And when morning was come, all the chief priests and ancients of the people took counsel against Jesus, that they might put him to death. And they brought him bound, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. Then Judas, who betrayed him, seeing that he was condemned, repenting himself, brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and ancients, Saying: I have sinned in betraying innocent blood. But they said: What is that to us? look thou to it.  And casting down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed: and went and hanged himself with an halter.  But the chief priests having taken the pieces of silver, said: It is not lawful to put them into the corbona, because it is the price of blood.

Notice that it was right after the Chief Priests delivered Jesus over to Pontius Pilate that Judas "repented himself".  I think it quite possible that Judas had only intended to hand Jesus over to the Chief Priests to try him for "heresy" after Judas had the falling out over Mary Magdalene's "waste of money" in anointing the feet of Our Lord.  But when he saw that they were taking Our Lord to Pilate, he knew what was up, that the Jєωs intended to have Our Lord put to death.  Why else would they take him to Pilate?  He knew that the Jєωs could not execute someone themselves due to constraints of Roman Law.  That is why he cried out about "innocent blood" right after the Jєωs took Our Lord Jesus to Pilate.  So Judas' disingenuous "concern for the poor" (disingenuous because he had been embezzling) reduced Our Lord's doctrine to little more than corporal works of mercy.  Does that sound familiar today?  Do not the majority of the entire Novus Ordo hierarchy betray the doctrine of Our Lord in the interests of compassion and an undue emphasis on the corporal works of mercy?  Even the Jєωs realized that the blood money was dirty somehow, and Judas regretted himself because he had received blood money (quite likely with the same shallow "repentance" with which the Jєωs refused to accept the same blood money).  As I said, when he first took the money, he quite likely didn't think he was betraying Our Lord to death, but just to the Jєωs.

So Judas, who had spent the better part of three years in the continual presence of Our Lord God, failed to accept His true doctrine.  And one could be tempted to feel quite sorry for Judas if we view his betrayal as an isolated sin of weakness (as it was in the case of St. Peter).  But no, in the case of Judas, Judas had been exposed to such grace and to Our Lord's doctrine and had, over the case of three years, not cooperated with these graces and had rejected them.  As many saints have taught us, as we live, so too shall we die.  Had Judas cooperated with the constant flood of grace he received in the direct presence of Our Lord over the course of those three years, he too would likely have repented the way St. Peter did.  This wasn't a single isolated fall but a long steady pattern of refusing to cooperate with grace and accept Our Lord's teaching.

How could he have despaired when he watched Our Lord forgive one sinner after another, when he watched as Our Lord was constantly attacked for keeping company of sinners, and after having experienced first hand the tangible love and compassion of Our Lord?  He should have known, had he accepted Our Lord's true doctrine, that Our Lord would have been so pleased to forgive him even for this.  Or did he not believe that Our Lord could forgive sins, despite having watched Our Lord cure so many by simply saying, "Your sins are forgiven."  No, it's no accident that his last recorded actions before determining to betray Our Lord was to rebuke St. Mary Magdalene for pouring out her tears of love in gratitude for Our Lord's forgiveness, a forgiveness which, in the end, he did not believe in or want.

So the sin of Judas was rooted in a rejection of Our Lord's doctrine and the rejection of grace over the course of many years, and not just a momentary sin of weakness as in the case of St. Peter.  That is why he handed Our Lord over to the Jєωs, because in the end he agreed with their assessment that Our Lord's doctrine was false.  He rejected the money only for the same shallow reasons that the Chief Priests themselves wouldn't take it back.  And what did the Chief Priests doe with the money?  Consign it over to corporal works of mercy.

So in this way did Judas commit that sin against the Holy Spirit which Our Lord said could not be forgiven, the sin against the Holy Spirit which entails a pertinacious rejection of grace and of true doctrine.

Food for thought, and at the perfect time for such reflections.

I particularly agree about the gross overemphasis on corporal works of mercy. Whenever I encounter the revolting spectacle of praise for the many current acts of contempt heaped upon the dignity of the papacy by its own claimant in the name of "humility" and "solidarity with the poor," as well as such outrages as the selling of the papal tiara and the distributing of the funds to "the poor," I always remind the vapid fools who praise these outrages who it was that rebuked St. Mary Magdalene for her piety, disingenuously crying "Why this waste?"