Poem to Judas from Jesus

I was listening to EWTN on Sirius satellite radio a couple days ago and caught the tail end of one of Fr. Leo Clifford's shows. This one was on the Mercy of God and he read a poem by an unknown Christian about Jesus addressing Judas from the cross. (Remember that from his despair at betraying our Lord, Judas hung himself) I was really struck by it but forgot Fr. Leo's name and couldn't find the poem anywhere. After some investigation I finally found one Google search result (One!) with the text of the poem.

Listen to the 10min. "Mercy of God" talk and others online here.







The text of the poem:

Judas, if true love never ceases
how could you, my friend, have come to this:
To sell me for thirty silver pieces
and betray me with a kiss?
Judas, remember what I taught you,
do not despair while hanging on the rope.
It's because you sinned that I have sought you;
I came to give you hope.
Judas, let us pray and hang together,
you on your halter, I upon my hill.
Dear friend, even if you loved me never,
you know I love you still.

I used it to close a homily on last Sunday's readings about the connection between leprosy and sin, about the shame that each produce, and about the courage to approach Jesus with humility and to hear him say "I do will it. Be made clean." Sorry, no text, I decided to experiment this time and try to just preach from a few notes rather than a full text. I think it went pretty well.