Jesus chose twelve Apostles. He handpicked these men to be responsible for the Faith. He chose these men, along with Himself, to be the foundation of the Church (Eph 2:19-22). Let me ask this? Why in the world did Jesus choose Judas? Didn't Jesus know that Judas would one day betray Him? He must have or else we would not consider Jesus to be omniscient - all knowing. Yet, He still chose Judas. Why? I am sure that there are many reasons why God chose Judas to be a part of the Twelve. One reason that I believe that Judas was chosen, was to show that His Church would not just be made up of Saints, but sinners as well.
Peter Kreeft, in Seven Reasons to Be a Catholic (I highly recommend people listening to this...), put it best when he said,
The Church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners
Not everyone in the Church is a Saint. Although we are all called to be Saints and to be perfect, most of us are not there yet, and we may never reach that level of holiness on this side of heaven. This, of course, is not to be used as an excuse to not live up to our duty of:
Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. (Heb 12:14).
This is our sacred duty, yet the reality is, many of us are still on the road and have not yet reached that final destination of holiness.
I believe that there is a strong lesson to be learned by Jesus choosing Judas. Although Jesus knew that Judas would one day betray Him, although He knew that Judas would stop believing that Jesus was the Messiah (even though he saw with his own eyes, our Lord perform miracles and he himself, preached the Gospel) Judas was still welcome in the Church. This is because, the Church is supposed to accept you, not when you have gotten everything together, but while you are in the midst of your sin.
Judas committed the worst sin imaginable - yet he was still a part of the Church. Should we completely throw the baby out with the bath water? I mean, if one of Jesus' own followers couldn't stay true to the faith, is Christianity really true? I am saying this because it is this same flawed logic that I have heard when people talk about the Catholic Church. How can the Catholic Church be Jesus' One True Church? What about the Crusades? What about the Inquisition? What about blah, blah, blah?
Like the Twelve Apostles, the members / leaders of the Catholic Church are not perfect, and believe it or not, they are prone to sin. That, in of itself, is not reason enough to condemn it. The only perfect Church is the one that does not have any members.
God bless...
1 comment:
Sounds like Matthew Kelly 8^).
I think there is more to Judas than we know in the Gospels.
I think Judas believed he was doing his part to fulfill the mission of the Messiah. He killed himself because his vision did not match God's plan and he did not live long enough to see it truly fulfilled. There is no absolution in what I have to say, only an idea of Judas's motives. It is only my meager understanding of his betrayal and subsequent suicide.
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