Other articles from this issue | Version in English | Version in French

1969 - Rome
21 Catholic experts from 14 different countries - Vatican Office for Catholic - Jewish Relations

In April 1969, 21 Catholic experts from 14 different countries, invited by the Vatican Office for Catholic—Jewish Relations, met to examine in detail how to implement the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate No. 4. The result of this consultation was expressed in "Reflections and Suggestions" and submitted to the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity. During the Plenary Session of November 1969, the bishop members of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity studied several general working papers. Through an indiscretion, one of them was published in the United Stated in the following month (December). The final text which has now been drawn up is awaiting the approbation of the Holy Father.

We are publishing here the introduction to the discussions of the Plenary Session, which is quite distinct from the document in question, but demonstrates the spirit in which the work at an official level of the Church was carried out.

I. It is in "searching into the mystery of the Church" itself (Nostra Aaetate) that the Council was led to recall the bond that unites the Christian people to the descendants of Abraham. The Declaration published on that occasion, is a document that inaugurates a new era in the relations of Christians and Jews. The heritage of the past, it is true, still weighs heavily on these relations. But in the light of the clear affirmations of the Council, all Christians are called to an effort of comprehension and searching, which ought to translate itself into action in order that this document should not remain a dead letter. With a view to promoting this research and its application the following reflections and suggestions are proposed.

II. After four years it is possible to take stock of our situation. Four attitudes can be set out with respect to the problem of the Jewish—Christian relations:

a) That of those who have recognized that Christianity cannot be understood in its origin and its very nature without reference to the Jewish tradition wherein it took root and which is still very much alive in our own day.

b) That of the "indifferent" who do not see how this problem can affect their situation as Christians (either because Judaism in itself presents no problem to them, or because de facto there are no Jews in the region in which they live).

c) That of those who, not only forget "the patrimony they have in common with Jews" (Nostra Aetate), but who are still motivated by a more or less conscious or declared anti-Semitism, all manifestations of which the Council has deplored (Nostra Aetate, No. 4).

d) That of those who, often by ignorance, exaggerating or generalizing from individual cases, consider the Jewish people of our day as almost totally "secularized", even atheist, and therefore without any further religious significance.

III. In order to further the concrete application of the Declaration Nostra Aetate, No. 4, and in the spirit that inspires it, it appears useful to us to recall the following:

a) The problem of the relations between Jews and Christians concerns the Church as such, since it is in "searching into its own mystery" that it comes upon the mystery of Israel. These relations touch therefore upon the Christian conscience and Christian life in all its aspects (liturgy, catechesis, preaching, etc.) in all countries where the Church is established, and not only where it is in contact with Jews.

b) The New Testament itself affirms the permanent value of the Sacred Books on which the faith of the Jewish people is founded and from which it is nourished. "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the Prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them" (Mt 5:17); "to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs..." (Rm 9:4); the Jews "are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable". (Rm 11:28-29).

c) The Church is not born solely of scripture but also of the living tradition of the Jewish people. Providence has not limited itself to a "simple bookish preparation of the coming of the Messiah" (L. BOUYER, La Bible et l'Evangile, 2, 248). Christ, his apostles, and the first Christians participated in this tradition. "As transforming as Christian revelation may be, it is from the Jewish tradition that it draws not only its formulas, its images, its setting, but even the mat-row of its concepts" (ibid. 250). Christianity, on the other hand, is not bound directly to the Old Testament as such, but rather as it was interpreted by the ancient Jewish tradition.

Recent research by exegetes and liturgists has come to the conclusion that in order fully to understand Christian tradition and institutions itis indispensable to examine Jewish institutions themselves in depth. This is particularly clear in the case of the origin of the sacraments, Christians have adopted the Jewish feasts and prayers, adapting them to the Revelation brought by Christ. Their fundamental meaning, however, can be grasped only by constant reference to the original milieu. But the Jewish liturgy is still celebrated today in the same terms as in the ancient period when the first Christians participated in it. What more suggestive way is there to understand the institution of the Eucharist in the setting of the Jewish Passover meal than the Passover Seder in a Jewish family!

d) This same fact has been confirmed on the plane of theological research. Every exploration of the fundamental notions of the Christian religion leads to a confrontation with analogous doctrines of inter-testamental Judaism into which they find a point of insertion. It was Providence itself which willed that the Revelation of Christ find its starting point in the doctrines we see circulating in Palestinian Judaism of the first century.

The eschatological and apocalyptical conceptions of sin and redemption, the Incarnation as a presence of the Word of God among us, and other themes again — all this cannot be studied without a profound familiarity with the world of Jewish tradition, not alone of the time of Christ, but as it was formulated at all stages and in every form of Jewish literature as well.

Let us raise two points as examples, in which Christian theology can only be enriched by contact with the Jewish religious tradition.

aa) The concept of salvation history. In the Bible we observe that God reveals himself concretely in events, in relations with real men: YHWH is the God of someone, of "Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob". God saves by acting. No fact or event eludes the design of "God the Saviour".
Thus has the Jewish religion always conceived its relations with God.

How then, in the Christian view, can we understand what "salvation history" means, that Revelation of God in and by history, without taking into consideration the manner in which the chosen people became aware of the encounter with God and lived this Revelation of a God ever present throughout its long history down to the present time?

bb) The conception of the world. All believers, Jewish and Christian have confronted the world of the "death of God", of secularization, or by whatever name one describes this placing of God in parentheses or excluding him from his creation. Well, in face of this contemporary problem, the Jewish conception of the world as a permanent creation of God, of the living conception of the action and presence of the Creator in all his works—such a conception can help us to remain faithful to the biblical sense of a sort of "consecration" of the universe.

Here are some examples, of which there are more, which could likewise illustrate the contribution that Jewish tradition makes to Christian theology when the latter returns to the sources common to Jews and Christians.

IV. Since the problem of relations with Jews is tied to the very mystery of the Church (Nostra Aetate), all Christian Churches are de facto involved in the problem. It has therefore an ecumenical aspect which it is important to emphasize in the context with which we are dealing. The Christian Churches are divided and we are seeking the unity willed by the Lord. This unity cannot be built except by a return to the common sources, to the origins of faith.

Experience shows, in fact, that whenever the dialogue between Jews and Christians has developed, ecumenical dialogue has itself gained in depth and vitality. When Pope Paul VI addressed the participants of the Congress of International Organizations for the Study of the Old Testament, which brought together Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic scholars, he declared in an audience of April 19, 1968: "The three families, Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic equally hold it (Old Testament) in honour. They are therefore able to study and venerate these Sacred Books together... It is fortunate that the initiative of this joint study has been taken... This is an authentic and fruitful form of ecumenical work indeed" (L'Osservatore Romano, April 20, 1968). The deepening of ecumenical relations leads necessarily to an encounter with the Jewish people. K. Barth remarked in 1966: "There are now many good contacts between the Catholic . Church and many Protestant Churches, between the Secretariat of Christian Unity and the World Council of Churches. The ecumenical movement is driven by the Spirit of the Lord. But do not forget, there is only one really important question: our relations with Israel".

Many bishops have seen this connection and have established commissions for Jewish–Christian relations in the framework of agencies in charge of ecumenical questions. This ecumenical context shows the spirit in which Jewish–Christian relations should be established and developed.

This spirit can be called ecumenical insofar as the term expresses concern to know the other as he is and as he defines himself; concern to love and respect him in his convictions and in the conceptions which rule his life.

(Quoted from Information Service No. 9, February 1970/I, of The Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity).