{"id":3498,"date":"2024-04-30T04:46:24","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T10:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/?p=3498"},"modified":"2024-04-30T04:46:25","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T10:46:25","slug":"st-kosmas-of-aitolos-the-story-of-judas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/?p=3498","title":{"rendered":"St. Kosmas of Aitolos: The story of Judas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There was a town named Iskaria near Jerusalem. A Jew lived there with his wife. She saw in a dream that she would give birth to a devil who would burn the entire world. She revealed what she had seen to her husband… Finally she gave birth to Judas. They kept him for two months, and then put him in a trunk and threw him into the sea and said: \u201cIf God wills, let him be saved; if not, let him be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Near the harbor there were some passersby who, seeing the chest in the deep, went and pulled it out. They opened it and found the child and took him to their town, Iskaria. But they didn\u2019t tell anyone they found him in the sea, but that he was an orphan. His [real] parents said: \u201cWhy, don\u2019t we take him and make him our own?\u201d So they took him and he grew up. In the same year his mother gave birth to another child. When the children became twelve years of age, they quarreled and Judas beat the true son. The parents said to Judas: \u201cWhy did you beat our child? We have adopted you. We, my child, plan to make you both our heirs, to divide everything equally.\u201d Hearing that he would receive an equal share with the other boy, what do you think Judas was moved by the devil to do because of his avarice? One day he took a stone and killed his brother. What did the father do? Kill him? No. He felt sorry for him. When Judas killed the boy, he became frightened and left and went to Jerusalem, where he took service with a king who gave him charge of the treasury, that is, to receive and pay monies. Why did he take service with the king? Because of his avarice he believed he had much to gain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Where ten pennies were needed to buy fish, he would give only five. Since his parents had no children, what could they do? They went to Jerusalem to worship in Zion, which was built by Solomon. And when they went there, they liked the place and bought a farm and lived from it. Judas used to go there and buy vegetables. Time passed and one day the farmer said; \u201cWhy do you deprive me of my just due? The greens which you bought cost ten dollars and you gave me five. I will tell the king that you are unjust.\u201d Hearing that he would be reported to the king, Judas drew a knife and killed him. The wife shouted: \u201cWhat am I to do, o King? Your servant killed my husband!\u201d The king replied: \u201cWhat can I do?\u201d The woman answered: \u201cWhat do I have to live on? Who is going to support me since I am so helpless?\u201d The king said: \u201cMarry Judas and he\u2019ll support you.\u201d What could the unfortunate woman do? She married him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day they were talking about where each of them had come from. And, asking and inquiring, they discovered that they were mother and son. Then they said: \u201cWoe to us.\u201d At that time our Christ was traveling about teaching. Judas and his mother, that is, his wife, heard that he performed miracles and refused money. So Judas said: \u201cNow is my chance to go with him and prosper.\u201d They went to Christ and confessed and he forgave them. He told them to go back, but Judas remained and became a disciple. Our Christ immediately perceived that he was avaricious, and he gave him the money bag to control. Because of his avarice he sold our Christ for thirty pieces of silver to the Jews, and went to hell, and is burning together with the devil forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you see, my brethren, what an evil thing avarice is? The same thing was done by some priest in a village. He sold Christ because of his avarice \u2013 for money. And God cut his life short with a bad death like Judas\u2019 and he went to hell and is burning with the devil. Did you understand, my brethren, the message of what happens to whoever is afflicted with the passion of avarice? He suffers the same fate as Judas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Kosmas of Aitolos<\/em>
Source: Again and Again<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a town named Iskaria near Jerusalem. A Jew lived there with his wife. She saw in a dream that she would give birth to a devil who would burn the entire world. She revealed what she had seen to her husband… Finally she gave birth to Judas. They kept him for two months, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3500,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3498\/revisions\/3500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}