And immediately he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Teacher; and kissed him.
All Commentaries on Matthew 26:49 Go To Matthew 26
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Master; and kissed Him. Judas knew from Christ"s words at the Last Supper that he and his treachery were known to Christ; but yet, in order to hide it from the other Apostles, he pretends to give Christ the usual mark of friendship and reverence. It was the ancient mode of salutation. The Apostles probably saluted Christ in this manner, when returning back to Him from some other place. The early Christians also used to salute each other in the same way (see Tert. de Orat, and1Cor). But Judas most wickedly misused this token of friendship for the purpose of betrayal, being persuaded (says S. Chrysostom) that Christ in His gentleness would not reject his kiss, and that if He rejected it, the sign would yet have been given. S. Victor of Antioch says, "The unhappy man gave the kiss of peace to Him against whom he was laying deadly snares." "Giving," says pseudo-Jerome, "the sign of the kiss with the poison of deceit." Moreover, though Christ felt deeply, and was much pained at His betrayal by Judas, yet He refused not his kiss, and gave him a loving kiss in return1. "That He might not seem to shrink from treachery" (S. Ambrose in Luke xxi45), but willingly to embrace it and even greater indignities, for our sake2. To soften and pierce the heart of Judas (S. Ambrose, ibid.); and3. To teach us to love our enemies and those whom we know would rage against us (S. Hilary). For Christ hated not, but loved the traitor, and grieved more at his sin than at His own betrayal, and accordingly strove to lead him to repentance. Just as the spark of fire is elicited from the steel, so was Christ"s latent love elicited by His blows and sufferings. His love was pre-eminent through the whole of His Passion.
