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Good Friday Prayer for the Jews: Why All the Turmoil? |
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Written by Hugh McNichol - Pewsitter.com
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Wednesday, 05 March 2008 |
February 29, 2008 - It’s been almost a month, since the Pope issued a
revision to the Good Friday prayer. Quite frankly, the entire dilemma over the
revised prayer for the Jewish people is really out of control. Benedict XVI is
trying to put forth the best possible solution to the semantic problem of the
restored Liturgy of Blessed John XXIII with linguistic diplomacy and papal
finesse.
First of all, as Catholics, we have the right to pray for anyone we want and it
whatever way we want. We pray on a regular basis for Gentiles, Jews, Moslems and
even the Buddhists and Hindus. Jewish opponents to the revised Good Friday
prayer need to understand it is our Catholic nature to pray for everyone.
Our Catholic liturgy is not an opportunity for politically sensitive or gender
perfect interpretations of 21st century social conformity. It is a theological
and liturgical encapsulation of what we firmly hold true and believe. We need to
pray for the Jewish people, not because the Catholic hierarchy has singled them
out for specific spiritual attention. We pray for them and all religions that
have not acknowledged the acceptance of Jesus Christ’s Paschal Mystery.
As a Church, we believe our faith is rightly and correctly the source of
salvation. While that does not sit well with Jewish observers, it is simply what
we believe. At the same time, we believe the Gospel message is freely offered to
all peoples to accept, embrace and follow. That includes every factor of
theophanic society regardless of what ethnic and religious tribe one might hail
from. Moreover, as Catholics, we feel it is our duty and right, to pray for the
conversion of all religions to the Catholic faith…I am sure there are prayers
offered by other religions for the conversion of the Catholics. Therefore, in
reality everyone really gets his or her fair share of the Divine Creators ear.
Our Catholic prayers are not intended to defame or criticize any religious group
especially the Jewish people whom we hold as our cousins in the faith of
Abraham. We are not going around advocating massive Baptisms for the Jewish
population of the world, and Jewish communities are not inviting us Catholics to
the Passover Seder. That is all right. We have the right to choose our religious
persuasion as well as the manner and language in which we worship God.
We also pray for those people that do not believe in God on Good Friday. To the
best of my knowledge, they are not offering any complaints. Maybe it is because
they do not believe there is anyone listening to our prayers. Regardless, of the
nature of God’s religious membership, maybe the higher aspiration is just
calling everyone to some sort of prayer.
On Good Friday, we recount and recall the historical events that surrounded the
death of Jesus Christ. Those events and the results are the results of
chronological history. Catholic’s cannot and should not provide revisionist
prayers just because people do not want us to pray for them.
In the Old Testament, the Egyptians were the personification of the evil empire
during the historical event of the Passover. No one is out there allegedly
citing anti-Egyptian sentiments when the Faithful of Israel celebrate their
freedom from slavery.
As faithful members of the global society, all religions need to acknowledge
their temporal and human flaws and shortcomings. We Catholics admit we are not a
perfect group of people…but we are trying to be such…and that is what counts. If
in fact it makes everyone feel better…when we restore the pre-Tridentate liturgy
we will rewrite the prayers that offers salvation to the Islamic world. The
return from our publishing investment is much better statistically than with the
Jewish world.
Pray for everyone…even those that do not like it. Then they will really wonder
what we Catholics are up to !
Hugh McNichol is a Catholic author that writes freelance works on topics that
involve Catholicism. He writes a daily column, verbumcarofactumest.blogspot.com
Source: pewsitter.com
Comments posted are the sole opinion of the author and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of AIM. |
