Judas' Way

The word recorded for us by Matthew about what Judas the betrayer did with Jesus in Gethsemane as a sign of his handing him over to the Jews: "Greetings, Rabbi!, and kissed him” (26:49), crushes me. Greetings and a kiss in the service of crime! It is the world's disgrace for love's eyes to be extinguished or for love to turn into a dagger in our hands. People do betray. Yet, throughout history, there has never existed a man who pointed to another in this way, and walked with those who believed him to be a “criminal”. When people wish to seize someone, upon seeing him, they cry out loudly: "He's the one!" or they apprehend him forcibly... Judas did not commit suicide only when he “hanged himself”, but first on the day he became blind to believing that love is a Person! Jesus was killed by two things: hatred, that is, here, the Jews' apprehension of Him as being a threat to their nation, and the refusal to believe that there is a love in this world worth for us to die for. This world, into which we emerged after Pascha, nothing protects us from its hatred like sincerely living a life of love!