Friday January 19
I have a large cross illustrated in the Coptic style; one of the panels shows Jesus with the Twelve. There is nothing remarkable about that – except that all thirteen have haloes, so that must include Judas too! We have perhaps been too ready to write off Judas. But if Judas is a complete write-off, so are we all! Jesus spent the night in prayer and then called Judas (among others) to be a follower; and Judas followed. Later he made that tragic mistake – due perhaps to his eagerness to get Jesus to act, rather than to a desire to betray him. If he acted only out of greed for money, then he should have been happy when he had that money in his pocket. Instead he was plunged into despair and he took his own life. A mere greed for money could never explain his suicide. He was a more complex man than that. Aren’t we all? Aren’t we all!
