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the council [1] assembled [2] to pronounce sentence of death on Jesus.
Then Judas[3] began to be sorry for having betrayed his Divine Master, and going to the chief priests, he would have given back the thirty pieces of silver he had received as the price of his treason, saying: “I have sinned[4] in betraying innocent blood.” But they replied: “What is that to us?[5] Look thou to it.” Then, being filled with remorse, and losing all hope, he cast down the pieces of silver in the Temple, and went and hanged himself[6] with a halter.
- ↑ The council, i. e. the full and entire council, including those who had not been there during the night. Probably the previous scene of the mock-trial was re-enacted once more.
- ↑ Assembled. It assembled again because, to be legal, a sentence had to be pronounced by daylight, so that the one they had passed in the night was invalid. They wished, moreover, to consult together how they could best ensure the carrying out of their sentence. The Romans had taken away from the Sanhedrin its power of life and death, so that the sentence they had pronounced could not be executed unless the Roman governor of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, confirmed it.
- ↑ Judas. Judas knew perfectly well how bitterly the chief priests and Pharisees, who formed a majority in the Sanhedrin, hated Jesus, and he might have foreseen that they would condemn Him to death, once they had Him in their power. But his greed for money blinded him, and deprived him of the use of his reason; so that it was only after he had received the blood-money, and his passion was appeased, that the voice of his conscience made itself heard, and reproached him with being guilty of the death of his Master. The thirty pieces of silver for which he had so eagerly craved no longer gave him any pleasure; they burnt his fingers and constantly reminded him of his terrible crime. In the hope of obtaining peace of mind, he resolved to return the money to those from whom he had received it, and, by openly confessing his guilt, he hoped to get the sentence of death against our Lord repealed.
- ↑ I have sinned. By betraying an innocent Man for money. His conscience continually tormented him with the thought that it was through his crime that innocent blood would be shed.
- ↑ What is that to us? They did not even reply: “What! is He not guilty? Does He not deserve death?” No, with cold contempt they merely said: “What is it to us whether He be innocent or not! See you to that, and reconcile it with your conscience as best you can !'* They did not accept back the blood-money, because to do so would have been a tacit confession of the injustice of what they had done; and nothing would have persuaded them to set Jesus free. When Judas, therefore, saw that nothing could avert the consequences of his deed, he fell into despair, and hanged himself. He committed the sin of suicide, and crowned his criminal life by a criminal death.
- ↑ Hanged himself. The rope with which he hanged himself broke, and he fell to the ground; and, says St. Peter (Acts i, 1 8): “Being hanged, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.”
