In this day and age, Jews should not be overreacting to Pope Benedict XVI’s revision of the Good Friday prayer calling for our people “to acknowledge Jesus Christ the Savior of all men.” A very small minority of Catholics saying these words in 2008 is very different in its threat to Jews than every Catholic saying these words in 1668.
Of course, it would have been wise and surely more comforting to Jews — not to mention educative to Catholics — if the pope, in permitting this prayer and rewriting it, had also recalled the historical violence that such prayers and attitudes evoked throughout history. But Jews should chill out rather than turn this into one more drama of how the world hates us.
In truth, there is something sad about a world religion with more than 1 billion people feeling so insecure that in 2008 it needs to put back into a prayer recited on one of its holiest days a call for another people, one barely 15 million strong, to see the light.
I actually appreciate Pope Benedict XVI’s honesty and the uncomfortable realization he is raising. Whether we are traditional or liberal, secular or religious, somewhere deep inside our own consciousness we all believe that the truth upon which we ultimately stake our lives is in some serious ways preferred, greater and truer than the truth others possess. If that wasn’t the case, we would just fashion other commitments.
Secular fundamentalists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, whose bestselling books are dismissive of religion, surely think their truth is superior to religious truth and most definitely want to convert people to their view. Liberal Christians and liberal Jews wish that traditionalists and conservatives in their communities would see the light and often lament, in private if not publicly, what they see as the primitive level of the traditionalists’ worldview.
And surely traditional Jews, who in recent years reinserted in the Aleinu prayer, “for they bow to vanity and emptiness and pray to a god which helps not,” believe their truth is superior to the truth of others and hope that everyone will one day come to bow down to the One True God. (Isn’t it good that gentiles do not know Hebrew or don’t really care about what we pray?)
When we fail to recognize how inevitably we privilege our own truth or make believe this is not the case and claim all truths are equal — as is the case with most politically correct interfaith and intercultural dialogue — we wind up trading honesty for the chimera of agreement, integrity for niceties, and passion for the illusion of harmony.
Perhaps by eliminating the pejorative language of “blindness and veils” and at the same time leaving in the honest hope and prayer that others will see the light Catholics see, the pope is attempting to hold together the passionate commitment absolute truth evokes with the tolerance and openness that genuine ecumenism requires. Traditionalists will likely embrace the absolute truth side of the pope’s pronouncement, and will minimize or even be angry about any revision of the ancient words. Religious liberals and especially Jews, meanwhile, will invariably be wary of the absolute privileged truth side of the prayer, which they will see as demeaning and potentially dangerous. Each side will ignore or will be crazed by the part of what the pope said that challenges them.
But what if Pope Benedict XVI is inviting us to hold together in our consciousness what appears to be contradictory intuitions: a commitment to absolute truth and to genuine openness? We need to admit to ourselves that we do believe that the truth we ultimately stake our life on is deeper than what others possess, and at the same time we need to embrace that this is not incommensurate with a deep ecumenism.
One might call this post-postmodern — neither a traditionalist understanding of the truth in the pre-modern sense, with its arrogant absolutism, nor a relativistic understanding of the truth in the postmodern sense, with its false humility that all truths are really equal except, of course, this truth. Call it a humble absolutism.
Ultimately, the crucial measure for a religion is if its teachings and practices help us remove the veils from our own hearts — that is, become more humble and honest about our own lives and more compassionate and loving to all of God’s creatures. If returning to the Latin Mass and reasserting the hope that Jews find salvation in Jesus does this for Catholics, then all will be well.
If, on the hand, this “reform of the reform,” as the pope has called it, leads traditional Catholics to a sense of self-righteousness toward other Catholics and superiority to believers in other faiths, then Pope Benedict XVI will have simply reaffirmed what so many people sincerely yearning for the truth already feel about organized religion — namely, that it does more damage than good, divides people far more than it connects them, and teaches us to loathe rather than to love.
Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, is the author of “Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life” (Hyperion, 2006).
What mass hysteria is Rabbi Kula talking about? He is using a straw man to silence those who do not choose to be silent in the face of a retrogarde, destructive pope who has undone the long unchallenged and accepted reforms of the visionary and beloved Pope John. "...Pope Benedict will have affirmed...that(organized religion) does more damage than good, divides people far more than it connects them, and teaches us to loathe rather than to love." Reason enough to speak out without false and bewildering accusations of "mass hysteria".
