Nostra Aetate
As a Catholic, I am fortunate to have a group of close friends who happen to be Jewish. I’ve known Robert for more than 20 years. The friendships I now share with Cathy, Patricia and Diane started when they welcomed me to sit in on their weekend Mah-Jongg game. While I feel socially connected to them, I can’t help feeling a spiritual bond. Perhaps that’s because that’s because our Catholic liturgy has its origins in Judaism.
The story of Passover, as told in the book of Exodus, is in many ways the foundation of our liturgy. Passover celebrates the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The story speaks of the covenant relationship between God and God’s people and God’s unfathomable faithfulness. We believe this covenant is renewed and fulfilled in Jesus Christ and we express this renewed covenant in our liturgy by using elements from the Seder, a Jewish ritual feast held to commemorate the Passover. The prayers of blessing that are said during the Seder form the basis of our Eucharistic Prayers. The food and drink consumed during the Seder, unleavened bread and wine, are the primary food and drink of our Eucharistic meal.
The covenant relationship that began between God and the Israelites, and was renewed in Jesus is a model for all human relationships. But the Church has not always shared a good relationship with non-Christian religions, specifically with the Jewish people. For one thing, the Church had long held that the Jews were responsible for the crucifixion. This was partly due to the negative connotations in the New Testament, in particular the gospel of John, which describes “the Jews” as the enemies of Jesus. This is one reason Pope John XXIII placed the Church’s relationship with the Jews on the agenda of the Second Vatican Council. He wanted the Council to discuss and to respond to the anti-Semitism which led to the Holocaust. The Council ultimately approved a compromise statement in a document called Nostra Aetate. In that document, the Council stated that the Jewish people as a whole did not bear responsibility for the death of Jesus and it decried any forms of anti-Semitism. The document was a new starting point in the Church’s relationship with the Jews. On Wednesday, October 28, exactly 50 years to the day Nostra Aetate was promulgated, Archbishop Gregory and Rabbi James Rudin will celebrate the anniversary of the declaration at the Ferst Center for the Arts at Georgia Tech, beginning with a reception at 6:00pm. Nostra Aetate means “In our Time.” Let us pray that renewed relationships with all people will happen in our time.
