The Role of the Church in Regard to the Jewish People

From this analysis, we can conclude that salvation is in Christ, working through his saving grace, which bears a connection to the Church, and is extended to each individual by the Holy Spirit, who makes possible in a mysterious way a connection to the Paschal Mystery. 47 Indeed, insofar as we recognize the presence of a grace that is operative beyond the visible boundaries of the Church, but bears a mysterious connection to it, we can acknowledge how already the Church is part of the causality of how God is working his salvation in people’s lives, even beyond what is visible and knowable to us. What, then, is the Church to do?

The Second Vatican Council’s Declaration of the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate no. 4 affirms the importance of “mutual understanding and respect” (NA no. 4). Neuhaus affirms that the role of the Church is to focus on witness, and that this witness must involve a greater conformity to Christ on the part of Christians; as Pope Benedict XVI said, “An attitude of respect, esteem and love for the Jewish people is the only truly Christian attitude in the present situation, which is a mysterious part of God’s wholly positive plan.” 48

We might ask, is there anything else the Church could do to cooperate with God’s plan?

Nostra Aetate no. 4 does suggest one more task: “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.” 49 Notably, the decree highlights the importance of staurocentric preaching that seeks to illuminate how the Cross is the perfect revelation of God’s love and the source of all graces. Yet, we do this with respect for the conscience of each, and with that respect, we offer this message as a word of hope, so that those who “have been united with him in a death like his,” may be “united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:5).

In this, Nostra Aetate no. 4 harmonizes with what Vatican II’s Decree on Missionary Activity, Ad Gentes no. 5, says about the Church’s task to all: Christ established the Church as a “sacrament of salvation” 50 and she fulfills her mission, which is a share in Christ’s own mission, “by the example of her life and by her preaching, by the sacraments and other means of grace,” by which she offers to all people a “full participation in the mystery of Christ.” 51 Until then, as Nostra Aetate states, as “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’ (Zephaniah 3:9),” we turn together in prayer, giving thanks for that common olive tree (cf. Romans 11:17ff.) God has cultivated for our salvation.

1 “To Proclaim the Cross of Christ as the Sign of God's All-Embracing Love” is a direct quotation from paragraph 4 of the Vatican II document, Nostra Aetate.

2 See Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, “The Gifts and the Calling of God are Irrevocable” (Rom. 11:29): A Reflection on Theological Questions Pertaining to Catholic-Jewish Relations on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate (No. 4) (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2015), no. 35: “There cannot be different paths or approaches to God’s salvation. The theory that there may be two different paths to salvation, the Jewish path without Christ and the path with the Christ, whom Christians believe is Jesus of Nazareth, would in fact endanger the foundations of Christian faith. Confessing the universal and therefore also exclusive mediation of salvation through Jesus Christ belongs to the core of Christian faith.” See also nos. 25 and 37.

3 Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum (1965), no. 4. See also Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominus Iesus (2000), no. 5.

4 For an exploration of this point in Jewish-Christian dialogue, in light of Dominus Iesus, see Philip A Cunningham, “Implications for Catholic Magisterial Teaching on Jews and Judaism,” in Sic et Non: Encountering Dominus Iesus, ed. Stephen J. Pope and Charles Hefling (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2002), 149.

5 Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes (1965), no. 22. See also Amaury Begasse de Dhaem, S.J., “Christologie et Sotériologie de ‘Gaudium et spes’ 22: Un modèle de théologie unifiée,” Gregorianum 95, no. 1 (2014): 5-21 [8].

6 See Second Council of Constantinople (553), Anathema 2 (DH 422). For a thorough study of Jesus in his Judeo-Palestinian context, see John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Vol. 1: The Roots of the Problem and the Person, The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991).

7 See Karl Rahner, “The Eternal Significance of the Humanity of Jesus for our Relationship with God,” in Theological Investigations, vol. 3: The Theology of the Spiritual Life (Baltimore: Helicon, 1967), 35-46

8 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominus Iesus (2000), no. 5-8.

9 Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, “The Gifts and the Call” (2015), no. 26.

10 George R. Beasley-Murray, John, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 36 (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1999), 14.

