Please read the passage before the commentary.
“One of the Twelve.” Must it always be one of the twelve? One of twelve is Simon Peter who would deny knowing Jesus three times in one night. One of the twelve is Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus. Each of the twelve is human, frail and faulty.
One of the Twelve is each one of us. We may not be of the original twelve but are chosen as they were chosen. We have been taught by them. We believe as they believed.
One of the Twelve was also the thief on the cross who masked for forgiveness. Seeing that he had received a just sentence and Jesus an unjust one, he asked to be remembered in God’s kingdom. Jesus welcomed him.
When one of the original Twelve fails, as Peter did, by denying the Lord, the mercy of God reaches out to forgive and embrace him. When one of the other Twelve, like the thief, asks to be remembered by Jesus, the mercy of God welcomes him. When one of the original Twelve betrayed Jesus, Jesus was ready to forgive him, but since he had not asked for it, he did not know that until in death, he looked into the mercy of God.
Each one of the Twelve had faults. This was true of the original Twelve and it is also true of all the others who count themselves as one of the other Twelve. Whether our sins are like Peter’s, Judas’s, the thief’s, lesser or greater than theirs, the mercy of God is always present to forgive each of us.
This Gospel passage which recalls the betrayal of Judas id a call to each of us to ask the Lord for forgiveness and for a welcoming into God’s kingdom. Each of the twelve could have trusted God’s mercy.
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