The Council of the Jews and the Treachery of Judas

Consummatum est. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Our Lenten meditations continue with posts taken from a Simple Exposition of the Circumstances of the Passion of Jesus Christ (1761) by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori.

I have inserted references in the text to numbered footnotes. These references are not hyperlinked but may be found by scrolling to the end of the relevant paragraph.

Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt. Tecum tutus semper sum.
Ad Jesum per Mariam.


This grace I ask of thee to-day: obtain for me a continual remembrance of the passion of Jesus, and of thine also, and a tender devotion to them.

Chief priests & Pharisees... JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

The chief priests, therefore, and the Pharisees gathered a council and said: What do we, for this man doeth many miracles?[1] Behold, at the very time that Jesus Christ was employed in working miracles for the benefit of all, the first personages of the city assembled to plan the death of the author of life.

Behold what the impious Caiphas said: It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole perish not.[2] From that day, says St. John, they sought a means of putting Jesus to death. Ah, Jews, fear not: this your Redeemer does not fly away; no, he has come on earth to die, and by his death to deliver you and all men from eternal death! 

[1] [47] The chief priests therefore, and the Pharisees, gathered a council, and said: What do we, for this man doth many miracles?
Collegerunt ergo pontifices et pharisaei concilium, et dicebant : Quid faciamus, quia hic homo multa signa facit? [John 11]
[2] [50] Neither do you consider that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.
nec cogitatis quia expedit vobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo, et non tota gens pereat.  [John 11]

Judas. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

But behold, Judas presents himself to the high priests and says: What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you?[3] Oh, how great was the joy with which the Jews exulted through the hatred that they bore to Jesus Christ, when they saw that one of his own disciples offered to betray him, and to deliver him into their hands! Let us here consider the exultation of hell when a soul that has served Jesus Christ for several years betrays him for a miserable good or a vile pleasure. But, O Judas, since you wish to sell your God, at least demand the price which he is worth. He is an infinite good, and is therefore worth an infinite price. But, O God! you conclude the sale for thirty pieces of silver: But they appointed him thirty pieces of silver.[4]

[3] [14] Then went one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, to the chief priests,
Tunc abiit unus de duodecim, qui dicebatur Judas Iscariotes, ad principes sacerdotum :




[4] [15] And said to them: What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you? But they appointed him thirty pieces of silver.
et ait illis : Quid vultis mihi dare, et ego vobis eum tradam? At illi constituerunt ei triginta argenteos. [Matt 26]

Ah, my unhappy soul, leave Judas, and turn thy thoughts on thyself. Tell me for what price hast thou so often sold the grace of God to the devil? Ah, my Jesus, I am ashamed to appear before Thee when I think of the injuries I have done Thee. How often have I turned my back upon Thee, and preferred to Thee some temporal interest, the indulgence of caprice, or a momentary and vile pleasure? I knew that by such a sin I should lose Thy friendship, and I have voluntarily exchanged it for nothing. Oh that I had been dead rather than have offered Thee so great an outrage! My Jesus, I repent with my whole heart; I would wish to die of sorrow for it.

Let us here consider the benignity of Jesus Christ, who, though he knew the appointment which Judas had made, did not banish him from his presence when he saw him, nor look at him with an unfriendly eye, but admitted him into his society, and even to his table, and reminded him of his treachery, for the sole purpose of making him enter into himself. When he saw him obstinate, he even prostrated himself before him, and washed his feet in order to soften his heart. Ah, my Jesus, I see that Thou dost treat me in the same manner. I have despised and betrayed Thee, and Thou dost not cast me off. Thou dost regard me with love, Thou dost admit me even to Thy table of the Holy Communion. My dear Saviour, oh that I had always loved Thee! And how shall I be ever again able to depart from Thy feet and renounce Thy love?