To attribute his crime to greed (as some have done,
citing John 12:6) is to resign oneself to
the
basest motive. Nils Runeberg proposes the opposite motive: a
hyperbolic and even
unlimited asceticism. The ascetic, for the greater glory of God,
vilifies and mortifies his flesh;
Judas
did the same with his spirit. He renounced honor, morality, peace
and the kingdom
of heaven, just as others, less heroically, renounce pleasure.
With terrible lucidity he
premeditated his sins. In adultery there is usually tenderness
and abnegation; in homicide,
courage; in profity and blasphemy, a certain satanic luster.
Judas chose those sins untouched
by any virtue: violation of trust (John 12:6) and
betrayal. He acted with enormous humility,
he believed himself unworth of good.
Excerpt from "Three Versions of Judas"
by Jorge Luis Borges