When the devil entered Judas is a reflection on the Passion of Jesus Christ and Christ’s agony beginning with His betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane and ending with His Crucifixion and Death on the Cross.
Christ's Greatest Agony is in the Betrayal of His Own
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ,
I give to You my life, all that I have, everything I have been given, my talents, my time, my penitent heart. I empty myself of all self-love and human desires. This is my fiat. Without You I am nothing. I cannot exist without You and nor do I want to. You are my Life and my Truth.
I see You more clearly after having felt the agony of Your love for lukewarm and apostate souls. I understand the meaning of Your words, “I thirst.” Not of my own doing, but by Your grace You have shown me.
Every day I live, I do so because You will it for me. I lament of all the ways I have failed You and acted out of my own will and false love. The sins of my past are always a reminder to me of the many ways I betrayed Your exquisite Love. I exist solely by Your grace and mercy. Painfully aware of my past failings, all my sins of self-love, I offer for You on this day this prayer of mine as a supplication.
Please, my Lord, give me a heart of love for You that burns with a deep desire to save souls. Allow me to love You above all else. Let my prayer offered to You be a sweet form of love and fidelity to the cross.
I love You. I love You. I love You.
AMEN.
When the Devil Entered Judas
Was Judas always unable to love you Jesus? I have always wondered how a soul could betray Your goodness and tear itself away from grace by choice. How long was Judas at odds with Your Divine Will? Why was his heart so far from Your grace? What did he lack in himself that forbade his repentance?
Then one of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
Judas desired certain things, and he saw in You a means of achieving these things. He accompanied You for years. He saw the miracles, he heard Your words. He gazed upon Your Divine Face. How did all this grace fail to move his heart toward love of God? Jesus, I grieve with You the loss of this soul, of every soul that rejects Your love due to sin, cowardice, weakness of body or mind, and selfish self-love.
The Garden
When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, “Surely it is not I, Lord?” He said in reply, “He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but 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.” Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” He answered, “You have said so.”
Surely when the devil entered Judas he had already given himself over in many ways to evil. He had let himself go further and further away from Christ in his heart. What agony our Lord suffered when his own disciple betrayed Him with a kiss in the garden while He prayed for strength from the Father. Surely Judas knew this favorite place of prayer. He knew exactly where to find You, my Lord. He came to defile that sacred space with betrayal. It is an evil that must have wounded Your Sacred Heart most grievously. So much love poured out on a soul, only to suffer rejection and eternal loss of friendship.
The only unforgiveable sin is the lack of love. Please God, may I never lack love for You. May I always hold You close to my heart, and above all else, may I have no attachments to the things that pass away. May I be forever Yours, always faithful.
What might have Judas thought when they handed You over to be beaten in such a violent and bloody exploit? You were publicly flogged by cowardly men. Oh, Judas may have wanted to undo his crime but he could not take it back. To his shame, he had committed an act that had grave consequences. Oh how You grieved for Judas! You knew. You KNEW. You knew from the beginning, before all time. You knew before he was knit together in his mother’s womb. You knew before he first met you. Always this grief was before Your most eternal and adorable and perfect Heart. Oh, Jesus! You would have forgiven had he only repented. But such is a sin of a lack of love. It only seeks to preserve itself. The only unforgiveable sin is the lack of love. Please God may I never have so much pride that I cannot repent like Peter. Please God, may I not lack love for You so much so that I am willing to go to Hell of my own choice rather than obey the Divine Will of my Father in Heaven.
The Scourging
Surely after the scourging Judas ran to return the money, his dowry for his union with Satan and betrayal of the Lord. But he had already set into motion a series of events by his sin that would stand for eternity. God would redeem us all through this betrayal of heart. The Good of that Friday came when Jesus took that bitter cup of betrayal and humiliation and agony and atoned for it all for the salvation of the elect. Judas must have fallen into despair as the soldiers stripped Jesus naked and mocked Him. It must have been then that he realized the depths of his betrayal. The Lord was brutally beaten beyond recognition. Surely Judas saw that in this moment his financial and political ambitions came at a desperate and eternal price.
Please, my Lord, I beg You, may I never seek my own advancement to the detriment of my own soul. May I never seek to exalt myself while crucifying my Lord through my own sin. Mea Culpa. Lord forgive every past offense of self-love, pride, and disobedience. Forgive me Jesus. Jesus, I grieve with You over the loss of so many souls. I desire Your Divine Will for my life. I give You my heart, my life, my will. Let me console You over the loss of souls, for every Judas who betrayed Your love and walked away from grace to pursue self-love and sin. Let me grieve with You for all those who are slaves to their own evil desires and under diabolic influence, who can’t raise a hand to You so that You can lift them up and cover them with Your Precious Blood. My dear Jesus, my Comforter, my All – please may I never lose my state of grace. Without You I am nothing.
The Crown of Thorns
My loving Jesus, most humble and most pure of heart. Where was Judas when they beat Your Face beyond recognition and placed the thorns over Your Divine and Precious Head? The soldiers mocked You by placing a scepter and robe around Your Precious Body, paying false homage to You as they pounded thorns into Your skull, all while jeering and laughing at You. Oh my Lord and my God, I weep for what they did to You. Oh the grievous sorrow of Your Divine Heart pierces mine; You withstood this torment with a thirst that goes beyond human comprehension. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! How did You love them? How did You endure this torture for me? Your wounds caused Blood to flow from Your sacred Head down the back of Your precious Neck. Your sanctifying Blood fell from Your Forehead into Your Eyes. It dripped down Your Holy Face and into Your silent Mouth. Oh my Jesus, how I want to wipe Your precious, sacred, Holy Face and shout to Your aggressors to stop this abuse of my Lord. No human is capable of such Love. You are Perfect Love. You chose this death so that we may realize the worth of our souls. Your suffering was for my redemption.
