When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders.  He said, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood."  But they said, "What is that to us?  See to it yourself."  Throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself.

Judas, the betrayer of innocent blood, sought forgiveness in the wrong place - from those who purchased innocent blood.  His hope in repentance seemed to hinge on the thought that he could through his own actions reverse the outcome of his crime.  When those who had no power to forgive him, and certainly no will, offered no outlet for his repentance Judas hanged himself.

It is impossible to know what was going through Judas' mind during that final hour.  Was his suicide a desire to escape the unbearable weight of a damning conscience?  Was it a desire to take his punishment into his own hands and thereby purchase compassion from God?  In any case the lesson is the same: self-destruction is the final end of despair.  We must not be foolish enough to presume to know God's judgment, for Jesus said Judas was "guilty of a greater sin" (John 19.11) - he did not condemn him.

Is not unrepentant despair a sin against the Holy Spirit, the type of sin which Christ said would not be forgiven? (Matthew 12.31-32)  It seems to be a sin against the Holy spirit because it is making a final, definitive statement about what God can and cannot forgive, and it is the Holy Spirit who prompts us interiorly to seek repentance and mercy.  It seems to be unforgivable because God can't forgive what we refuse to allow him to forgive.  Furthermore when despair is final it brooks no possibility of return.

Even though all despair does not end in suicide all despair results in patterns of self-destructive behavior.  Many self-destructive actions have as their source a loss of hope.  Hope springs from concrete interior and exterior acts and requires energy and commitment.  Despair is the cessation of all acts which might engender hope, such as repentance.

If Judas could have foreseen what was going to happen would he still have done it?  Indeed, he regretted it once he did begin to see the result of his betrayal of Christ.  Thus does the search for money blind us to its consequences.  In the actions of Judas we witness the first - and literal - fulfillment of Christ's teaching: "the lure of wealth chokes the word." (Matthew 13.22)  It was a lure that held dominion over Judas for probably at least the period of his discipleship for "he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it." (John 12.6)  Unrepentant sin always leads to greater and greater crimes.  It is as though we start off with the temptations of the demons in the lesser choirs and work our way down through the hierarchy until we reach Satan himself if left completely unchecked.  This seems to be the same as what happens with virtue except instead of being drawn upward through the celestial hierarchy one is drawn downward through the hierarchy of the damned.  Given Satan's peculiar and specific hatred for human souls he will always try to draw us into the very depths of hell so he himself may torture us, in a manner similar to the highest choirs of angels, the cherubim and seraphim, who are always trying to draw us further and further up through their realm to purer and purer adoration and service of the supreme Godhead.