Q :
“I kept those you had given me true to your name. I have watched over them and not one is lost except the one who chose to be lost, and this was to fulfil the scriptures.” (John 17: 12)
I was asked multiple times by Catechumens that if Judas was “framed” by God as a traitor to Jesus and my explanation was that it is God’s wish for men to have full choice but Judas had chosen wrongly and deadly. However, today’s reading (John 17:12) bring this up again, this time to myself, with the writing “and this was to fulfil the scriptures” sounds like “in order for Scriptures to be fulfilled, Judas MUST betray Jesus”. I know I am wrong somewhere but just cannot resolve to a satisfactory answer.
【 Question from 】 Canada 加拿大
Fr. Francis :
One way to work this out, is to remind ourselves not to limit God by time. We are so accustomed to think of time linearly. God, however, is outside of time. He can arrange Old Testament events in such a way based on what He already knew about New Testament events. In fact, far more than that, knowing in the eternal instant all the choices of all the angels and humans, He in one instant arranged all history in such a way to bring His Plan to fuition for all, always without trespassing our freedom of choice.