Posted on 03/23/2008 5:08:33 PM PDT by markomalley
Pope Benedict’s efforts to expand the use of the Tridentine Mass have raised Jewish concerns about the traditional Good Friday liturgy. At issue is the prayer for the conversion of the Jews, which is one of the intercessory prayers for those belonging to various non-Catholic religious groups. These prayers are unique to the Good Friday liturgy, which consists of the reading of the Passion, the extended intercessory prayers, the veneration of the Cross, and the distribution of Communion using previously-consecrated hosts. The furor over the prayer relating to the Jewish people provides a good opportunity to reflect on two sides of Catholic-Jewish relations. Prior History of the Prayer When the Tridentine Mass was first promulgated in 1570 (the result of a liturgical reform initiated at the Council of Trent), the most controversial portion of the prayer for the Jews read: “Oremus et pro perfidies Judaeis.” The original Latin sense of this prayer was: “Let us pray also for the unbelieving Jews.” However, the common translation of perfidies by the English cognate “perfidious” created problems, because over time that English word came to have the extremely unflattering connotation of faithlessness arising from treachery. Of course, the liturgy was not celebrated in English, but by the twentieth century most people were using missals which contained the Latin and the English on alternate pages.
Aware of this problem in the midst of the ecumenical movement in the 1950’s, Pope Pius XII ordered in 1955 that perfidies be translated as “unbelieving”. In 1959, Pope John XXIII dropped perfidies altogether, and it does not appear in the 1962 revision of the Roman Missal (the last revision prior to the far more extensive reform of the liturgy, commonly called the “Novus Ordo”, by Paul VI in 1970). Most readers know that the proper current terminology for these two liturgical texts is as follows: The 1962 Missal is termed the “extraordinary form” of the Roman rite; the 1970 Missal and its subsequent revisions is termed the “ordinary form” of the Roman rite. Since 1962, then, the extraordinary form, still celebrated in Latin, has rendered the passage in question as: “Let us pray also for the Jews.” Here is the entire text of the prayer:
For the conversion of Jews: Let us pray also for the Jews that the Lord our God may take the veil from their hearts and that they also may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray: Almighty and everlasting God, you do not refuse your mercy even to the Jews; hear the prayers which we offer for the blindness of that people so that they may acknowledge the light of your truth, which is Christ, and be delivered from their darkness. Note that the purpose of this prayer is to ask God to overcome the failure of the Jews to recognize Christ as the Messiah. Any words which might appear negative are firmly embedded in this context of Christians wishing Jews the benefits of Faith in Christ. In other words, in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, the prayer in question emphasizes what Christians believe Jews are lacking in the Divine relationship they are intended to enjoy. A Shift in Perspective Also in the early 1960’s, the Second Vatican Council issued notable documents on both ecumenism (among Christians) and, in Nostra Aetate, on the relationship of the Church to non-Christian religions. While emphasizing that the fullness of the means of salvation is to be found only in the Catholic Church, Vatican II also explored the varying ways in which God is able to work outside of the Church. To take just three examples, the Council spoke of the role of Scripture for non-Catholic Christians, the Old Testament and original Covenant for the Jews out of which the New Covenant grew, and the operations of the natural law for non-believers. Reflecting this emphasis on the positive elements of the Divine plan elsewhere at work, the ordinary form of the Roman Rite altered the intercessory prayers to emphasize what is present in the relationship with God possessed by each group. Thus the prayer for the Jews reads:
Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant. Almighty and eternal God, long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and his posterity. Listen to your Church as we pray that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption. This prayer emphasizes that God spoke to the Jews in the Old Covenant, and that the Jews received immensely important promises through Abraham and his descendants. It still begs God to bring the Jewish people to the fullness of redemption (in Christ). But in the ordinary form of the Roman Rite, clearly, the prayer emphasizes not what Christians believe is lacking but what they believe the Jews already possess in their relationship with God. Benedict’s Latest Change When Benedict decided to order a more generous use of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, a number of Jewish leaders protested that this would be a giant step backward in Catholic-Jewish relations. They were thinking particularly of that awkward word “perfidies”, which several media outlets (typically ignorant of things Catholic) erroneously reported was to be revived. This word had of course been dropped 48 years earlier, as the Vatican quickly made clear. But there were also other terms and concepts at stake. One Jewish group after another either issued negative statements or requested clarifications. Accordingly, Benedict took a long look at the prayer and decided to implement a revision. In February, he mandated the following text, given here in both languages, though it will be spoken only in Latin:
