“Oh what a tangled web we weave when we endeavour to deceive…”
I have been thinking about truth…
Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Christ, performed that betrayal by lying.
He lied about what Christ had done and led the corrupt officials to a place where Christ was praying, and in this way – by kissing the Holy Cheek of God to betray Him – He lied about his affection for Christ…
And there is such dishonesty in his actions and motives… You see, Judas saw Christ perform many miracles. He saw Him turn water into wine and cause the blind to see and the deaf to hear. He watched as Christ caused the lame to walk and the dumb to speak. He waited as the lepers were healed and the demons were cast out. He listened to the words Christ preached over and over again…
And in all of this, Judas remained dishonest.
He was not a big liar. Just a little one. He did not take a big amount of the money collected – just a small amount. He did not commit gross and serious acts of betrayal before that fateful night, btu he committed little ones that probably did not mean anything at all to him.
In fact, it occurs to me that Judas was so entrenched in this habit of dishonesty that he was completely unaware of just how terrible even one act of dishonesty can be.
When I was a little girl my Father used to say, “Oh what a tangled web we weave when we endeavour to deceive…” I still do not know where the phrase came from, but I have believed it all my life. And yet, I too – like Judas – am dishonest in little things. I shush my conscious about a little lie. I quiet my soul about a little sin – just as Judas did.
Perhaps Judas was so unaware that by the time he committed the ultimate betrayal he considered that Christ would simply walk through the crowds as He had always done and that Judas would simply make a little money and nobody would be the wiser. Perhaps Judas had even done this once or twice before…?
And when Christ actually died for this betrayal – oh then how Judas must have felt… He had been the dishonest steward from the parables…
“Jesus said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a steward, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward’...So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’...for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” (Luke 16:1-8).
The steward did not feel bad in his “little” dishonesty and so he was not protected from committing BIG dishonesty…
And as I reflect on my own dishonesty today, I consider the words of Saint Maximilian Kolbe who said, “No one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it.”
And that is what I wish to do today… Seek the TRUTH and SERVE it…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.