Praying for the Jews
by Fr. Roger J. Landry - February 15, 2008
After Pope Benedict last July authorized and facilitated far more liberal use of the 1962 Roman Missal for the celebration of Mass, some vocal Jewish leaders began to clamor for a change in the Good Friday prayer for the Jews. They said they found the language of the prayer offensive.
The prayer in question stated, in English translation from Latin, "Let us also pray for the Jews, that our Lord and God take away the veil from their hearts; that they too may acknowledge Jesus Christ to be our Lord: Almighty eternal God, who also does not repel the Jews from your mercy: graciously hear our prayers on behalf of the blindness of that people; so that once the light of your truth has been recognized, which is Christ, they may be rescued from their darkness."
Last Thursday, the Vatican announced that, in response to their petitions, Pope Benedict had amended the prayer (see article on page 2). He courteously excised any references that could be interpreted to contain negative images toward the Jewish people, like "veil from their hearts," "blindness of that people," and "rescued from their darkness."
The new prayer, again in translation from the Latin, turns to God and asks, "Let us also pray for the Jews, that our Lord and God may enlighten their hearts so that they may recognize Jesus Christ as savior of all people: Almighty and everlasting God, you who will all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, grant that, when the fullness of the nations enters into your Church, all of Israel may be saved."
These emendations failed, however, to satisfy the Jewish leaders who were calling for a change. Abraham Foxman, the outspoken American leader of the Anti-Defamation League, called the revisions merely "cosmetic" and said his group was "deeply troubled and disappointed that the framework and intention to petition God for Jews to accept Jesus as Lord was kept intact." Rabbi David Rosen, director of inter-religious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, added, "While we appreciate that the text avoids any derogatory language toward Jews, it's regretful that the prayer explicitly calls for Jews to accept Christianity." He was hoping instead for explicit Catholic recognition of "the value of the Torah as the vehicle of salvation for the Jewish people."
These expectations, however, were totally unrealistic. To accept the Torah as the means by which the Jews are saved is tantamount to saying that Jesus' life, death and resurrection were meant only for the salvation of the gentiles. It would have made not only Jesus' searching for the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 10:6) superfluous, but would have rendered Peter's preaching on Pentecost to the crowds of Jews in Jerusalem, Paul's preaching in the synagogues, and much of the work of the early Church unwarranted as well. It would reduce Jesus to the savior of some, not all, which is clearly incompatible with the Christian faith. For these Jewish leaders to expect the Catholic Church to betray the Christian faith is in itself insensitive, not to mention "regretful," "deeply troubling and disturbing."
It's important to know why Catholics pray in succession on Good Friday, for Protestants, Jews, those who do not believe in Christ, and those who do not believe in God. We do this not out of any sense of triumphalism, haughtily looking down on others who do not share our faith; in fact, we do it by humbly falling to our knees in the middle of each prayer. Neither do we make the prayers begging God to show each group the error of their ways, or to convince them that Catholics were right all along, or to punish them in any way for not being Catholic. Rather, the only reason we do it is because we love them, we want them to be saved, and we want them to come to know and love the one we have discovered as Shepherd, Savior and Lord. We believe that on the first Good Friday, Jesus died on the Cross to save not just Catholics, but all peoples, and we pray every Good Friday that all peoples will come to experience that salvation. Out of love we pray for the Jews and others; it would be a lack of love not to do so.
Rabbi Rosen observed that the language of the revised prayer for the 1962 Missal "differs greatly" from the prayer most Catholics hear in the vernacular by going to the Passion Service of the 1970 Missal. This 1970 intercession, Rosen says, "prays for the salvation of the Jews in general terms." While we could have a debate about the adverb "greatly," Benedict's newly revised prayer for the 1962 Missal is certainly different from the 1970 petition, which reads, "Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant. Almighty and eternal God, long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and to his posterity. Listen to your Church as we pray that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption."
Some have asked why Benedict did not just substitute the prayer for the 1970 Missal — of which Rosen, Foxman and other Jewish critics approve — rather than compose a new one that they find offensive. The answer is, to some degree, exposed within the question. The reason why they're not offended by the 1970 prayer seems to be because they think that by it the Church is praying for their salvation in some way outside of Christ. To beg God that the Jewish people "come to the fullness of redemption," however, is to ask God that they come to know the Redeemer, whom Catholics firmly believe to be Jesus Christ. The very lack of offensiveness in the 1970 prayer is due to an ambiguity that gives rise to their misunderstanding. Benedict wanted to eliminate the ambiguity. According to Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, the Pope "wanted to [reaffirm], 'Yes, Jesus Christ is the savior of all men — including the Jews.'" That Jesus is the universal and unique savior has always been the teaching of the Catholic Church, whether or not it has been emphasized in some areas in recent decades, in teaching or in prayer.
It is also important to remember that Benedict wrote this prayer for Catholics, not Jews, to pray on Good Friday. He did so, fundamentally it seems, to remind Catholics of their duty lovingly to pray and to strive that all, including Jesus' fellow and beloved Jews, come to discover the Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Savior of the World. Benedict has taken the bushel basket off of the Church's love for Jews, by helping us to pray and work more explicitly that the Jewish people fully share in what we have discovered to be the greatest gift of all.
Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.
