Don’t make the same mistake as Judas

One of the Twelve, the man called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you prepared to give me if I hand him over to you?’ They paid him thirty silver pieces, and from that moment he looked for an opportunity to betray him. Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus to say, ‘Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the passover?’ ‘Go to so-and-so in the city’ he replied ‘and say to him, “The Master says: My time is near. It is at your house that I am keeping Passover with my disciples.”’ The disciples did what Jesus told them and prepared the Passover. When evening came he was at table with the twelve disciples. And while they were eating he said ‘I tell you solemnly, one of you is about to betray me.’ They were greatly distressed and started asking him in turn, ‘Not I, Lord, surely?’ He answered, ‘Someone who has dipped his hand into the dish with me, will betray me. The Son of Man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will, but alas for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born!’ Judas, who was to betray him; asked in his turn, ‘Not I, Rabbi, surely?’ ‘They are your own words’ answered Jesus. (Matthew 26, 14-25)

The figure of Judas has sometimes been reassessed with the excuse that his betrayal was necessary for the saving sacrifice of Jesus. Instead, the Lord in today's Gospel judges Judas very heavily, a sign that he was free to choose whether to betray Jesus or not. But what was the gravest sin of Judas? The gravest sin was not having betrayed Him, but for not having surrendered to divine mercy by accepting the forgiveness of Jesus. Take the opportunity this Holy Week to approach the sacrament of Confession fittingly with a contrite heart and the desire to change your life, so as to avoid making the same mistake as  Judas.