Not that I haven’t thought he got a bum deal all along . . .
8 o'clock, January 12, 2006
. . . but this is going to give the anti-Catholic wingnuts a whole new box of ammunition.
Vatican moves to clear reviled disciple’s name
JUDAS ISCARIOT, the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss, is to be given a makeover by Vatican scholars.
The proposed “rehabilitation” of the man who was paid 30 pieces of silver to identify Jesus to Roman soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane, comes on the ground that he was not deliberately evil, but was just “fulfilling his part in God’s plan.”
Next up: Brutus and Cassius.
At every mouth he with his teeth was crunching
A sinner, in the manner of a brake,
So that he three of them tormented thus.
To him in front the biting was as naught
Unto the clawing, for sometimes the spine
Utterly stripped of all the skin remained.
“That soul up there which has the greatest pain,”
The Master said, “is Judas Iscariot;
With head inside, he plies his legs without.
Of the two others, who head downward are,
The one who hangs from the black jowl is Brutus;
See how he writhes himself, and speaks no word.
And the other, who so stalwart seems, is Cassius.
But night is reascending, and ’tis time
That we depart, for we have seen the whole.”
Someone over at the Vatican must have read this story. Very very NC-17 and sacreligious but oh my goodness so beautiful.
There was a vortex at the center of the world.
As with so many other things, Judas had missed this. Now, he felt its full force, how it sucked goodness and mercy into its belly. Some men called it sin. Some called it chaos. Judas had called it Bel, Belial, who had once fallen from Heaven into darkness. Whatever its name, its power was growing, fed on the weak flesh of men.
Once, Judas thought this vortex lived inside him, but Jesus proved him wrong. The next step was to stop it, and Jesus had a plan. Or a birthright. It involved a terrible favor.
"I don't think I can do it," Judas said.
Jesus squeezed his hand. "It has to happen. If it's done with love, then I can bear it. Only then."