But Judas asked and said: ‘Lord, all that would be right, and among the country people we shall certainly be provided for without money; but surely we shall also have to go into the cities and market towns, where the hospitality of former times has long since come to a complete end! How shall we get by there, and what shall we do without money?!’
I say: ‘When you go into a (Matt. 10:11) city or a market town, inquire there—for you do know what you are capable of, do you not?—whether anyone in it is worthy of you and needs what you can give. Once you have found such a person, remain with him until you move on again from there to somewhere else.
‘But it goes (Matt. 10:12) without saying that you first greet the house into which you enter! For true love always goes with the most courteous steps (Matt. 10:13) into a stranger’s house. If a house, that is, its inhabitants, is worthy of you, your peace will come upon them; but if the house is not worthy of you, the peace will turn back to you.
‘And where (Matt. 10:14) the inhabitants of a house do not receive you or listen to your speech, leave such a house at once, and ultimately such a city as well, and shake off even the dust clinging to your feet as a testimony against them that will one day (Matt. 10:15) be most important! For I tell you truthfully: one day it will be more bearable for the land of the Sodomites and Gomorrans (Matt. 10:16) at the Last Judgment in the other world than for such a city!
‘Look! I send you like sheep among ravening wolves; therefore be everywhere as shrewd as snakes, but at the same time without guile like doves, which are an image of gentleness.’
Judas says in response: ‘Lord! Under such circumstances we shall generally do poor business! What use is the future Last Judgment in the spirit world, which scarcely anyone believes in any more? If, by the plenitude of divine power You have now conferred on us, we cannot or may not impose a last judgment as severe as possible and necessary upon the ravening wolf-people, we might just as well stay at home! For as soon as we bear witness to You even a little loudly before such wolves, with whom the cities in particular teem, they will seize us, bind us and drag us to the town halls, hold a severe judgment over us there, and then, if the judgments are not too severe, at least scourge us before the Jews in the schools (!?) and finally cast us out before the city as outlaws! Truly, I should like to thank you in advance for such a gift! What use are all shrewdness, truth and the fullest honesty where, opposing them, the most arbitrary violence rages in its blind zeal?!
‘If there is a full truth and proper justice, for which present-day humanity has not the remotest sense, then the Roman principle must apply among us too: let the whole world perish, but let full justice be practiced! Let true virtue always find its certain reward, but lying, envy, avarice, falsehood and all injustice always their most inexorable punishment! If we wish to achieve anything with the wicked humanity that is now almost universally reprobate, we must appear like angels over Sodom and Gomorrah! Let whoever hears us and receives us in Your name have the reward of Your grace; but let a plague come upon whoever will not hear or receive us! And upon whoever wishes to persecute us and drag us before a worldly court, let a consuming fire fall from heaven and do with him as it once had done with the Sodomites!
‘If You, Lord, allow us to act in this way, we shall most certainly bring about good results from this present mission; but if we may not proceed in this way with humanity, corrupted and depraved beyond all measure, then all our effort and work is in vain! In the end we shall be stoned, and You Yourself will be killed if it is at all possible, and our immensely many adversaries will walk laughing over our corpses, drunk with victory! And that will be all we achieve with all this untimely goodness, yielding and gentleness! In brief: to achieve anything with Satan, one must either show him a perfect master or serve him as a servant; otherwise everything is nothing!’