Praying the Jews to Jesus (in Latin)

From JTA: "A coalition of Jewish groups expressed disappointment at the new text of the Catholic Church's Prayer for the Jews.

"The prayer removes language considered offensive to Jews, including a reference to Jews' 'blindness' and a call that God 'may lift the veil from their hearts,' but still prays for the salvation of the Jews exclusively through conversion to Christianity.

"Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday [Feb. 5] unveiled the replacement for the Good Friday prayer in Latin, which is not used by most of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics."

The Jewish groups mentioned above said this new Latin version "appears to be a regression...We urge the Catholic Church to deepen its exploration of the full implication of Nostra Aetate's affirmation of the eternal validity of God's Divine Covenant with the Jewish People."

When the Italian Rabbinic Assembly heard about this revised prayer for the Latin mass, they took "'a pause of reflection'" in its dialog with the Catholic Church," according to an Italian newspaper. That's like telling your horse "whoa!"

A free translation of the prayer comes via Jewschool:

"We also pray for the Jews, so that God Our Lord may enlighten their heart, so that they will know Jesus Christ, savior of all humankind. We pray. We bend our knees. Rise. Omnipotent and eternal God, [you] who wants that all men be saved and know the truth, make it so that with the entrance of all peoples in Your Church all of Israel be saved. For Christ our Lord. Amen."

Whew!

The Jewschool writer had, what seemed to me, an unexpected reaction to this. He referred to the Aleinu in which Jews pray that all people of the earth will leave their false gods and call upon the true God, and that all the wicked will turn to God, and that everyone everywhere will bend their knee and give honor to Adonai, our God.

In light of the above, the writer said he "had a strong feeling of pained familiarity" when he heard the new Catholic prayer for the Latin mass. He thought the core ideas in the Aleinu and the Catholic prayer were similar, the key difference being that the Catholic prayer refers specifically to the Jews and "all of Israel."

I don't think the core ideas are the same. The Catholic prayer is very specific that salvation comes only through entrance to "Your Church" (God's church -- the Roman Catholic church). One must "know" Jesus Christ and that can happen only through the Roman Catholic Church. That's not new teaching, that's centuries old. The Aleinu does not call for people to convert to Judaism or suggest that only through the Jewish religion can people be saved; it calls only for people to turn to the one, true God, which leaves a lot of leg-room, it seems to me.

And yes, I think this Latin prayer is a regression, a pandering to the pity party who lost their precious Latin mass so many years ago, who kinda liked all that mumbo jumbo 'cause it made them feel closer to God and who cares if they couldn't understand it; it's all a mystery anyway. And everyone knows the Jews killed Jesus!

Furthermore, that "key difference" our writer referred to is the deal-breaker. Muslims, at least in this prayer, are not singled out. Nor are Lutherans, nor Presbyterians, not even Baptists. And what about the real weirdos - the Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses? They all get a bye, but not the Jews. The Church has beaten up on the Jews for 2000 years, blaming them for the killing of Christ which scholars have known for 300 years was definitely NOT the case, even if you accept the trial accounts as somewhat historical!

(Yeah, I know - a few years ago the Pope got around to a rather prissy apology to the Jews saying that God's church may have been wrong about the Jews killing Christ. Big deal. Ask the average Catholic in the pew what he/she thinks and I'll bet they're still blaming the Jews for their savior hanging up on that crucifix. Too little, too late!)


I like what my good friend Bob Poris said [tongue-in-cheek, I think] in reference to this new Latin prayer: "I am convinced that God speaks only Hebrew and has been angry at the use of Latin to address Him, so why should we care what the new language says. We know God doesn't listen to any but His Chosen People."

With more seriousness, Bob reflects on the continuing pervasiveness of anti-Semitism, even in the most unlikely of places, even among some Jews. As someone else said, you don't have to be a gentile to hate Jews...

Here's Bob: "Why do these comments not surprise any of us? We Jews have been blamed for almost all the ills of the world for centuries. Killing off huge number of Jews; expelling them; converting them has had no effect on the world's health, wealth, or well-being. The problems remain the same but those capable of solving them have been diminished by the death of so many Jews. In modern times, Spain and Portugal suffered from the expulsion of the Jews, many of whom were capable of reading and were educated in ways the general populace was not. Obviously the progroms of Russia also depleted the numbers of Jews that might have helped out in the sciences, business, education, etc. We know that killing three out of every five Jews in Europe deprived the world of six million Jews, many of whom were very proficient in many fields that benefited their countries.

"Now we have the tiny island of Israel in the sea of backward, poverty stricken Muslim nations. Israel went from poor and third world to one of the highest standards of living in the first world in a few decades! The scientific advances alone made in the past fifty years have already benefited mankind.

"In spite of all the historical evidence, Jews are still held back, despised, victimized, etc! The countries that expelled them after 1948 have not prospered. The neighbors of Israel have NO Jews. They do not allow Jews to own property or businesses, or practice their professions. They remain backward and dedicated to war to wipe out the Jews of Israel.

"What a shame!"

Amen.