Catholics and Jews

I remember the last years my mother was alive, we pleaded with her to get a dishwasher. It was a family custom to have a big Sunday dinner at my parents' home. It also became a custom, although not such a happy one, to spend at least an hour in the kitchen afterwards doing dishes and cleaning up. Although we loved and honored my mom beyond measure, we did consider her misguided and behind the times in some respects.

Roman Catholics have a similar attitude today toward our Jewish brothers and sisters. Our Founder, Jesus of Nazareth, was a Jew. His parents were Jewish, He was circumcised according to Jewish law, He worshiped in the temple in Jerusalem and attended the synagogue in His home town. He knew the Old Testament well, and often quoted from it. He declared that He was "sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel" (Matt. 15:24).

The first Pope, Peter, was a Jew, as were the first bishops, the Apostles.

In Old Testament times, about 1500 B.C., God made a covenant, a sacred agreement, with Moses and the nation of Israel. He would be their God, and the Jews were to be His people. They were to keep His laws, as written in the Ten Commandments. Unfortunately, the Jews, just like people today, were unable to keep those laws perfectly. They sinned and were in need of a Savior.

Through Jeremiah, the prophet, about 600 B.C., God promised to make another covenant with the Jewish people:

" The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt- a covenant they broke, though I was their master, says the Lord."

Fast forward about 600 years to 33 A.D. A travelling preacher from Nazareth, named Jesus, attracted quite a following. It was reported that He taught with authority about God and God's kingdom and confirmed the words He spoke with miracles. Some believed He was the long-awaited Messiah.

The Jews of that generation did not accept Jesus. In collaboration with the Romans who were occupying Israel at that time, they had Jesus put to death by crucifixion.

At the Last Supper, the night before He died, Jesus changed bread into His body, and gave it to the Apostles to eat. Then He took a cup of wine, declaring, "This is My blood of the New Covenant", and passed it to them to drink. He instructed the Apostles to continue this practice in memory of Him.

The next day, on Good Friday, Jesus died. After three days He rose again and appeared to the Apostles and many disciples. He remained on earth for forty more days, teaching the Apostles and preparing them to start the Christian Church. On Ascension Day, He returned to His Father in heaven. Many of the first Christians went to their deaths willingly, as a witness to the truth of Jesus' resurrection.

When Peter and the Apostles started the Church, some Jews became Christians, but others did not. The Jewish people today continue to reject Jesus as the promised Messiah and wait for another. How do Roman Catholics today regard the Jewish people and the nation of Israel?

It's a little like Mother and the dishwasher. We have never stopped loving and honoring her, as the source of our life and many of our traditions. In the same way, Catholics love and honor the Jews as the source of our spiritual life and many of our religious traditions. However, we believe the Jews in New Testament times are mistaken in looking for the another Messiah.

Near the end of Mom's life we all got together and bought her a dishwasher. After a few Sunday dinners with no long, messy clean-up, she acknowledged that we had been right all along. The machine was a blessing, after all.

It will be interesting to see how God will reveal the truth about Jesus' identity to Israel.

Jesus referred to Himself as the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. (Rev. 1:8). It may be that the Jews to whom God first revealed His identity and His laws, will be among the last to recognize the identity of His only-begotten Son, Jesus.