A I defer; eat you also, eat. "For it is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs," the Jews. While he seeks those with whom he may bargain, seize the pearl that is being sold.
2. "What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you?" Why do you sell bread, Judas, that which had already been distributed for food? Where are your words, those signs of love for the poor: "Could not this have been sold for much, and given to the poor?" When you saw a woman anointing the Lord with ointment, and by that unction anticipating his burial, and honoring the living since she could not honor the dead, you treated her with contumely, putting forward the laws of love for the poor. "It could," you said, "have been sold"; that is to say, it could have been sold along with him. Let it be: you kill him, but do you also forbid him to be buried? Let it be: you sell his blood, why do you also sell the ointment? O avarice, which assumes the mask of love for the poor! O inhuman humanity! "It could have been sold and given to the poor." Judas sells the love of the poor, and traffics in the very appearance of mercy toward the poor. But the Savior’s equanimity was not diminished thereby, so that he even extended his hand along with the parricide. He ate with the traitor, to bring to him a sense of shame for that intent of his. He offered bread, and nourished his murderer; and as he inscribed the New Testament upon the table, he did not deprive the traitor of the inheritance, and as he bequeathed it, he did not thrust away from his portion B him who was soon to betray him. But that lot did not change his character, nor did the honor change his mind. For as soon as he received the morsel, Satan entered into him. Judas’s purpose was the devil’s invitation; for he did not simply enter, but he found an inn for his soul; he found a mind suited to dwell in, he found it "swept"; he found a desired passion, and he did not turn away from the house; he found a weapon, which, having used, he prepared the battle line.
3. "What will you give me?" When the devil tempted the Lord, he said, "All these things I will give you." But now Judas cries out: "What will you give me?" O kinship of words and ways! O conspiracy with the devil, practiced long ago! He does not say, "What can you give me?" He sets forth the Lord as if he were to be sold for a paltry price; he bargains concerning him who is beyond all price, as if he were of no value. Why do you not receive as much as you deliver, O Judas? Call to mind the miracles of him whom you are about to sell, and then, according to their worth, trade away the wonder-worker. Go to the leper; from him learn the magnitude of the healing. Ask the blind for what price they deem their restoration of sight. Ask Lazarus how much is to be esteemed the fact that he escaped death. Examine the paralytic, long held prisoner in his bed by his malady. Weigh the tables suddenly prepared in the wilderness. C Appraise the walking upon the waves, the rebukes to the sea and the winds; the healings of those possessed by demons.
Mindful of none of these, do you not reflect upon whom you are selling?
A O what a sale, a sale that secures primacy for the sold over the buyers! For the Lord, when sold, became the possessor of those who bought Him. Rightly, therefore, did Christ cry out: "Fill up the measure of your fathers; if anything is lacking in your ancestral crimes, O Jews, by your audacity." They killed the prophets; you kill Him who was prophesied. They slaughtered the men sent to them; you slaughter Him who sent the prophets. They killed the servants; you kill the Master. They killed the priests; you destroyed the temple. These later deeds are graver than the former ones. Having crossed the sea, you were found ungrateful; nourished with manna, you worshipped the calf of Egypt; having received the Law, you insult the Lawgiver with transgressions. The rock yielded to the rod of Moses, but your character cannot be bent toward piety. You were victorious in battle, yet you did not know the heavenly Commander. The course of the sun was stayed, becoming a prelude of victory for you, yet you offered the slaughter of your children as thank-offering sacrifices to idols. Always nourished by blood, the Jew takes up the slaughter of the prophets; and, irrigated little by little by their blood, does he today burst forth into the peak of iniquity? What, then, is the fruit of iniquity for them? "Behold, your house is left to you desolate." The nation is delivered over to punishment; for as long as a disease shows a glimmer of hope for a cure, the physician seeks to restore the malady by gentle remedies, C but when no hope of cure remains, the limb is amputated.
5. After a short time, Judas arrives, joyful after the sale, like some merchant who has laid down the burden of his goods; he was present, armed with a kiss; he was present, intending to point out the Man he had sold. What, then, does the Lord say to Judas? He wakens him—submerged as he was by avarice as if by drunkenness—with these words: "Do you betray the Son of man with a kiss?" Was it by this that you were taught to kiss? Tell me, is this the law of charity handed on to you by Me? O kiss full of blood! O warfare colored by a kiss! O kiss that is made a bite of death! O kiss belching forth the venom of asps! That which you learned for charity, you have used for fraud? D I see the nails in your mouth: why do you conceal what you are doing? I await the cross. By these words was Judas addressed. Peter, however, was affirming his love with an oath: "Even if it should be necessary for me to die with You, I will not deny You." Drunken with love, he becomes more audacious against death; he does not measure his words by the weakness of nature; he does not consider the truthfulness of the speaker, but by gainsaying he boasts of himself. What, then, does the Lord say? I have no need of words for victory.