Jesus, Judas and James

For the past four years, my boyfriend, James, and I have dinner out practically every night. The only times we don’t is when I am either sick or it’s a Sunday in which case I have dinner with my family. Most Sundays though, James and I still have dinner together. I really look forward to it because we have never and I know that we will never ever run out of things to talk about.

One night, while enjoying Persian cuisine, we discussed the National Geographic Special “The Gospel of Judas”. Since James is such a voracious reader (you should see him inside a bookstore - his eyes light up, absorbed by the rows of books and lost to the rest of the world), having read more books in his childhood than I will ever be able to read in my lifetime, I asked him what he thought of this “lost” gospel. He told me that there are a lot of so-called gospels but the gospel of Judas appears to be more interesting only because Judas is believed to be a traitor. He goes on to say that Gnostic writings actually interpret Judas as the “freer” of Christ; that Judas, being the only apostle able to understand Jesus, agreed to make the prophecy come true on the request of Jesus. Remember, there was a prophecy that the son of God would die and be resurrected. In other words, Jesus orchestrated the whole event. Blasphemous, huh? I can just imagine Pope Benedict throwing his cap in disgust at the thought as this would certainly rock the essence with which the Roman Church was built upon.

James then posed this thought: If this is the devil’s PR campaign at work, then he’s doing a damn good job at discrediting the Church of Rome and giving the flock much room to doubt. I couldn’t help myself, so I countered – What if it’s the other way around? What if all this time, the devil was working through the Church and it is only now that God is able to reveal himself because the time has come when man is more discerning and, shall I say, intelligent? James’ brows suddenly furrowed at the thought. I went for the home run. Think about it, I said. The Church had a dark period too when our Popes weren’t exactly “Popely”, abandoning the way of Christ and acting out of self-preservation in a very selfish and sinful way. Could it not be possible that what the Church has been teaching us all this time has already been infiltrated by the devil during the Church’s darkest hours; and since popes then wielded great power, they had, whether deliberately or not, chosen to omit teachings that God truly wanted us to learn? So when the Church’s crisis was over, the Church was just too happy and so the next generation of Church leaders merely moved on and taught what they too were taught. Whadyathink? My dear James thoughtfully answered “Could be.” I smiled. Now, I’m ready to order dessert.