Once upon a time, a great Jew – Who to me is The Greatest Jew – noted that “Our beloved will worship our God in spirit and in truth”. Being as life-long a Catholic as I am, I know that the Chosen People are nothing else if not His beloved, among beloved now knowing of His love first from the lips of devout Jews. They have been praying in worship in spirit and in truth since well before Moses led them into the Exodus, out of somebody else’s turf and into their Promised Land. We continue our prayers – now here in Lent – from out of that grand tradition of praying in search of God’s Spirit and for Truth Himself. Thank you for a glimpse at the truth you see, as we all search for God Who is Truth. Let us pray together that we meet at the end of our pilgrimages to find out that they were never parallel, but converging. Warren Jewell, Hillside, Illinois, USA
What mass hysteria is Rabbi Kula talking about? He is using a straw man to silence those who do not choose to be silent in the face of a retrogarde, destructive pope who has undone the long unchallenged and accepted reforms of the visionary and beloved Pope John. "...Pope Benedict will have affirmed...that(organized religion) does more damage than good, divides people far more than it connects them, and teaches us to loathe rather than to love." Reason enough to speak out without false and bewildering accusations of "mass hysteria".
What mass hysteria is Rabbi Kula talking about? He is using a straw man to silence those who do not choose to be silent in the face of a retrogarde, destructive pope who has undone the long unchallenged and accepted reforms of the visionary and beloved Pope John. "...Pope Benedict will have affirmed...that(organized religion) does more damage than good, divides people far more than it connects them, and teaches us to loathe rather than to love." Reason enough to speak out without false and bewildering accusations of "mass hysteria".
What mass hysteria is Rabbi Kula talking about? He is using a straw man to silence those who do not choose to be silent in the face of a retrogarde, destructive pope who has undone the long unchallenged and accepted reforms of the visionary and beloved Pope John. "...Pope Benedict will have affirmed...that(organized religion) does more damage than good, divides people far more than it connects them, and teaches us to loathe rather than to love." Reason enough to speak out without false and bewildering accusations of "mass hysteria".
What mass hysteria is Rabbi Kula talking about? He is using a straw man to silence those who do not choose to be silent in the face of a retrogarde, destructive pope who has undone the long unchallenged and accepted reforms of the visionary and beloved Pope John. "...Pope Benedict will have affirmed...that(organized religion) does more damage than good, divides people far more than it connects them, and teaches us to loathe rather than to love." Reason enough to speak out without false and bewildering accusations of "mass hysteria".
Your words are very comforting from a Catholic Priest living in Israel, because what it's at stake is the truth in itself. What other groups want the Pope to endorse is a kind of indiferentism that harms Jews and Christians. Unfortunately those voices, the more unfortunate ones come from the ones that cry out more aloud.
It's hard to believe that anyone seriously believes that absolute truth has been reached by any human being. The world we live in is based on lies and deceptions because not one paradigm comes even close to answering lifes questions... therefore all are wrong and debate as to which of these ancient paradigms is correct is a waste of time... it's time to think and seek truth completely outside these boxes.
What mass hysteria is Rabbi Kula talking about? He is using a straw man to silence those who do not choose to be silent in the face of a retrogarde, destructive pope who has undone the long unchallenged and accepted reforms of the visionary and beloved Pope John. "...Pope Benedict will have affirmed...that(organized religion) does more damage than good, divides people far more than it connects them, and teaches us to loathe rather than to love." Reason enough to speak out without false and bewildering accusations of "mass hysteria".
What mass hysteria is Rabbi Kula talking about? He is using a straw man to silence those wh0 choose to speak out in the face of a retrogarde, destructive pope who has undone the long unchallenged and accepted reforms of the visionary and beloved Pope John. "...Pope Benedict will have affirmed...that(organized religion) does more damage than good, divides people far more than it connects them, and teaches us to loathe rather than to love." Reason enough to speak out without false and bewildering accusations of "mass hysteria".
