Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/186

 II. Consider the  admirable  meekness  and  charity  of Christ  upon  this  occasion. He neither  upbraided  Judas, nor did  He  refuse  to  receive  his  embrace. He even spoke in  a  kind  and  friendly  manner  to  him:  "  Friend, whereunto  art  thou  come?" By these  means  he  endeavored to  regain  him. He styled  him  friend,  in  order  to make  him  one;  he  asked  him,  "  why  he  came  thither,"  to induce  him  to  enter  into  himself  and  change  his  bad resolution, after  haying  understood  the  enormity  of  the crime, which  he  would  commit  by  betraying  his  best friend and  benefactor,  his  Master,  his  Lord  and  his  God. Observe the  kind  and  gentle  means  which  Christ  made use of  to  reclaim  even  Judas,  and  learn  an  important lesson from  the  example.

III. Christ afterwards  said  to  him,  "Judas,  dost  thou betray  the  Son  of  man  with  a  kiss?" (Luke xxii.  48.) What heart,  however  obdurate,  would  not  these  words soften? Yet he  is  not  moved. We justly  condemn  Judas for his  hardness  of  heart,  without  reflecting  that  we  are often guilty  of  the  same  crime,  because  we  resist  the  inspirations of  God,  the  remorse  of  conscience,  or  its  voice, silently asking  us,  Will  you,  then,  yield  to  the  temptation, will  you  sin,  will  you  offend  God? The crime  of the  false  Apostle  was  greatly  aggravated  by  the  fact  of his  making  a  kiss  of  peace  the  instrument  of  his  perfidy. Your crimes  are  aggravated  in  the  same  manner,  when you render  the  gifts  of  God  instrumental  to  guilt  and  to your  own  perdition. Let not  the  misfortune  of  Judas  be a  vain  warning  to  you.

I. "Jesus,  therefore,  knowing  all  things  that  were  to come  upon  Him,"  asked  the  soldiers  that  came  with  Judas,