11 On Jesus’ priesthood in relationship to the priesthood of the Old Testament see Albert Vanhoye, S.J., Old Testament Priests and the New Priest: According to the New Testament, revised ed. (Leominster: Gracewing, 2009); and Vanhoye, The Letter to the Hebrews: A New Commentary, trans. Leo Arnold (New York; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2015).

12 For a complete study of these themes in their Old Testament background, see Matthew Levering, Christ’s Fulfillment of Torah and Temple: Salvation According to Thomas Aquinas (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002).

13 Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium (1964), no. 14; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominus Iesus (2000), no. 20.

14 Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium no. 16. See also Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, “Letter to the Archbishop of Boston” (1949), DH 3868-3870: “Not only did the Savior command that all nations should enter the Church, but he also decreed the Church to be the means of salvation, without which no one can enter the kingdom of heavenly glory. In his infinite mercy God has willed that the effects, necessary for one to be saved…can also be obtained in certain circumstances when [those helps] are employed only through desire and longing…The same in its own degree must be asserted of the Church…[I]n order that one may obtain eternal salvation, it is not always required that he be incorporated into the Church actually as a member, but it is necessary that at least he be united to her by desire and longing.” See also Pope Pius XII, Encyclical Mystici Corporis (1943), DH 3821-22.

15 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominus Iesus (2000), nos. 16 and 20.

16 Jürgen Moltmann, The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology (London: SCM, 1993), 197. See also Steven D. Aguzzi, Israel, the Church, and Millenarianism: A Way beyond Replacement Theology, Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology, and Biblical Studies (Oxon, England; New York: Routledge, 2018), 268.

17 Jürgen Moltmann, The Coming of God, 198.

18 e.g., 1 Cor. 6:15, 10:17, 12:12; Rom. 12:5; Eph. 1:23, 5:30; Col. 1:18.24, etc. See also Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium (1964), no. 9.

19 For a history of the interpretation of this verse, see Joseph Sievers, “A History of the Interpretation of Romans 11:29,” Annali di storia dell’esegesi 14, no. 2 (1997): 381–442.

20 Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of God, Part 2 , vol. 2, trans. Geoffrey William Bromiley and Thomas F. Torrance (London; New York: T&T Clark, 2004), 303-305.

21 In God in Search of Man, Abraham Heschel suggests that the concept of mitzvah plays a similar role in Jewish piety as the concept of salvation plays in Christian piety (see Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism [New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1955], 361) Since mitzvah is, “next to Torah, the basic term of Judaism” (ibid.), observance thereof would seem to be a necessary condition for salvation within Judaism.

22 See E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion (London: S.C.M. Press, 1977), 463ff.

23 Indeed, κλῆσις in Rom. 11:29 is better translated as “calling,” and is “always God who calls in Christ” (Karl Ludwig Schmidt, “Καλέω, Κλῆσις, Κλητός,” in Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, eds., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 3 [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964-], 492). See also Gary S. Shogren, “Election: New Testament,” in David Noel Freedman, ed., The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 2:442-43.

24 Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J., Romans: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Anchor Yale Bible, vol. 33 (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008), 626 [see also 623].

25 N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, Christian Origins and the Question of God, vol. 4 (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2013), 1157-1258.

26 N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, 1252.

27 Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1996), 725-726.

28 Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, 725.

29 See Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2053.

30 See Mk. 1:15, 10:14. There was something in the second man (i.e., the man of 12:34) which was missing in the first (i.e., the man of 10:17ff). In fact, Mark provides such a clue in 12:34 when Jesus affirms the spiritual disposition of the latter man (e.g., “he answered wisely”). Perhaps by recognizing the importance of “deeds of love,” which in the tripartite formula of R. Simeon the Just, has a place alongside the Torah and temple worship in sustaining the world (see m.‘Abot 1:2). Yet, as R. T. France highlights, how the scribe’s response in 12:33 subordinates temple worship to deeds of love was “remarkable” for one “whose professional concern focused around sacrificial regulations” (France, The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary [Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2002], 481).