Here is the recent history of this prayer http://www.liturgy.co.nz/worship/matters.html
There's just one problem with Irwin's analysis: The Pope isn't thinking in terms of a truth that is co-equal with the absolute truths for Catholics. He sincerely wants his faithful to pray for the conversion of the Jews, not to accept their truth as equally valid. The alternative truth concept would be Irwin's rationle for instituting this change if he were Pope, but he's not
As a Jewish convert to Catholicism who has had several years of yeshiva education (so I do know what the Aleinu is saying, Rabbi Kula), let's take an open, honest look at the facts here: 1) The prayer was not 'put back'. It has always been in the Tridentine Holy Friday Mass, as a tradition of praying for Jews' well-being and the eternal hope that as many as possible will come to Christ. All Pope Benedict XVI did here was revise that continually-existing prayer to moderate some of the language in the prayer. All facets of Tridentine worship are a sublime and beautiful expression of Catholic Christian truth. It has nothing to do with trying to assuage our alleged insecurities. 2) Pope John Paul II introduced no reform that Pope Benedict has now trashed. Catholicism has always held, to this day, that all are called to Christ and are to be prayed for and evangelized, including Jews. To the best of my knowledge John Paul never made any personal comment on this topic that contradicts traditional church teaching. 'Elder brothers in the faith' does not contradict church teaching. Even if one could produce a personal comment of his that irrefutably contradicts this teaching, it wouldn't matter. A pope's personal comments - as opposed to his official acts and pronouncements throught the Vatican - have no dogmatic standing and are not an authoritative part of the Catholic faith. 3)It strikes me as an exercise in ad hominem invective to have this issue revolve around historic misconduct and abuses that some ill-formed Catholics have meted out towards Jews in the past. One can go through an Orthodox siddur and find a number of problematic prayers that can be tied, if one chooses, to historic instances of Jewish misconduct. Condemn apostates - in light of what Judaic authorities did to the first generation of Jewish Christians and to Jewish dissidents like Spinoza and Uriel de Costa? Give bleesed thanks for not being a non-Jew - after what was done to the Idumees and what some religious Zionists have done and/or would like to do to Palestinians? Would you really like Christians to start to methodically analyze and critique Jewish liturgy like this? While the Catholic Church has, unfortunately, endured a chaotic period since the close of the Second Vatican Council, that is going to be coming to an end. The Jewish community will need to learn to make its peace with a newly renewed and vigorous orthodox/traditional Catholicism. Robert Barnett Minneapolis
Kula's spiritual wisdom and clear thinking is a boon to us all, regardless of religious preference. Thank you!
The prayer is definately out of love, not trying to hurt, kill, etc anyone else. If you feel you are correct and have a great thing, surely, you want others to share in it. I wil lpray it and offer the best theological virtue, charity/love
No religious truth can be communicated, or even conceived clearly, without having been mediated through categories of the understanding. Categories of the understanding are completely bound up within particular historical-cultural structures. In this, religious truth is the same as other forms of truth. Hence religious truth, qua truth, can never be absolute. Reform and conservtive Judaism are comfortable with this. Post-Vatican II liberal Catholics have been approaching some degree of comfort with this. Pope Benedict's restoration of the Tridentine prayer can only be considered a step back into the pre-reform mentality, and it will inevitably carry some historical baggage of intolerance along with it.
LOL! U underestimate the pope I think....
It is precisely charity that obligates us Catholics to seek the conversion of non-Catholics. Despite the false and destructive ecumenism of the years following Vatican Council II, along with the false humility and the religious indifferentism expressed by many--especially some members of the Church hierarchy--conversion of the world remains a divine mandate. It has nothing to do with the man-centered notions of arrogance, triumphalism, or a sense of personal superiority, as the article seems to suggest. Religion is about pleasing God; not man. It has nothing to do with arrogating to ourselves a sense of personal or collective mastery over others or feeblishly going around trying to please the same crowd--both of which amount to a misappropriation of God's truth--one for the sake of obtaining a sense of self-satisfaction, the other to gain the world's approval--BOTH a form of self-preservation and not a genuine act of love toward God. As Catholics, we are obligated to humbly and selflessly accept the divine mandate of converting non-Catholics, even if it costs us personally. Those throughout history who have somehow used this as a club to beat over others have disgraced this sacred mission and have missed its entire point, as have those who have tried to downplay it to gain approval from their contemporaries. Betrayal comes in both forms. Agreeability to our neighbors' ears is not the measure of true charity. Rather, it is in helping them to attain eternal life and happiness with God. We share the message of Jesus Christ our Lord and King by word and example--striving to model our lives toward His. It is in precisely following His mandate and in loving Him without reserve that we perform the greatest act of love toward our neighbors. In this, there is no room for self-interest, self-satisfaction, or "one-upmanship," as God's abundant grace and love already fills the soul's every yearning. Thank you and God's many blessing to you all.
