Spy Wednesday - Judas 'The Whistleblower' Drops a Dime on His Boss

Judas carried the purse. He then sold out the guy who had trusted him with the gelt to the Boys at the Temple for 30 pieces of silver.

Not many little Judases in my neighborhood or immediate circle.

In fact, in my very un- PC and close-knit ethnic and tribal network, being a rat and a dime-dropper makes a person lower than whale-poop.

A columnist for whom I have no regard whatsoever tells all and sundry of his great worship and study of Dante's Divine Comedy, in much the same way as the fatuous name-dropping poser Studs Terkel carried around James T. Farrell's Studs Lonigan Trilogy. This goof is a dedicated Catholic-baiter and recently tried to give Cardinal George media discomfort with his flabby understanding of my Faith and my coreligionists - the very same people he recently smeared as Nazi-thugs in a very self-indulgent and stupid column.

I really need to speak from the heart.

Anyway. Judas was a louse. He betrayed the Son of God to all of us Catholics, many of us Christians and even the Jews for Jesus. To everyone else in this Global Village - Judas betrayed a man who treated him with respect, kindness, trust and affection.

Judas is the founder of the Feast of Spy Wednesday - a great name that -in which we Catholics remember that without betrayal Redemption could not have happened.

Here is my Cardinal - Francis Cardinal George on Judas - who went out after betraying Christ and committed the Dutch Act - huge sin. The sin of Despair. Louses can be forgiven. By Christ/God and Holy Persons like Cardinal George. I am just too close-knit and ethnic. Cardinal George is Christlike:

Wednesday of Holy Week brings us face to face with Judas Iscariot, who engineered Jesus’ death by betraying him to his enemies. In recent years, there have been a few attempts to “rehabilitate” Judas, explain away his apparently evil intentions and paint him as someone who really only wanted to force Jesus to show his power in extreme danger.

It seems to me that efforts like that say a lot more about us than about Judas. We love victims of previous era’s prejudices because accepting them confirms how enlightened we are. Even Judas, whom the poet Dante put in the lowest pit of hell, becomes a foil for our sense of superiority.

Judas kissed Jesus, the Gospel tells us. Did Jesus forgive his betrayer? Jesus died praying that his Father would forgive his enemies, and that would include Judas. We don’t know Judas’ eternal fate, but we do know that forgiving your enemies means you can’t feel superior to them.

I like to read the Psalms because they are filled with threats against the Psalmist’s enemies, and at times, I would like to see my enemies destroyed. But our greatest enemies are our own sins. It’s hard to keep a sense of enlightened superiority when examining our sins. They put us in Judas’ league. Rehabilitation, however, isn’t a matter of finding excuses; spiritual rehabilitation follows from confessing one’s sins and accepting forgiveness with humble gratitude.