Between Peter’s denial and Judas’ betrayal

Among the deepest anguishes suffered by the son of man, perhaps two pains stood out as the ones which inflicted the deepest wounds in His heart. Those were the betrayal by Judas Iscariot, supposedly the treasurer among the 12 apostles, and the denial by the anointed leader, Simon Peter, upon whose hands the keys to heaven had been entrusted.

In our reflections about these two characters, we came to draw parallels between what happened during the time of the Lord, on the one hand, and the contemporary events today in the secular world, on the other hand. The saga of Judas represents the constant corruption and betrayal of public trust by which public officials in the Philippines and in the world pursue human greed by stealing the peoples' money via the mechanisms of massive government projects costing billions and even trillions taken from public funds.  Judas represents the ultimate greed of man for money, possessions and other material wealth. Judas is present in all agencies of government, stealing public funds from budgets for public works, for education, public health, and accepting bribes and kickbacks from equally corrupt suppliers and contractors.

The character of Peter is reflected in many high public officials who promise to protect the people and even use the sword of government power, in order to slay the criminals, only to become criminals themselves, and then peremptorily deny all these without remorse. The modern Peters today are the public officials who believe that their much glorified ends of solving the drug problems and other crimes are justified by their lawless means of extra-judicial killings and state-sponsored summary executions. These reincarnations of Peters are the ones who nonchalantly deny the legal or even the moral authority of internal courts of justice to inquire into the truth of the many palpable allegations. And they use such high sounding defenses as national sovereignty and independence as the legal disguise to hide their blatant disregard of fundamental human rights.

There are Judases in the executive, legislative and even in the judiciary. There are sons and scions of Judas in private corporations and even in non-government organizations. There are Judases in the academic communities, in church organizations, in civic clubs and societies. There are Judases in judicial robes who sell their decisions, their temporary restraining orders and injunctions for much more than thirty pieces of silver. There are Judases in customs, internal revenue collection agencies, in immigration and even in penal institutions. There are Judases among purchasing officers, among finance and accounting management, and even in Legal and HR. There are even Judases among janitors, messengers and security guards.

There are Peters today in high places and in low levels who deny their responsibilities and also betray their own superiors and commit treacherous offenses and infidelity against the very people they had been sworn to serve. Peters are supposed to be entrusted with the keys to salvation but there are many of them today who turn against the trust and the confidence reposed on their offices and on themselves. The keys to salvation bequeathed upon them are being transformed into keys to damnation and perdition. Examples are illegal recruiters and traffickers in persons who lead their victims to untold risks and damages.

Judases are entrusted with money, properties and assets. They malverse them, steal them and enrich themselves. Peters are entrusted with powers, with authority with executive, legislative and judicial discretions. They abuse, misuse and overuse these prerogatives and deny their responsibility while they amass more influence and powers over others. At the end of the day, they expect to be forgiven by the All Loving God who is ready to forgive even if these rascals know very well what they are doing.

And the greatest irony of them all is that the one who betrayed His Lord administered justice upon himself by committing suicide. On the other hand, the one who denied His Master not once, not twice, but in more ways than one, managed to be declared as the first Pope.