Hello Rabbi Kula -- I wonder if I could feature your remarks in my blog The Search for Meaning, the religion blog for the Ottawa Citizen in Canada? Many thanks, Jenny Green, senior writer faith and ethics, Ottawa Citizen
It's amazing how so few jews exist in the world today, and how they take on this approach that they are so right about their religion. When Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, the life, and no one comes to the Father, but through me..." He meant it. If jews, and other religions of the world want eternal salvation (Heaven), Jesus is the way, and that way is through the Roman Catholic Church, sans, Vatican II teachings, in spite of what anti-pope John Paul II spewed from his liberal mouth.
Again, why shouldn't the Pope and Roman Catholics pray for matters that resonate in their faith (their free choice) as long as they leave us alone (to exercise ours)? There's no end to contention among Christians -- they reject Mormons as Chistians, whom, in turn, reject non-Mormons as Christians. Not our fight. We, of course, also disagree amoing ourselves without anyone (except for Michael Steinhardt) calling for Jewish unity based on shared values coupled with a capacity to inspire the wanderers to return to that common ground in a manner of their choosing -- and hence a valid one for them. Again, I'm not worried about the Pope, Jews For Jesus or the like -- they're not a threat in today's America. Could be tomorrow, but that's another struggle for another day. What to worry about today? Poor Jewish leaders -- who obviously can't lead. When we forget who we are, we become the no-folk that we are warned about in Torah. If we forget the Covenant, the bad guys win. Living our lives without thinking and acting in ways that elevate our souls means an unfulfilled life, community and world. Why do we condone these non-performers?, or are they no special case in an America with religious issues that resonate in politics, industry and society in general? How many naked Emperors can exist before a society fails? An interesting societal comparison is to our support for Major League baseball players who used drugs to enhance performance -- were we misled, didn't we know? why act out now? How many billions are wasted in Government and business while others starve? How many junior military are forced to deploy, leaving families with little financial support. A shame. By the way, check out "Praying With Lior," a moving, powerful, positive and hopeful cinema experience. As always, e-mail me with comments: ajcwerfel@yahoo.com
wow i am of jewish blood if you will, my last name levine my gran dfather harvey levine was raised jewish my father just a little i was told. but me i am a believer in christ. he is tne one our father the only one. i still do not believe in the catholic. i am a christian not a catholic. i have a relationship with my god, not saints. there is one god and one god only. the catholics need alol the praying for. not us. i am proud to be of jewish blood but i follow christ. he haS CHANGED MY LIFE SO MUCH I LIVE FOR HIM TODAY HE COMES FIRST. IT IS WHAT IT IS. JEWS BELIEVE DIFFERENT. I STILL AND WILL ALWAY LOVE MY JEWISH FAMILY. CHRIST WAS A JEW. FOR EVER GOD. AMEN LET US PRAY FOR THOSE CATHOLICS WHO HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN START PROBLEMS. PRAY FOR THERE HEARTS TO OPEN UP AND UNDERSTAND AND RESPECT A PEOPLE, AND A PEOPLE OF THE CHOSEN. LET THEM LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND SEE WHAT IS TRULY BEFORE THEM. IN JESUS NAME AMEN
It is precisely charity that obligates us Catholics to seek the conversion of non-Catholics. Despite the false and destructive ecumenism of the years following Vatican Council II, along with the false humility and the religious indifferentism expressed by many--especially some members of the Church hierarchy--conversion of the world remains a divine mandate. It has nothing to do with the man-centered notions of arrogance, triumphalism, or a sense of personal superiority, as the article seems to suggest. Religion is about pleasing God; not man. It has nothing to do with arrogating to ourselves a sense of personal or collective mastery over others or feeblishly going around trying to please the same crowd--both of which amount to a misappropriation of God's truth--one for the sake of obtaining a sense of self-satisfaction, the other to gain the world's approval--BOTH a form of self-preservation and not a genuine act of love toward God. As Catholics, we are obligated to humbly and selflessly accept the divine mandate of converting non-Catholics, even if it costs us personally. Those throughout history who have somehow used this as a club to beat over others have disgraced this sacred mission and have missed its entire point, as have those who have tried to downplay it to gain approval from their contemporaries. Betrayal comes in both forms. Agreeability to our neighbors' ears is not the measure of true charity. Rather, it is in helping them to attain eternal life and happiness with God. We share the message of Jesus Christ our Lord and King by word and example--striving to model our lives toward His. It is in precisely following His mandate and in loving Him without reserve that we perform the greatest act of love toward our neighbors. In this, there is no room for self-interest, self-satisfaction, or "one-upmanship," as God's abundant grace and love already fills the soul's every yearning. Thank you and God's many blessing to you all.
