Publisher's Synopsis
... "Here she is!" Alexandra said quietly as we approached Michelangelo da Caravaggio's painting "The Kiss of Judas." On the canvas, the artist depicted the final episode of the tragedy that took place on the Mount of Olives two thousand years ago after Jesus prayed for the cup. They are frozen forever under the artist's brush: in the foreground, the Teacher, his disciple Judas, and the guards in metal armor and helmets. From the expression on Jesus's face, one could guess that He humbly accepts what is happening and is ready for what is destined for Him from above...
"Pay attention to how expressively the artist depicted the twelfth apostle," said Sasha. "He is all in motion, he is all in a fever, he is in a hurry to do something more than kiss Jesus Christ according to the long-standing tradition."
"What are you talking about, Sasha?" I asked, thinking that she had overheated in the sun.
"Judas Iscariot is fulfilling a divine mission," said Sasha." He is contributing to the death, and through death, the resurrection of the Son of God and the salvation of all mankind. He hardly knows the final goal. But he fulfills the role of his mediator, assigned to him by the Teacher himself, with all the responsibility he was capable of.
"And imagine, if it had not been for that kiss, the world could have gone a different way," I said, playing along with Sasha.
"Don't blaspheme. Everything happened as it should. And nothing could have been otherwise..."