Oremus et pro Iudaeis. Ut Deus et Dominus noster illuminet corda eorum, ut agnoscant Iesum Christum salvatorem omnium hominum. [Oremus. Flectamus genua. Levate.] Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui vis ut omnes homines salvi fiant et ad agnitionem veritatis veniant, concede propitius, ut plenitudine gentium in Ecclesiam Tuam intrante omnis Israel salvus fiat. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen. Clearly Benedict desired here to remove any terms which might still appear to be derogatory (“blindness”, “veil”, “darkness”), and it seems likely that he considered even the term “conversion” to be a red flag, though he left the concept intact. Whatever the case, he retains the spirit of the extraordinary form, with its emphasis not on what the Jewish people already possess, but on what they are lacking, asking that this may be supplied to them through Christ and the Church.
The Two Sides of the Coin Some Jewish representatives are still unhappy. Others understand that any religious body, if it is true to itself, ought to hope and pray that others will receive the spiritual benefits it holds to be so precious. Ultimately, however, the position that the Jews are lacking something is a source of discomfort for those who have come to equate inter-religious progress with a Catholic admission that one religion is as good as another. For example, the request for clarification issued by the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism on February 14th expressed surprise at the call for conversion in view of the following points of recent Catholic-Jewish history: (1) Jewish leaders (they said) had succeeded in convincing the Fathers of Vatican II to remove a passage calling for the conversion of the Jews in Nostra Aetate; (2) Beginning in 1970 the reformed liturgy (ordinary form) emphasized the spiritual riches of the Jewish people; (3) John Paul II had used the term “elder brothers” in referring to the Jews; and (4) Cardinal Walter Kasper (head of the Vatican Commission on Religious Relations with the Jews) had “announced publicly on several occasions that the Catholic Church no longer maintains an office for the conversion of the Jewish people”. It is hardly surprising that the RACJ wondered what, if anything, the Pope intended by the revival of the older Good Friday liturgy and his subsequent emendation of it. Nor is it surprising that Jews should be very interested in the answer. But it is both surprising and unfortunate that any inquirer or commentator who has a sincere religious faith of his own should have concluded from recent history that the Church no longer desired all men to be brought to the fullness of Christ. The attitude that it does not matter what others believe is incompatible with true spiritual conviction of any kind. What has been going on in Catholic-Jewish relations since World War II has been a new emphasis on the kinship between Judaism and Christianity, but without any loss of conviction that Jesus Christ is the one Mediator between God and men. That a more positive emphasis should have developed rapidly after World War II is hardly surprising, given both the preeminent tragedy of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany and many other cultural developments since that time. Yet despite this shift, the prayers in the two forms of the Roman Rite continue to represent the Jews specifically in their relationship to God’s salvific plan, just as both prayers continue to insist that the fullness of that plan is realized only in Christ and the Church. One prayer implies the other, and vice versa, for the two prayers simply accentuate opposite sides of the same redemptive coin—the coin with which the ultimate well-being of each and every person must be purchased. |
The word “conversion” is not really applicable to the picture in question. As chief Pastor Lon Solomon of the McLean Bible Church notes, there is no particular reason to stop being Jewish when you become a Christian. Jesus didn’t, and he didn’t.
Rather presumptuous don't you think?
b'SHEM Yah'shua
Fur Shur you'll never hear the Reverend Hagee praying for the "conversion" of the Jews ~ and just a few weeks back we had a bunch of Freepers screaming and hollering that Hagee was a mind-numbed, knee-jerk, robot-like anti-Catholic bigot (and about 99% of their argument was based on "evidence" dredged up/created by a homosexual activist).
