22 January 2023

Ecumenism

A far greater example of Unity Solved and Delivered than any I have so far mentioned is found in the teaching of S Paul in his Letter to the Ephesians. Part of that teaching is found in the Epistle of the Votive Mass for the Ending of Schism aka for the Unity of Christians. My own hope is that this Mass, beautiful in its profundity, will be widely available during this Chair of Unity Octave. But I would urge that readers reappropriate the entirety of that great Epistle (there is a very fine major Commentary of gigantic size by Thomas Winger).

S Paul deals with the the most profound division imaginable: between being within God's chosen People or outside it. He alludes to the soreg, the wall that separated Gentiles from Jews in the Temple at Jerusalem, marked by its rather chilling inscriptions threatening death to Gentiles who disregarded it.

That wall, S Paul points out, is abolished and, instead of Jew and Gentile, we have the new One Creation which is Christ.

In this Chair of Unity Octave, we must renew our commitment to oppose anything which strives to build that wall up again. The Faithful Remnant of Israel, so major a theme among the Prophets, is the one Body of Christ, together with those saved from among the Gentiles, snatched out of Gentile impurity and anomia by that fontal Act of Faith which Abraham made.

I think one of the weaknesses in the Church of today is that so few of her members are of Jewish descent. What we lose from this is a firm sense of our essential rootedness in the discipline of narratives handed down from the past, and an awareness that identity needs to be expressed by visible markers which distinguish us from the unclean pagan world around us.

And just suppose there were a strong Jewish presence in the Church, of intelligent and focussed Jews who understood that the Fall of the Temple and the cessation of its Daily Sacrifices is a coin which has, on its other side, the Daily Sacrifice of the tamid Lamb who is the Incarnate Torah. Perhaps we would not have such a dearth of sacrificial awareness among the mainstream congregations within our poor impoverished Latin Church.

8 comments:

frjustin said...

In the Babylonian Talmud there is a curious passage that implies that after Jesus was crucified, God no longer accepted the sin offering and the scapegoat offered by the high priests. It states:

"Forty years before the Temple was destroyed [i.e. 30 A.D.] the chosen lot was not picked with the right hand, nor did the crimson stripe turn white, nor did the westernmost light burn; and the doors of the Temple's Holy Place swung open by themselves, until Rabbi Yochanon ben Zakkai spoke saying: 'O most Holy Place, why have you become disturbed? I know full well that your destiny will be destruction, for the prophet Zechariah ben Iddo has already spoken regarding you saying: 'Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour the cedars' [Zech. 11:1].
Talmud Bavli, Yoma 39b

Note that this event recorded in Bavli occurred 40 years before the destruction of the Temple which was destroyed around 70 A.D. So the date of this event would be the same year that Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice on the cross, and instituted the Eucharist as the Daily Sacrifice "qui tollit peccata mundi".

PM said...

It would be all too easy in these troubled times to fear that the apostolic succession has failed. As a reassurance, I should point to the excellent Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim, formerly abbot of Mt St Bernard in Leicestershire. This homily is excellent:

https://coramfratribus.com/words-on-the-word/3-sunday-a/

Simon Cotton said...

On becoming Archbishop of Paris, Aron Jean-Marie Lustiger (who became a Catholic aged 13) said:- "I was born Jewish and so I remain, even if that is unacceptable for many. For me, the vocation of Israel is bringing light to the goyim. That is my hope and I believe that Christianity is the means for achieving it." He is said to have entered a synagogue to say kaddish for his mother's soul.

Gregory said...

At Mass this past Sunday the (SSPX) priest spoke about unity and the Octave thereof (which is not , as best I can tell, formally marked by the Society). As he spoke about the Saul-Paul conversion, I was reminded that more than once when individual Jews were converted they were immediately infused with a deep knowledge of the Faith. Alphonse Ratisbonne is a name which comes immediately to mind. (Whilst yet a Protestant I assisted Jews for Jesus in an evangelization campaign and can attest to the joyfulness of Jewish worship.) It is perplexing to hear "traditionalists" malign "the Jews" and their corrosive influence on finance, politics, etc. From where I stand, if there is a person of Jewish ancestry contributing to the destruction of civilization, that person is not a religious Jew. That distinction, alas, is not one I ever encounter.

Mick Jagger Gathers No Mosque said...

Dear Father, I was reading Genesis today and, as always, this verse was striking:

The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations.

The Messias-Deniers presumably read this frequently in the Torah but they must simply ignore it as it is crystal clear the scepter has been taken away from Juda.

Why does the Church claim that Jews have a mission and can be saved in Judaism and why do the Jews claim their wait for the Messias is not in vain?

Albertus said...

Absolutely fascinating!

coradcorloquitur said...

It is certainly comforting to learn the scientific conclusion stated above that the blood-curdling blasphemies against the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity and His Mother uttered in the Talmud in talmudic schools all over the world and for centuries have had, after all, no deleterious effect whatsoever. Deo gratias!

coradcorloquitur said...

CORRECTION: My comment above should read "blasphemies against the SECOND Person of the Blessed Trinity and His Blessed Mother." Mea culpa.