Why should you care what Benedict the buffoon thinks? Catholics don't. (Trust me, I'm one.) Just before revising the prayer for conversion of the Jews he reintroduced the custom of wearing a ten-foot cape that has to be carried by four flunkeys goose-stepping behind him. For his next trick, he's planning to reintroduce the doctrine of the heliocentric solar system. The guy is a laughingstock in his own Church.
The writer here in his comparison with the Chruch call for Jews to accept Jesus as their savior and Aleinu I think he has lost his mind; I do not recall any mass killings by the Jews against other people using Aleinu as their reason for gentiles not beliving in our faith; yet I do recall all the death and destruction the Chruch has brought upon the Jewish people and this small insignificant step backwards as he states moves us once again towards the Chruches love for their Jewish elder brother that they are willing to kill him so all will know the error of our ways. NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!
JASON You say that you have come to Christ, but you don't seem to exhibit a meaningful understanding of the fullness of Christian truth and the indispensible role that Cathoicism plays in it as the One True Church of Christ. How would you know which books do and don't belong in the New Testament without the Catholic Church telling you? How would you know that the Trinity (as opposed to Arianism, Divine Adoptionism, or Tritheism) is the font of Christian truth without the Catholic Church telling you? MAX Your derisive comments toward the Holy Father and the great deeds he has done is unfortunate. Pope Benedict is greatly respected by traditional and devout Catholics for his piety and fidelity to Catholic truth. Are you saying that his newly revised prayer to pray for Jewish conversion is not in keeping with Catholic truth? If so, how did you arrive at such a conclusion? Or is the nature of Catholic truth not a genuine concern of yours to begin with? LEWIS There is nothing in praying for the conversion of Jews that says Jews should be murdered, attacked or mistreated. Nor is there anything in immutable Catholic teaching that says any such thing. As I pointed out, there are any number of instances of Jews mistreating others that can be pointed to. If we want to get into polemics, it is not my Catholic faith that makes distinctions between how Jews and non-Jews should be treated, while if one investigates the normative traditional teachings of Orthodox halacha, one will find any number of instances of this. Rob Barnett, Minneapolis
Dear Jerry: You can absolutely feature this piece in your blog..thanks, irwin kula
Those who object to Pope Benedict XVI's revised version of the Traditional Latin service on Good Friday are really calling for Catholics to abandon the whole Christ-event, which is impossible. I can quote (and will be glad to provide as a 50-page Attachment) more than 150 texts from the New Testament that indicate that Jesus Christ is the Divine Saviour of all mankind, whom every human being is called to recognize as such. Over and over the New Testament teaches that the eternal plan of God is to unite all mankind and all creation now under Jesus Christ (see for example the whole of the Epistle to the Ephesians). The divine relationship with pre-Christian Judaism was a part of this divine plan, as the Catholic Church fully recognizes, by building upon and entirely absorbing this Jewish past into its own faith, and recognizing Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah/He-who-is-to-come. Over and over the New Testament teaches that the promises of God to the Hebrew/Israelite/Jewish people are fulfilled and continued now in the Church that Christ founded, which is the Catholic Church, which is the new Israel, to which all mankind is called. For the Pope's prayer not to make this clear would be simply to abandon the whole New Testament and its witness to the Christ-event. It is astonishing to me that those who are disagreeing with the Pope never relate their protests to a close analysis of the relevant biblical texts, from the whole Bible, both that portion which Christians share with today's Jews, and the purely Christian New Testament. (It is equally surprising to me that so much of the reply from the Christian defence also fails to make full use of the incontrovertible witness of the Bible.) No one is forced to accept the Catholic interpretation of the Bible. But this interpretation is justified by the massive and unambiguous and consistent witness of the biblical texts themselves. That is the simple historical and scholarly reality. My point is this: In Catholic belief, the Messiah has come. The only possible candidate for this title and function is Jesus of Nazareth. On this question, at the very heart of the Catholic faith, Catholicism and modern Judaism occupy two irreconcilable positions, and encouraging good relations between Catholics and Jews (which I support) will be an utterly false endeavour if it does not start from and always bear in mind this simple fact: for Catholics, Jesus Christ is God and Man, and the unique Saviour of every human being, he