Centuries ago in Europe, a great artist was engaged by his rich patron to paint the most elaborate mural for a grand cathedral – the subject of the painting being the life of Jesus Christ. The artist laboured for years on end and everything was almost complete on this artistic interpretation of spirituality, except the face of Jesus and the face of Judas – the two most central characters – viz. the saint and the sinner, without which his labour of decades would remain incomplete!

The artist went incognito to public places, searching far and wide, until one day, he found a poor boy, about seven years of age, with the face of an angel. He took the boy home and painted his angelic face day after day, for weeks, until the Christ-child’s face became a masterpiece of perfection. He was delighted and sent the boy away with some clothes, food and lots of money. Did he make a mistake by giving lots of money? Read on and you’ll know…

Now, the artist wanted a model for the face of Judas. Again the search went on for days, months and several years slipped by in vain. By now, the artist had aged, his vision was blurred. He simply had to find the face of Judas before his eyes failed him completely!

One day, outside a dark and dingy, shabby tavern, he saw an extremely filthy, drunken beggar, fallen in a gutter, warped by life, enfeebled by surrender to greed, envy, lust, dishonesty and bitterness, begging for some wine. The artist lifted him up from the gutter to see his face. What luck! He had finally found the face that reflected every vice of mankind! The painter took him home, gave him wine, food and clothes for several days, working feverishly to complete his masterpiece as his vision was fading rapidly.

As the days passed, the model comfortably settled in the artist’s house. On the parting day, he wanted to see the painting. He was completely filled with horror seeing the painted likeness of himself and started crying.

“My son, why are you weeping? Tell me and I shall help you!” said the artist.

The model lifted his face, coming closer to the artist and sobbed, “Sir, don’t you remember me? Years ago, l was your model for the Christ-child!”

“You can still revert to that Christ-like state if you really want to,” said the artist. From that day, which was like a “wake-up” call from God, the model transformed his life, taking a mental about-turn and dedicated his life to serving the poorest of the poor. When he died, people said, “His life was almost Christ-like!”

There’s a bit of Jesus and a bit of Judas in all of us, a bit of the saint and a bit of a sinner in us all. Each one of us has the potential to be like Christ or Judas. The choice dear reader, is entirely yours!