Question:
I would like to know the Church’s position on Judas Iscariot, did he condemn himself by betraying Christ and committing suicide? L.M.O.
Answer:
To whom it may concern:
Sacred Scripture does not reveal to us the identity of any particular damned person (except the ‘devil and his angels’, as Jesus says in Mt 25:41), and since these things we can only know by revelation, of them we can do nothing.
We can ‘conjecture’ his condemnation from Jesus’ statement: ‘Woe to him by whom the Son of man is betrayed, it would have been better for that man if he had never been born’ (Mk 14:21) and from the end of his life, which seems to be marked by despair: ‘then he withdrew and went and hanged himself’ (Mt 27:5). Also, by the way in which St. Peter comments on his sin saying: ‘For he was one of us and obtained a place in this ministry. This man therefore bought a field with the price of his iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst in the middle, and all his bowels were spilled out. And this was known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the field was called in their language Haqueldama, that is: Field of Blood. For in the book of Psalms it is written, let his sheepfold be desolate, and let there be none to dwell therein. And again, let another receive his charge’ (Acts 1:17-20).
In any case, no one can say what happened to Judas at the moment of his death. Even between the rope and his neck there is still room for hope.
Fr. Miguel A. Fuentes, IVE
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