Ad Dominum

We continue our discussion of Nostra Aetate.

[ See In our time, Part 1 for the first part of the discussion.]

Section 3

This is the point at which things get interesting. This section is devoted exclusively to the relationship between Muslims and the Church. The nature of this relationship is summarized in the first sentence:

The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. (Muslims)

Why?

1. They adore the one God.
2. They take pains to submit wholeheartedly to God’s decrees.
3. They revere Jesus as a prophet, evn if they do not acknowledge him as God.
4. They honor Mary as the Virgin Mother of Jesus.
5. They await the day of judgment.
6. They value the moral life and the worship of God through prayer, almsgiving, and fasting.

This section seems very brief, but it is laden with significance. Christians today, especially those in the West, would do well not only to acknowledge this important teaching, but to find out for themselves why the Church is saying this, and from whence in the Muslim scriptures it comes. (It’s there- I’ve read it.)

We end with an acknowledgement that in the past there have been many hostilities between the Church and Muslims, but now is the time to forget the past and work for understanding, and to unite with Muslims to preserve and promote social justice, moral welfare, peace, and freedom.

This was radical stuff in the 1960s, and it still is in some circles today. Sometimes, “radical” is prophetic.

Section 4

This is where the SSPX/Williamson watchers should perk up their ears. This section deals exclusively with the relationship between the Church and Jews.

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.

At the very outset this document teaches that the beginnings of the Church’s faith is found in the Patriarchs, Moses, and the Prophets. All Christians are included in the call of the Patriarchs, because we are “Abraham’s sons according to the faith,” and the Church’s salvation is foreshadowed by the exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt. The liturgy makes this clear in our celebration of the Great Vigil of Easter- especially when none of the Readings are skipped!

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. Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles, making both one in Himself.

It is difficult to argue with that.

In this teaching the Church calls to mind the ethnicity and the heritage of the Apostles and the early disciples, who were themselves Jews. Further, “Jerusalem,” (the Hebrew people), did not recognize “the time of her visitation,” and the Jews did not, by and large, accept the Gospel. However, God continues to hold his people, the Jews, close to himself, because “He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues.” Accordingly, the Church waits for the day, known only to God, when all people will “address the Lord in a single voice.”

The recommendation of the Council? Foster mutual understanding and respect “which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogue.”

The Church does not end the discussion here. On the contrary, she addresses head-on the notion that the Jewish people somehow bear a collective guilt or indictment because of the death of Christ.  This is good:

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.

What does not conform to the “truth of the Gospel?” This misplaced notion that the reproach of the death of Jesus lies on the Jews. It clearly does not, according to the Church and according to the scriptures. Not only does the Church repudiate this idea, but she strongly urges that we should be constantly on guard to ensure that this sort of teaching is not presented as a teaching of the Church to the people of God. Further, the document goes on to say that any kind of hatred, persecution, or display of anti-Semitism directed toward Jews should be rebuked. Not for any political reasons, but because of the patrimony that the Church shares with the Jewish people and because of the Gospel.

The last paragraph of this section is worth reading entirely:

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.

Amen. I have never understood the notion that somehow the Jewish people were responsible for the death of Jesus. If we really believe this, then what is the point of our faith? It would make it ridiculous in the truest sense of ridiculous. Our great saviour was murdered? This idea removes any possibility of self-sacrifice and radical love.

Section 5

The last section of the document is a summation. It says that we cannot call on God if we refuse to treat any man as a brother. It rules out any foundations for theories and practices that lead to discrimination among people. Lastly, the Church reproves (that’s a strong word!) as foreign to the mind of Christ (!!) discrimination or harassment because of race, color, condition of life, or religion. The teaching ends with an instruction to live, following Peter and Paul, in peace with all people, “so that they may truly be sons of the Father who is in Heaven.”

There is some serious thought compacted in the short lines of this document. All that is good in other faiths is to be respected. All find their beginning and ending in God, who is the God of all. The Church encourages dialogue with people of all religious traditions. Muslims worship the same God that we do, though not in the fullness of the faith. We are to treat our Jewish brothers and sisters as people with whom we share a common spiritual ancestry. Any discrimination and harassment based on race, color, condition, or religion is to be abhorred.

If this is the fruit of the so-called “Modern Church,” count me in. This has “Gospel” written all over it.

Pax et bonum.