( detail from painting by Giotto)
Today is traditionally known as Spy Wednesday; the designated gospel passage for this day is the account of Judas' betraying Jesus. The priest at this morning's Mass said that maybe the reason Judas , who was a member of the Zealots, did it was because he thought Jesus would fight back and start a battle with the Roman occupiers, and when Jesus didn't fight back, Judas was so devastated with his own betrayal that he decided to commit suicide.
The poet James Wright has another take on Judas:
Saint
Judas
When I went out to kill myself, I
caught
A pack of hoodlums beating up a man.
Running to spare his suffering, I forgot
My name, my number, how my day began,
How soldiers milled around the garden stone
And sang amusing songs; how all that day
Their javelins measured crowds; how I alone
Bargained the proper coins, and slipped away.
Banished from heaven, I found this victim beaten,
Stripped, kneed, and left to cry. Dropping my rope
Aside, I ran, ignored the uniforms:
Then I remembered bread my flesh had eaten,
The kiss that ate my flesh. Flayed without hope,
I held the man for nothing in my arms.
A pack of hoodlums beating up a man.
Running to spare his suffering, I forgot
My name, my number, how my day began,
How soldiers milled around the garden stone
And sang amusing songs; how all that day
Their javelins measured crowds; how I alone
Bargained the proper coins, and slipped away.
Banished from heaven, I found this victim beaten,
Stripped, kneed, and left to cry. Dropping my rope
Aside, I ran, ignored the uniforms:
Then I remembered bread my flesh had eaten,
The kiss that ate my flesh. Flayed without hope,
I held the man for nothing in my arms.
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