The Profanities of the Judas kiss

As a follower of Christ, Judas was supposed to fight and die. But this Iscariot guy did something so nasty that it must have stunned beyond belief the rest of the apostles - Jesus' 12. As followers of Christ, we are not to question why. We are not to ask why did He handpick someone - a disciple and a trusted aide at that - who would later plant a yucky kiss on His cheek. But what a kiss it was! It dearly cost Him His life but endearingly salvaged ours. Why in heaven did He die for us? It was to see to it that we would be able to join Him in heaven. The kiss was probably the first kiss of death recorded in Anno Domini. Now, anything that is apropos to Judas and the kiss denotes betrayal - the ugliest form of man's degredation. The enemy you face outside your walls is nobler than the enemy you are not aware of within the confines of your turf. A double-crosser should be slain twice, by your sword and by your adversary's sword. Beware of the shadow of Judas, the glitter of the 30 pieces of silver, and those who dip with you in shared dishes. Above all, beware of the tender, innocent, sweet kiss of treachery.

Our bad Judas, for all the esteemed apostle that he was, was entrusted with a creed much like what a knight, a churchman, a sportsman or any professional holds. He should have stood by it ideally; lived, acted and died by it meaningfully. But, to Jesus' consternation, he instead marketed his own self, then regretful of his bad deed, went to hang himself on a tree.

Well, what we are witnessing here, in the aftermath of the kiss of sin, is that our incredible Judas put up his soul for sale, bloodied the money in his hands, and usurped God's right to life by killing himself, forfeiting for himself a good chance for God's forgiveness. Evidently, the manipulations and offenses of this fallen-from-grace apostle all but aptly manifest what we regard as the profanities of the Judas kiss.

Indeed, the Judas kiss is a profane act. He prostituted the real intention of kissing, an emotional gesture expressing love, reverence, fondness or greeting. We know how to distinguish good kisses from bad ones. Kiss of life, kiss of peace, kiss of goodbye, make up kiss, even a kiss of confection - all these subscribe to the purity of definition. Those terms that are ill-used, malicious or derogatory, are just as sickening as the Judas kiss. A kiss becomes devilish, sordid, or immoral when misused.

The Judas kiss also sires other awful offsprings, like the kiss of doom, kiss of sin, kiss of betrayal, kiss of sacrilege, kiss of hypocrisy. It is in this context that the actions, intentions and innuendos emanating from these are cited as the profanities of the Judas kiss. It is all vile, evil and guile. It is irreverent, unscrupulous and impure. Such are the siblings of blasphemy and apostasy, betrayment and villainy, improbity and vulgarity.

The reason of Judas' fall was attributed to his failure to keep his faith and trust strong. Thus, he grew fickle to the whims of worldliness, forgot the sanctity of his mission, and lost management of his apostleship. This is a wake-up call for us to stand firm on our belief lest we fall into the abyss of sinfulness and damnation. Certainly, we would not cater to being instigator or victim of the Judas kiss. One kills, one dies. In the part of the schemer, he has his own fiendishness to blame. He is actually acting the traitor against himself, ruining his name. For it will appear in a roster along with those of Judas, Brutus, Delilah, Quisling, Benedict Arnold. As for the targeted one, certainly he does not want to run the gauntlet of the cross, or be blinded and flagged as Samson was, or get multiple stabs as Caesar did.

Talking of stabbing, he who stabs one in the back is the most filthy, notorious, deceitful, disloyal, treacherous, treasonous, unprincipled, profane, infidel, quislingite snake in the grass of a betrayer. This run of unsavory adjectives is deliberately done to paint a picture of how Iscariotic a two-timing scoundrel can be. It takes only one word to describe a lamb but ten words to describe a rat. By the way, quislingite is a term that is derived from one Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian politician who collaborated with their enemy, the Nazis, and whose name became generic for a double-dealer. Here is the other tale. An American soldier, known for his activities of selling out his country to the British during the Colonial Wars, etched his name in history as the infamous, unmourned and spat-at turncoat - Benedict Arnold.

These classic heels and their misdeeds represent the profanities as viewed from the betrayal side. Now let's say something about those pertaining to the sacrilegious aspect. Religion, as we know, is an institution that is sacred, consecrated and inviolable. All religions are like that. Their worship houses are hallowed ground; their books, holy; their relics, sacred; their saints, revered. Divinity is all portrayed here. Though, humanly certain, these faiths have their own Judasses who abuse their cause, defile their creeds, debase their conviction.

To profane is to violate, desecrate or misuse what is religiously sacred. Committing that brings in the sins of blasphemy, unsanctity and infidelity. It also brings out the despicable, impious and dirty varmint in us. We double profane our very own self. We sell ourselves to perform a profanity against heaven and earn a profanity of the Judas kiss.