The Jews and their Lies

It is a sad and unfortunate reality that the history of Christianity is laden with examples of anti-Semitism, leading to discrimination and too often to violence, even. Much of this hatred stemmed from a wrongful understanding, and often rooted in a poor reading of the Gospel of John, that it was the Jews, qua Jews, who were responsible for the death of Jesus. Of course, any authentic understanding is going to recognize that for the death of Jesus Christ, every human being before and after Him, save one, is responsible, for it was because of sin that He died, and we are all guilty of sin. As the elder Father Zosima in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov spoke so eloquently, "For know, dear ones, that every one of us is undoubtedly responsible for all men and for everything on earth, not merely through the general sinfulness of creation, but each one personally for all mankind and for every individual man." It is not the Jews who killed Christ, it is our sin who killed Christ.

It is true, in John's Gospel Jesus refers to a group of his interlocutors as being from their father, the devil (cf. John 8:44), but there are those even today who twist those words into a pronouncement by Jesus that all Jews are from the devil. While I am aware that, as many Christians historically, including many of my own Catholics, Martin Luther made some notoriously anti-semitic writings towards the end of his life, it saddens me that a Lutheran pastor in this day and age and another Lutheran congregant would bear that same anti-semitism, and without hesitation call Jews devil worshipers (see here and here). This is an unfortunate regression, and it represents the sort of malicious hatred in the world that only more greatly points to the need for our sanctification in Christ.

As I said, my own Catholic Church has her own ignominious history with regards to our relationship with and treatment of the Jews, but fortunately we have been working to correct that, and in the past 40 years relationships between the Catholic Church and Jews have grown peacefully and fruitfully. To that end I share here from the decree issued at Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate, with a special emphasis on what I have placed in bold:

4. As the sacred synod searches into the mystery of the Church, it remembers the bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham's stock.

Thus the Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to God's saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are found already among the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets. She professes that all who believe in Christ-Abraham's sons according to faith (6)-are included in the same Patriarch's call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church is mysteriously foreshadowed by the chosen people's exodus from the land of bondage. The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles.(7) Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles. making both one in Himself.(8)

The Church keeps ever in mind the words of the Apostle about his kinsmen: "theirs is the sonship and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises; theirs are the fathers and from them is the Christ according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:4-5), the Son of the Virgin Mary. She also recalls that the Apostles, the Church's main-stay and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ's Gospel to the world, sprang from the Jewish people.

As Holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation,(9) nor did the Jews in large number, accept the Gospel; indeed not a few opposed its spreading.(10) Nevertheless, God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues-such is the witness of the Apostle.(11) In company with the Prophets and the same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and "serve him shoulder to shoulder" (Soph. 3:9).(12)

Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogues.

True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ;(13) still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ.

Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.

Besides, as the Church has always held and holds now, Christ underwent His passion and death freely, because of the sins of men and out of infinite love, in order that all may reach salvation. It is, therefore, the burden of the Church's preaching to proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God's all-embracing love and as the fountain from which every grace flows.

5. We cannot truly call on God, the Father of all, if we refuse to treat in a brotherly way any man, created as he is in the image of God. Man's relation to God the Father and his relation to men his brothers are so linked together that Scripture says: "He who does not love does not know God" (1 John 4:8).

No foundation therefore remains for any theory or practice that leads to discrimination between man and man or people and people, so far as their human dignity and the rights flowing from it are concerned.

The root of all anti-Semitism is hatred, and the irony is that those who call the Jews devil worshipers because of their own anti-Semitic hatred are in fact speaking as the mouthpiece of Satan, for hatred does not come from God. But as I reflected on this last night and this morning, I realized something: I too have hatred in my heart, and while it might not be directed at Jews as a people, or at any group as such, it is still there, and by sharing in the same root hatred, I too am a racist, and an anti-Semite, and a murderer, and I too, and far too often, share in Satan's mission. Let me offer a few examples of my own hatred:

Three days a week I go running, and since I've been living in Old City, Philadelphia, my running route takes me to City Hall and back. Along the way, every time, I pass by a homeless person (I pass several, but this one in particular I have in mind). I suspect that this person is a man dressed in woman's clothing, but I am not certain. Anyway, the person wears a blue dress, above the knee, with hairy legs, and makeup on that looks more like a clown than a person. I mean, red lipstick covering far more than just the lips. The person has straggly hair, and just stands along Market Street, my running route, talking to him or herself. Behind him there is a collection of bags and belongings. I pass this person every time I run, and the reality is, I hate this person. I hate him or her for standing there. I hate him or her for being so ugly. I hate him or her for the hideous makeup. I hate him or her even for their mental illness. It's true, I am a monster, because I hate. I don't just hate this person, I am utterly repulsed, to the point of being nauseous every time I see him or her. I begin to run faster, even though by that time in my route I am really out of breath, I don't care, I just run.

Another example: recently I was in Mass, and the priest presiding is one who would refer to himself as a progressive. As such, he does everything possible to remove every masculine reference to God in the liturgy, even if it is simply a masculine pronoun referring specifically to Jesus Christ, whose humanity was explicitly male. So when the Eucharistic preface should begin, "Father, all-powerful and ever-living God..." this priest instead says, "Creator, all-powerful..." And during the doxology, when the prayer refers to the manner in which we pray to the Father through Jesus Christ, Jesus is referred as "Him," so that the doxology goes, "Through Him, with Him, in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and power are Yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever." This priest makes two changes: instead of saying, "Through Him..." he says, "Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ..." And instead of saying, "Almighty Father," he says, "Almighty God." Now, these are a few examples. My point, however, is that while it is natural to be annoyed at this for someone such as myself who takes the liturgy seriously, my feelings go far beyond annoyance. What instead happens is that a hatred erupts within me, a hatred first directed specifically at this priest, a hatred that is nothing other than spiritual violence, and soon I call to my mind every person I've encountered who shares his ideology, and I bring those people into this whirlpool of hatred going on. And this just in anticipation of receiving the Eucharist.

Thankfully, in fact, just before receiving the Eucharist. I say thankfully because if ever there is a time that my soul is in need of the healing power of Jesus Christ, the healing that is so manifest in the gift of His Body and Blood in the Eucharist, it is when there is hatred stewing in my soul. And so by the grace of God and the force of my will I return to prayer and seek to prepare myself for this ever-magnanimous gift, and pray for my own healing.

That, in fact, is just my point. While the object of hatred is different, the same hatred that leads to the anti-Semitism that would call Jews "devil worshipers" is the very same hatred that I hold in my own heart at various times. And last night, I was feeling full of self-righteousness because, well, thank God I'm not like them, as the Pharisee in Luke's Gospel. But fortunately God has convicted me of my own sin, and allowed me to see that, in fact, I am just like them, and worse, even, for I seek to hide my hatred and my sin, instead of declaring it openly, as I am attempting now.

I'm not suggesting that all follow suit and make open declarations of their sin and their hatred. That is what sacramental confession is for, though at times I believe a public admission is in order. But the point I am hoping to make is just simply that we recognize our own culpability in the death of Jesus Christ, and that we each recognize the sin in our own hearts, be it hatred, greed, lust, pride, deceit, and so forth, and actively seek, through prayer and fasting, through active love of our neighbor, through communal worship, to be purified, sanctified by God through His Holy Spirit. This, I believe, is the role we play in the hastening of the Kingdom.