Wonder how many of the anti-Hagee crowd have been painting the Pope as a bigot over this particualar prayer issue?
Didn’t that other former Inquistor General Joe Carafa already try this in 1555?
If, as Christians believe, Jesus is the Messiah promised, then what exactly would you expect them to pray?
Having studied the Talmud, I find that this is an odd complaint indeed. Coming from those who’s faith professes that all non-Jews are not human, nothing but animals, with no standing before God. The Talmud, the holiest of Jewish books, teaches Jews that it is not a crime to kill a gentile, that it is not a sin to lie to a gentile, that it is not a sin to steal from a gentile, (indeed, returning a found item to a gentile is a punishable offense,) that Mary was a whore, that Jesus was a bastard who is boiling in human excrement in hell. “Thou shall not bear false witness,” and the other Commandments do not apply to Jews when dealing with Gentiles, because Gentiles are not human.
As incredible as this seems, it is absolute fact. If you don’t believe it read a Talmud. (You can google it and surf around a little bit, you’ll find it.) There is a reason you don’t find it in public libraries. Beware though of Jewish denials. They are told in the Talmud not to reveal the Talmud to Gentiles because they will surely be killed if a Gentile reads it. And it specifically instructs Jews to use subtrefuge to protect themselves from criticism.
I researched this certain that it was wrong. I was shocked.
It is not presumptuous. Paul prayed for the conversion of the Jews (Rom. 9:1-3; 10:1). If it was all right for Paul to do it, then it is all right for us to do it.
What is presumptuous is to suggest that G-d belongs to those who reject
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua
the L-rds feast days and instead celebrate pagan feasts like Easter,
Christmas and Sundays.
If you believe that Yah'shua is the Jewish Messiah, then why do
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua
you reject the feast days that He has commanded and instead replace
them with Pagan feasts like Easter, Christmas and Sundays?
More that Christians should find Judaism appealing.
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Presumptuous, no - loving yes. We are also told, in the OT, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem is that presuptuous of a Christian too. We are praying for Jews to recognise Jesus Christ as their Saviour so that they may be fulfilled in their faith!
Mel
Salvation=Christianity...No Christians outside of the Catholic Church...Interesting...
However;
Almighty and everlasting God, you do not refuse your mercy even to the Jews; hear the prayers which we offer for the blindness of that people so that they may acknowledge the light of your truth, which is Christ, and be delivered from their darkness.
Note that the purpose of this prayer is to ask God to overcome the failure of the Jews to recognize Christ as the Messiah.
God already has a plan...I'm sure he won't deviate from it...
Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
Rom 11:27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall (future) take away their sins.
Rom 11:28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.
While it's good to pray for individual Jewish people as well as others, it won't do any good to pray for the salvation of Israel...
God is the One who put the blinders on Israel...And He says He will remove the blinders at the appropriate time...Not sooner...
That’s rich! On the basis of that bit of legalistic nonsense, you have the “presumption” to cut off a billion people from the right to refer to “the Lord our God”!!!???
If you’re going to come on these threads just to be peevish like this, why don’t you instead go find some high-brow cocktail party someplace and hang around the punchbowl being annoying to people. Don’t forget the propeller beanie. Nice touch!
Give me a break!!!
Er...that's what we pray for!
There was an article a while back about how some Jews view Zionist evangelicals as "useful idiots".
What yeshiva did you study at?
I'm sorry, G*d doesn't belong to me, I belong to G*d.
I'm a Christian and I still celebrate the L*rd's feast days.
I also celebrate Easter, as the time when Christ rose from the dead, and Christmas, as the time when Christ was born.
If you can point me to someone that can tell me unequivocally when Christ was born, died, and rose from the tomb, I will be more than happy to celebrate those days.
Rabbinism not so muchJudaism yes
particularly when it points away from YHvH
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