Hi again,
And, now, to make the point as I understand it …
Psalms 41:9 Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
[Some versions of this prophecy translate it to say: “has lifted his heel to betray me”, but I am conscious that the argument might come back that not all translations of the Bible are “acceptable”.]
I then look to the meaning behind the words “lifted his heel”… and, in the Polyglot Bible (which attempts to give the meanings of the original words), I see …
H6119
עקּבה עקב
עָקֵב עִקְּבָה ‛âqêb ‛iqqebâh
aw-kabe‘, ik-keb-aw‘
From 6117 a heel (as protuberant); hence a track; figuratively the rear (of an army). (lier in wait is by mistake for 6120 ): - heel, [horse-] hoof, last, lier in wait by mistake for 6120 , (foot-) step.
Then, I ask myself, what does it mean if we accept the allusion as being to the “rear of an army”?
If the rear of an army rises up against its own leader, is this not the lowest of betrayals?
Or, do we take it that Judas was being alluded to as a “lier in wait” … a lier in wait to"betray"?
I don’t know … these questions just present themselves to me …
Then I think of:
John 13:16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.
John 13:17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
John 13:18 I am not speaking of you all; I know whom I have chosen; it is that the scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’
and I am led to the conclusion that Judas had to do what he did to fulfill the prophecy of Psalms (and I am not sure whether, in 13:17, Jesus might not even be “commiserating” with Judas, as it is shortly afer this that he hands the bread to Judas as the one who would “betray” him, and thence, “seals the part”, it might be argued, that Judas is to play…
too many questions, without answers … why muse upon them when God has not considered it appropriate, or important enough, or whatever (and for whatever His reasons may have been: it is not mine, I believe, to question God’s reasons) to inform me?
Again, I do not see it as mine to “judge” Judas for what he did, and, so, therefore, neither do I “feel sorry for Judas” nor not “feel sorry for Judas”.
God, I believe, “worked” through Judas, and I cannot see how I can accept it as within me to imply anything other than that a Divine Plan was being carried out (and the conjectures, then, that, “if it was not Judas, it would have been somebody else”, and “Judas chose to do what he did” become redundant).
In the end, I cannot see it for me to “feel sorry” for Judas … I was not party to God’s plan for him … and God chooses not to reveal that plan in His Word -the Bible- … so who am I to “better guess”?
I see it, rather, as mine to “accept” that it happened as told, and to be satisfied with the extent to which I am told by God.
I believe the whole Catholic way of life necessary for salvation is contained in the Bible … and that that “way of life necessary for salvation” is as relevant, in its entirity, to this so-called “modern world” as it ever has been in the past.
I fully acknowledge that there will be others who will disagree with my evaluation of things, but they are my evaluation of things, and, for my evaluation of things, I believe I shall be judged on the Last Day…, and, for that reason, and not for mischief, impertinence, or hard-headedness, I hold fast to what I see as “my God given ability to reason and question”, the better to understand … the better to give (as John Milton said in “On His Blindness”: “… my true account, lest He, returning, chide …”
Again, only with best wishes, and
God Bless
William
