Judas and Jesus

It was printed in block letters with a felt tip pen across the top of the mirror in the men's restroom in a restaurant in San Francisco: JUDAS COME HOME--ALL IS FORGIVEN! The story of Judas is the story of each of us, to some degree. The past cannot be corrected nor failures erased by remorse. I suspect that the wounds to the soul of Judas were deep and devastating, particularly because they were largely self-inflicted. It hurts to have failed others and even more to have failed ourselves. Judas is the voice within us that will not be put to rest with platitudes nor silenced with sensible palliatives for nonsensical pain. Where human love, even self love, turns away with regret, or even disgust, divine love persists and prevails as the amazing grace of God. It is of this grace that I write, of Judas and of the healing of the deep wounds to his soul. The healing begins, for him as it does for us, with a meeting, a mending, and a mirror, in which we see ourselves reflected in the face of God.