is the Messiah, and we expect no other; but for Judaism, Jesus is not God, and his claim to be the unique Messiah is false. In fact, the most recent Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship has confirmed decisively that there has been no other Messiah but Jesus. Let me briefly sketch a proof for this. Fr Raymond Brown says in his book 'An Introduction to New Testament Christology' (Paulist Press/Geoffrey Chapman, 1994, p. 159, note 219): "From reading histories of New Testament times one might get the impression that many figures claimed to be the Messiah ... Certainly from Josephus' 'Antiquities' ... we can learn of would-be kings, prophets, deceivers who worked or promised signs, and bandit leaders in the first century BC and AD. Nevertheless, before the Jewish revolutionary leader Simon bar Cochba (ben Kosiba) in AD 130, who may [Brown italicizes the word 'may'] have been identified as the Messiah by Rabbi Aqiba, we know of no historical Jew who ever claimed to be the Messiah or was called the Messiah except Jesus of Nazareth. In Josephus 'christos' occurs twice, both in reference to Jesus ..." But while Jewish history (outside of the New Testament) can produce no Messiah of its own, the whole of the New Testament is a massive claim that Jesus is the Messiah, God’s Son, and God's chosen and final messenger and agent to the world. (The Greek word 'Christos', meaning 'Christ', 'Messiah', and applied to Jesus of Nazareth, occurs about 530 times in the New Testament; also 'huios', meaning 'Son', in the sense of 'Son of God' is used of Jesus well over 100 times in the NT. The brief First Epistle of John sixteen times calls Jesus the Son of God, and five times Son of the Father.) I quote two NT passages by way of example. (A) John 20.31: "But these [signs] are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name" (NRSV); (B) The Epistle to the Hebrews 1.1-3 (but the whole chapter and the whole of Hebrews is relevant): "1. Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2. but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. 3. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being ... " (NRSV). I respectfully suggest that a consideration of texts like these is the sort of thing that must be ever up-front in Jewish-Christian dialogue, and not just vague references to the spirit of Vatican II or to Pope John Paul II or to a changing emphasis in Pope Benedict XVI. The witness of the biblical texts is the most basic fact of all. (Sadly, they seem to feature hardly at all in the discussions about the Good Friday prayer for the Jews.) So, then, we have the massive attestation of the New Testament to the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, that he is the Messiah, and the massive attestation, of the New Testament and the Catholic Church and its history, to his mission and to the success and to the permanence of his Work (both the Person and the Work of Jesus as Messiah being central). But has there been or can there be another Messiah? I will conclude by a brief word about three books, which help to back up Fr Brown's point that in the decisive period up to Ben Kosiba there has been no Messianic claimant apart from Jesus of Nazareth. These books are Israel Knohl's 'The Messiah Before Jesus', Michael Wise's 'The First Messiah', and Dan Cohn-Sherbok's 'The Jewish Messiah'. The books of Knohl and Wise, both published around 1999, try to set up - but totally unconvincingly, because, as even these authors admit, all their 'evidence' is only more or less (un)convincing guesswork - two different candidates as Messiahs at the time of Qumran's existence. Neither candidate convinces, and of course anyhow they cancel each other out. Knohl and Wise even have to invent names for their candidates, who furthermore are never called ‘Messiah’ in the Qumran texts. Both cannot be genuine, but both can be false. Furthermore, the work of neither of these supposed Messiahs has lasted beyond their deaths. Certainly not, either, for the possible claimant Simon ben Kosiba. Furthermore again, each Knohl/Wise claimant is put forward only as a ‘First Messiah’, as the first of a succession of Messiahs. But where are their successors, after two thousand years? The whole Knohl/Wise exercise is only wishful thinking. Very interestingly, however, Knohl and Wise, using the witness of various scrolls from Qumran, which quote Old Testament texts treating of the question of a coming Messiah, and which record the Qumranites' own exegesis of these texts and their own theological developments, also ascribe to their (unsuccessful) Messianic candidates the Messianic claims made by and for Jesus in the New Testament, drawn also from the Old Testament and the Intertestamental literature. This shows that such Messianic claims (e.g. the concept of a Suffering Messiah, and of a Messiah who would rise or be raised from the dead and sit at God's right hand with divine powers), far from being outlandish and 'impossible' in late second-temple Judaism, were alive and well in the Qumran community. But has any of these Qumranite claimants risen from the dead, or left a messianic legacy? Yet these same ‘impossible’ claims, made on behalf of these supposed Qumran Messiahs by our two modern authors but not by the Qumran ‘Messiahs’ themselves, and demonstrably not fulfilled by them, are massively and explicitly and plausibly claimed in the NT to have been in fact fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, in his life, death, and resurrection/glorification. Finally, there is the despairing book by Cohn-Sherbok, which concludes that the concept of Jewish supernatural messianism is a delusion, and that all Jewish messianic claimants (including Jesus) in the past two thousand years have been simply deluded and deluders. The Catholic claims for Jesus the Messiah stand. The Catholic prayer that Jews may come to acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Saviour is the essential fulfilment of Jesus' last command to his apostles: "All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth. Going therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and behold I am with you all days, even to the end of the ages" (Matthew 28. 18-20 - note the four-fold repetition of ‘all’, which is to be found in the Greek).
I think it is time for us Catholics, priests, religious and laypeople, to recognize the members of other religions, faiths, denominations as our brothers and sisters of One God and Father who art in Heaven who created us all. Past fightings about religious beliefs are no longer needed in this age of inter-religious dialogue and inter-communal dialogue. The Jewish people have already suffered alot, even up to this day. So, let us give them rest and welcome them in our domus ecclesia (house church). Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, loved them inspite of many challenges, struggles and even death on a cross He endured with them, but still he forgave them and saved them (as what I believed), eventhough their ancestors did not know that they (and even the present Israeli) were the first ones He saved.
For those like Bill Walsh below, why do you claim no absolute truth can be known by human beings and then make claims that all religions are lies as if you know absolute truth about all religions? You should think outside your box. According to chance, all religions could be wrong since only one has the possibility of being correct, and the truth may not have been found yet. Certainly all can not be correct; neither can more than one be correct. That is where faith comes in, some have faith in a certain religious view point and some do not. It is impossible to truly believe two contracting ideas are both correct. You may think a religious person is a fool because you have no faith as they do, but a bigger fool is one that follows a religion which doesn't claim to know anything over another. What is the point? A true Catholic should pray for Jews to find Christ since only through Christ does one believe you can be with God. To not pray for the conversion of Jews means the Catholic is not really a believer in their own Catholic faith. Perhaps this untrue Catholic believes Christianity was a fable to make humans live good lives and being Jewish is a way to live a good life so they too go to heaven anyway, if there is one, and they have no need for conversion. Or perhaps the untrue Catholic is cruel, believing in no love for other people not born like them, and want the Jews to never find Christ so they will go to hell. People are free to put faith in what they want to, and a true Catholic prays that all will find Christ. Should the Jews stop claiming there is only one true God so not to offend a pagan believing in many gods? If they are really Jews, they cannot deny the one God and claim that other’s beliefs in the existence of many gods is just as true as the existence of the only God they claim to believe in. We should just be honest, we think others are wrong and what we put our faith in is right. As long as these beliefs don't tell us to kill each other, I don't even see where the problem is. The problem is for any of you to say what I wrote here is absolutely wrong if you still claim there is no absolute truth that can be known. If you do believe there is a truth, I think you would agree with me. The prayer from 1962 should be left as is from the perspective of a Roman Catholic.
Rabbi, you are the wisest commentator I have yet read on this question, and may I offer my thanks for your insight. I am a Traditional Catholic, and I think you have it exactly right. We will not and cannot surrender our absolute committment to the absolute Truth of our faith. And it is absurd for any Catholic to pretend not to notice that the Catholic Church has always recognized something special, something exceptional, in her relationship with the Jews. We are trying, as you say, to find a way to hold what seem to be irreconcilable contradictions (but actually are not)-- that one can be in possession of Absolute Truth, and at the same time be required to respect the right of another to reject or hold oneself aloof from that Truth. I hope many Jews will read and reflect on your piece and chill out with the histrionics against our Pope, who is definitely both Catholic, and a friend of the Jews.
