and the sacrament of reconciliation, we have the opportunity to repent of these sins and be saved though sacrifice and the sacraments.

Judas Iscariot was one of the apostles…

“He went out to the mountain to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles; Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.” (Luke 6:12-19).

Those words are frightening…  “who became a traitor.” (Luke 6:19).  Judas was not born a traitor – but he became one.  And he became one despite the best of circumstances.  He was in the physical, spiritual, emotional presence of God.  And even so, he became a traitor.  How?  Probably through venial sin.

Very few sinners begin with the worst of their crimes.  Rather a lot of little things desensitise us to the terrible nature of our sins and instead of being able to understand that we are moving away from God, we think we are propelling ourselves forward in the world.

Judas was surely the same.

And when I think about that – and the temptation to commit just the smallest of venial sins – I am horrified.  For woe unto me to be called the one “who became a traitor.” (Luke 6:19). 

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.