Dear St. Rita Families,
The word “semitic” comes from the Hebrew name “Shem”, the first son of Noah, and refers to the peoples that are his descendants. The Jewish people are one of those descendant peoples, although most people associate words like “antisemitic” with the Jewish people alone. Sadly, hatred for the Jewish people seems to have skyrocketed – or at least has become more acceptable in some circles – in recent months, including among some Catholics, and so it is important to be reminded first of basic Christian morality, and second of the Church’s relationship with the Jewish people.
Basic Christian morality is simple. Love your neighbor. Love your enemies. Love everyone in between. The nature of love is, of course, a little more complex. It doesn’t mean “be nice.” It does mean to seek the good for these others, which in a given situation could mean justice or mercy, kindness or opposition. But it never means hatred, which is to seek what is bad for the other and to have bad will towards them. Even killing in self-defense is a matter of justice and does not, strictly speaking, require bad will on the part of the defender – the attacker has forfeited his right to life by trying to take yours. Your act of self-defense is directed towards just that – defense – and not vengeance or hatred of the attacker (which would still be sinful).
In the minds of some Christians, sometimes the history of the Jewish people as God’s Chosen People – and particularly that portion of God’s Chosen People who did not accept the Messiah when He came – gets in the way of the morality that I just laid out. The Jewish people are not more responsible for the death of Jesus than you and I, even if they were a necessary instrument of His Death 2000 years ago. The Romans were just as necessary, and they tend to be extolled more than hated in modern times.
The crux of the matter is that, while Jews and Christians both have as a foundation the writings that make up the Old Testament / Hebrew Scriptures (there are some differences between the two), we Christians have a profoundly different way of understanding what came before. Therefore, our motivations for acting and living and likewise our goals and purposes have significant differences. For the Christian, proclaiming Jesus as Christ/Messiah and Savior, desiring salvation through Him for all the world is paramount. An essential element of that is forming a culture around this truth. For a religious Jew in particular, religious practice necessarily rejects Jesus as the Christ/Messiah, and so culture will look quite different. This helps us to see why there have been some difficulties navigating the place of Judaism in historical Christendom, and in modern groups that are trying to find their Christian roots again, it is not surprising that this difficulty appears. Of course, that doesn’t make hatred of the Jewish people correct or right or moral. Neither, however, does the existence of antisemitism – past or present – mean that you and I have to give up our Christian values.
The trick to navigating these two sinful extremes – hatred on the one hand and giving up Christian values on the other – is not to focus on the Jewish people as a whole, but rather to focus on Christ. The Jewish people are not a problem to be solved, but they are God’s Chosen People, which call was irrevocable (Rom 11:29). If we focus on Christ in this context, we discover within ourselves a profound sadness that many of those who were chosen by God have missed the boat, so to speak. Even St, Paul’s language that “as regards the Gospel, they are enemies of God, for your sake” (Rom 11:28) is proffered with a matter-of-factness that, in the same verse, turns to affection: “but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.” For this reason, St. John Paul II said when visiting the Rome Synagogue in 1986, “You are our dearly beloved brothers and, in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers.” It makes sense for us to desire our elder brothers in faith to come to Faith in Christ, who is our life, our focus, and our salvation. It does not make sense for us to hate them.
Of course, brothers do not have to agree on everything! Disagreement – even vehement disagreement – cannot in itself be construed as antisemitism, but sometimes one may be tempted to use passionate language that could be construed as antisemitism. Such language, of course, ought to be avoided, not out of fear of ruffling feathers, but for the sake of the salvation of souls. I would not want my insensitivity or brash comments to be an obstacle for another to come to Christ.
A final note, on Christian Zionism, which is NOT part of Catholic teaching. In Christian Zionism, there is a driving belief that the State of Israel must exist so that Jesus can return at the end of time. This belief lends itself very easily to political alignments and, apart from being unscriptural, also easily falls prey to the end (the State of Israel) justifying the means (whatever necessary). Further, God’s hand is not forced or deflected by our human activity on earth. His plan will necessarily be accomplished, because He is God.
Please continue to pray for peace in the Holy Land, for God’s (first) Chosen People, and for the Church, likewise chosen by God to be His instrument of salvation for the world.
In Christ,
Fr. Christensen