31 mSanh, 10:1, The William Davidson digital edition of the Koren Noé Talmud, Sefaria.org, https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Sanhedrin.10.1?lang=bi

32 BTalmud, Shabbat 31a:11 (on Is. 33:6), The William Davidson digital edition of the Koren Noé Talmud, Sefaria.org, https://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.31a.11?lang=bi

33 See Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 674: “The glorious Messiah’s coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by ‘all Israel’…The ‘full inclusion’ of the Jews in the Messiah’s salvation, in the wake of ‘the full number of the Gentiles,’ will enable the People of God to achieve ‘the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,’ in which ‘God may be all in all.’”

34 See Council of Trent, Session 6, Decree on Justification (1547), ch.5, 8.

35 See Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae (1965), no. 3.

36 Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium (1964), no. 14. See also Second Vatican Council, Ad Gentes (1965), nos. 5-7, and Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1257.

37 Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium (1964), no. 14. See also Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III, q. 68, a. 2, resp.; Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Redemptoris Missio (1990), no. 55. While all those baptized into Christ form only one body (Eph. 2:11-22), Jewish members of Christ’s body retain a special identity and vocation See the discussion in Matthew Levering, “Aquinas and Supersessionism One More Time: A Response to Matthew A. Tapie’s Aquinas on Israel and the Church,” Pro Ecclesia 25, no. 4: 395-412.

38 See Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Redemptoris Missio (1990), no. 10.

39 See Pope Clement XI, Bull Unigenitus Dei Filius (8 Sept. 1713), DH 2426, 2429. See also Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, “Letter to the Archbishop of Boston” (1949): “In order that one may obtain eternal salvation, it is not always required that he be incorporated into the Church actually as a member, but it is necessary that at least he be united to her by desire and longing. However, this desire need not always be explicit…when a person suffers from invincible ignorance, God accepts also an implicit desire, so called because it is included in that good disposition of soul whereby a person wishes his will to be conformed to the will of God.”

40 On the question of the salvific value of the ritual precepts of old after the coming of Christ, see William B. Goldin, “St. Thomas Aquinas and Supersessionism: A Contextual Study and Doctrinal Application” (S.T.D. diss., Pontifica Studiorum Universitas a S. Thoma Aq. in Urbe, 2017)

41 Amaury Begasse de Dhaem, S.J., “Christologie et Sotériologie de ‘Gaudium et spes’ 22,” 16-17.

42 A. Begasse de Dhaem, S.J., “Christologie et Sotériologie de ‘Gaudium et spes’ 22,” 13-17.

43 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominus Iesus (2000), no. 20.

44 See Eugenio Zolli, Before the Dawn: Autobiographical Reflections by Eugenio Zolli, Former Chief Rabbi of Rome (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2008 [original: New York: Sheed and Ward, 1954]), 47-49.

45 Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 106, a. 1, ad 3: “No man ever had the grace of the Holy Ghost except through faith in Christ either explicit or implicit: and by faith in Christ man belongs to the New Testament. Consequently, whoever had the law of grace instilled into them belonged to the New Testament.”

46 Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, “Letter to the Archbishop of Boston” (1949).

47 Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Redemptoris Missio (1990), no. 10: “[For those who] do not have an opportunity to come to know or accept the gospel revelation or to enter the Church…salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation. This grace comes from Christ; it is the result of his Sacrifice and is communicated by the Holy Spirit. It enables each person to attain salvation through his or her free cooperation” (emphasis added). See also Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III, q. 68, a. 2, resp.

48 Pope Benedict XVI, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini (2010), no. 43, quoting the Pontifical Biblical Commission, The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible (24 May 2001), 87.

49 Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate (1965), no. 4. Emphasis added.

50 See Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium (1964), no. 1; and Catechism of the Catholic Church, 774776, 780.

51 In an article entitled, “Covenant and Mission,” Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. argued, “Once we grant that there are some persons for whom it is not important to acknowledge Christ…we raise questions about our own religious life. If we are convinced that baptism incorporates us into the body of Christ and that the Eucharist nourishes us with his flesh and blood, we will be eager to share these gifts as widely as possible” (America 187, no. 12 [Oct. 21, 2002]: 11).