Speaking at a papal mass on April 8, Pope Francis said, “Something that calls my attention is that Jesus never calls him ‘traitor’: Jesus says he will be betrayed, but he doesn’t say to Judas, ‘traitor.’ He never says, ‘Go away, traitor.’ Never. In fact, he calls him, ‘Friend,’ and he kisses him. How did Judas end up? I don’t know. Jesus threatens forcefully here; he threatens forcefully: ‘woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.’ But does that mean that Judas is in Hell? I don’t know.” The pope also said there is a “little Judas that each one of us has within” (“Satan pays badly, warns pope,” Aleteia, Apr. 8, 2020). The pope lightly passes over the words of Jesus that it would be better for Judas if he had never been born (Mt. 26:24). When the apostles chose a replacement for Judas after Christ’s ascension, they prayed, “Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place” (Acts 1:24-25). What is Judas’ own place? Jesus answered this in His high priestly prayer, as He said to the Father, “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the SON OF PERDITION; that the scripture might be fulfilled” (John 17:12). “Perdition” is the Greek apoleia, which is also translated “destruction” (Mt. 7:13) and “damnation” (2 Pe.2:3). It is used for eternal judgment in Romans 9:22; Philippians 3:19; Hebrews 10:39; 2 Peter 2:1, 3; 3:7, 16; and Revelation 17:8, 11. The antichrist is also called “the son of perdition” (2 Thessalonians 2:3).
(Friday Church News Notes, April 17, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)