As a Roman Catholic, I would just like to express that it is the teaching of the Catholic Church that their is NO salvation outside of the Catholic Church. It is the teaching that Jesus Christ was the Messiah promised by God to save humanity. Therefore, a true Catholic will look at all other religions and truthfully remark that the only chance they have of salvation is through the mercy of God or invincible ignorance and following the 10 Commandments. This is not to say that all catholic are saved, on the contrary they have to merit salvation
Surely, the reason we pray for the Jewish people is because we are the branch that has been grafted on to the rod of Jesse? The Jewish people are our patriarchs and our elder brothers in faith. They are the people through whom G-D has revealed himself and in His love extended salvation to us all. If we are not Jews in our hearts who are the disciples of our messiah who worship the G-D of His holy people Israel, then what are we? We should not be allowed to pray for our people??? God's covenant with the Jewish people is irrevocable. The righteous among us will be one in the World to Come. Chill out everybody, and be humble, there are mysteries of which none can fathom. The important thing is to "love one another, as I have loved you." Do that, and we know we are fulfilling all the law!
And as for Stephen's post of Dec 3rd 2008,it amazes me that such people insist on their miserly interpretations of our Father's will. Who are you to talk of the "true Catholic"? Or to "truthfully remark" in our name? You have the learning and authority of the magisterium (teaching authority)of the Church? Are you ordained by a successor of Peter? Pride is a deadly sin as you should know, and you purport to speak in the name of the Most High? You should begin by reading Nostrae Aetate (on the Vatican website if you can find it) and repent of your pride which I find offensive and sinful. John McArdle
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html
The Church keeps ever in mind the words of the Apostle about his kinsmen: "theirs is the sonship and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises; theirs are the fathers and from them is the Christ according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:4-5), the Son of the Virgin Mary. She also recalls that the Apostles, the Church's main-stay and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ's Gospel to the world, sprang from the Jewish people.
As Holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation,(9) nor did the Jews in large number, accept the Gospel; indeed not a few opposed its spreading.(10) Nevertheless, God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues-such is the witness of the Apostle.(11) In company with the Prophets and the same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and "serve him shoulder to shoulder" (Soph. 3:9).(12)
Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogues.
True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ;(13) still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ.
Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.
Besides, as the Church has always held and holds now, Christ underwent His passion and death freely, because of the sins of men and out of infinite love, in order that all may reach salvation. It is, therefore, the burden of the Church's preaching to proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God's all-embracing love and as the fountain from which every grace flows.
5. We cannot truly call on God, the Father of all, if we refuse to treat in a brotherly way any man, created as he is in the image of God. Man's relation to God the Father and his relation to men his brothers are so linked together that Scripture says: "He who does not love does not know God" (1 John 4:8).
No foundation therefore remains for any theory or practice that leads to discrimination between man and man or people and people, so far as their human dignity and the rights flowing from it are concerned.
The Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against men or harassment of them because of their race, color, condition of life, or religion. On the contrary, following in the footsteps of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, this sacred synod ardently implores the Christian faithful to "maintain good fellowship among the nations" (1 Peter 2:12), and, if possible, to live for their part in peace with all men,(14) so that they may truly be sons of the Father who is in heaven.(15)
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NOTES
1. Cf. Acts 17:26
2. Cf. Wis. 8:1; Acts 14:17; Rom. 2:6-7; 1 Tim. 2:4
3. Cf. Apoc. 21:23f.
4. Cf 2 Cor. 5:18-19
5. Cf St. Gregory VII, letter XXI to Anzir (Nacir), King of Mauritania (Pl. 148, col. 450f.)
6. Cf. Gal. 3:7
7. Cf. Rom. 11:17-24
8. Cf. Eph. 2:14-16
9. Cf. Lk. 19:44
10. Cf. Rom. 11:28
11. Cf. Rom. 11:28-29; cf. dogmatic Constitution, Lumen Gentium (Light of nations) AAS, 57 (1965) pag. 20
12. Cf. Is. 66:23; Ps. 65:4; Rom. 11:11-32
13. Cf. John. 19:6
14. Cf. Rom. 12:18
15. Cf. Matt. 5:45
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