My Lord and my God, I beg You, never let me forget the price of my soul. Never let me fall away from Your Divine Heart. I long to be with You in eternity. How could I reject Your Love and cast myself into hell? How can I deny this great sacrifice? Help me dear Jesus, to return Love for love. Let me learn from You and humble myself for the sake of souls. Crown me in humility so that I may grow in virtue.
The Carrying of the Cross
Oh my Jesus, I grieve with You over the loss of Judas’s soul, such a great loss! How many souls were untouched by grace due to Judas’s rejection of his divine call? How many future disciples were lost because Judas could not repent and love You? He could not live out his divine calling; oh what pain this has caused Your Perfect Heart!
Oh, Jesus! I so much willed for Judas to convert his heart. I so much grieved with You the loss of his soul. I understand this pain, Lord. You have given this cross to me. I enter into Your wounds and I console You. My heart imagines Judas running toward You on the way of the Cross. My heart wills for him to lift the wood and help You carry it. My heart wills for him to cry out to You from his soul, “Forgive me! I did this to You, my Lord and my God! Forgive me! I grieve deeply due to my sin against You. I am sorry.” But he did not come. He did not repent. Judas never reconciled with You.
My Lord and my God, I beg You, please give me a repentant heart. Make me fear offending You such that I grow in piety and remain always in a state of sanctifying grace. I want to merit to see You face to face one day and hear You say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” Please, Jesus, help me always to live in Your Divine Will.
The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus
My beloved Jesus, where was Judas when they nailed Your Hands and Feet? Where was Judas when they lifted up the Son of Man as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert? My Lord and my God, You bled for my sins in atonement for all the evils I have done, some of these evils I have even done in Your name. I see the error of my ways. I lament that I ever sinned against such Love by my own will and my foolish pride.
But, where, my Lord, where was Judas? Was he not so distraught that he fled the cross and mounted his own tree? Did he die alone at his own hands because his sinful pride made him believe his shame was greater in power to him than Your Love? How can this be? How does a soul reject such Love for the agony of eternity without God? Please, God, may we never betray the gift of Your Love and succumb to despair on the rope of our own sin and selfishness. The only unforgiveable sin is the lack of love. Jesus please help me love You. Jesus please give me the gift of Love.
Nothing is greater than Your eternal Love. Nothing else matters. Everything else passes away. Only Love remains eternally, only You.
Surely Your agony proves Your Love is greater than all our sin. You took it all upon Yourself so that we might look at what You suffered and see how much You Love us. Who would die such a heinous accursed death? Who would willingly suffer such agony of Body and Spirit for Love of another? Only You would do such a thing. And by this sacrifice You sanctified me. And when I am with You in Spirit and I receive You in my own body sacramentally, You divinize me so that I might have Life in me. The very Life You share with Your Father, the very Life of the Trinity, You freely give it to me. You have done this for me. You have given me such a tremendous gift that I cannot ever repay. Please, my Jesus, let me do what little I can for the remainder of my life to show my gratitude for this Love. Every day I understand how limited I am in returning Your Love with my own love. Increase my capacity to love You dear Jesus, so that I might help You save souls. You thirst. Give me the ability to thirst with You. I want to thirst for souls too. I want to help You fill Your Kingdom with lost souls.
Jesus, may we forgive every offense. Forgive! Forgive! Forgive!
The Power of Divine Love
There is no power greater in Heaven nor on Earth nor under the Earth that surpasses the Love of God. Jesus, my Love, please let me console Your Sacred Heart and let my prayer offering appease Your just judgement for all those, who like Judas, have forsaken their calling but are yet to die in sin. Please, Jesus, have mercy on these souls who have become evil and distant. Please, Jesus, give abundant grace to all Your priests and strengthen their vocations. May these anointed souls receive the fruitfulness of the Father’s Love, and through their surrender to Your Sacred Heart, may they receive power to convert hardened hearts to true repentance.
May none mount the tree of despair as Judas did, and succumb to sin and pay the price with eternal damnation. You have anointed Your priests to fulfill Your Divine Plan for the elect. Please, Jesus, give Your children the desire to pray for our priests and to live according Your Divine Will. Let the Kingdom of God reign on Earth as it already is in Heaven. Let us sing praises to Your Holy Name and glorify Your goodness. Let us rejoice in receiving Your Trinitarian Love in this life of exile here on Earth and let us have a joyful hope of receiving it for eternity in Heaven.
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty! We sing praise to You. Our salvation comes through the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ! All praise and glory is Yours, now and forever!
Amen.
The Prayer of Jesus on the Night He was Betrayed
The Gospel of John Chapter 17
[Jesus] raised his eyes to heaven and said:
Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.
When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction [Judas Iscariot], in order that the scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.
Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.
I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.
And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.
Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.
Going Deeper
Let Me Never Deny or Betray Christ
Take time to pray this scriptural meditation entitled: Let Me Never Betray You or Deny You in Life and ask the Lord to give you the grace to always love and serve him according to his will for your life.
Pray the Consecration prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Pray the Stations of the Cross.