WAKE FOREST MEDICAL STUDENT WHO STABBED A PATIENT FOR LAUGHING AT HER “PRONOUN PIN” NOT EXPELLED, COMING TO A HOSPITAL NEARBY
SPY WEDNESDAY: WHAT’S YOUR PRICE?
THE VATICAN WANTS CHANGES TO ITS SECRET CHINA TREATY—BUT STILL WON’T SAY WHAT’S IN IT. [11:20]
MASS. BISHOP MCMANUS DOES HIS JOB: JESUITS INSULT HIM
ZELENSKIY ADVISER? ANOTHER BUTCHER
PRIEST WHO BURIED SANTANGELO’S YOUNGER VICTIMS SPEAKS OUT
HAPPY EASTER, FROM THE VATICAN?
FR. Z: “I THINK THAT AT THE ROOT OF THE CHURCH’S INSISTENCE ON LATIN IN THIS MOMENT – AND WHY LATIN HAS BEEN ATTACKED CONSTANTLY BY MODERNISTS – IS BECAUSE THERE IS A SPIRITUAL REALM THAT WE CANNOT SEE. “
Indeed, on this day, Spy Wednesday, we remember the evil Judas whose poisonous passions paved the way for Gethsemane, Via Dolorosa, and Calvary. I agree with Barnhardt that we shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss The Iscariot as some demonic freak far removed from our faithful selves since we all have had, to some degree, a share in his legacy. Worldly temptations and fanatical desires for power and possessions hardly come stamped with “past due date” labels. The spirit of Mammon is forever at war with the spirit of God.
“What will you give me…?” (Matthew 26:14-16, i.e. Judas bargaining with the big brass in Jerusalem). It takes one to know one, and Matthew was a perfect example. Before following Jesus, his collusion with well-bribed local tax officials and profiteering Roman legionaries at Capernaum, site of a major Customs Station on the Sea of Galilee, was well known. No wonder then that Matthew would have been “on to” the shady actions of fellow disciple Judas charged with the ministry moneybags. No doubt, Judas hung around with Jesus not because of love or service but because of Avarice and the opportunity to steal and exploit. Even John knew that “He had the money box and used to take what was put into it.” The Gospel tells us that “then Satan entered Judas.” With that came all the other deadly sins, the prime evil being Envy.
Envy is a poisonous, covetous comparison and resentful admiration of Jesus’ miraculous authority and excellence. A person’s envy of what another person is or has can easily turn into deadly hatred and burning desire to seize it or destroy him by any means. We know that the Original Sin was envy of God. As the demonic snake tempted Eve, so Satan tempted Judas to resent the power and authority of God and to usurp His place. Envy is typically associated with the “evil eye.” It’s curious how Dante in his Renaissance Purgatorio describes the repentant Envious with their eyes sewn shut so they can focus solely on God… and, with Satan in a sea of ice, Hell’s lowest circle, Dante places the jealous Judas among the world’s horrid betrayers, their eyes frozen shut with congealed tears.
Judas’ surname Iscariot derives from the Latin word for murderer, “sicarius.” It suggests that he belonged to the Sicarii, a radical Jewish group, some of whom were terrorists. Their aim was an independent Jewish state. Judas may well have thought that enabling the capture and execution of Jesus, the enemy, would catapult him to national fame and glory. But the cowardly double-crosser, finding himself to have been double-crossed, committed suicide in Gehenna. The accursed 30 pieces of silver were later used to create a cemetery called Akeldama which in Aramaic means “Field of Blood.” In the time of Jesus, the Valley of Gehenna was the rubbish dump of Jerusalem, where fires perpetually burned, where carcasses of animals were thrown and bodies of criminals cremated. Jewish folklore suggests the valley had a gate which led down to a molten lake of fire. Jesus uses the word Gehenna 11 times to describe a place of eternal punishment where both soul and body were destroyed (Matthew 10) in unquenchable fire. “Gehenna” became a byword for Hell, destination of the wicked, in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scripture!
As Matthew wrote (6:24): “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and lucre.” The whole sequel of the Passiontide Triduum shows us the inevitably dire consequences of treasuring the wrong thing.