Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “ You have heard how it was said…but I say to you…”, these famous words of Jesus are recurrent in his earthly preaching, especially with regard to the Jewish religious leaders; and recorded above all in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, immediately after the Beatitudes. This singular incipit demonstrates that Jesus taught with an authority of his own, not deriving from others like that of the Rabbis. Far from thinking of a break with the religion of Israel which he himself practised, Jesus intended to bring it to completion, indicating as the hermeneutic criteria of the Old Testament, the superiority of love over the law.
So with Jesus of Nazareth, what was prepared from the beginning, comes about: God's true and full communion with mankind, through his Son, the Christ Messiah, sole and universal saviour of humanity, prefigured and outlined in the figures of the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament.
So can we still consider the Law of Israel valid for the salvation of the Jews after the coming of Christ? What is the relation between the Old and New Testaments and more in general the Old and New Covenants? What is the value of the Torah for the Jews compared with the Christianity's doctrine of salvation? What is the Church's mission towards the Jewish people? The “Thorà brought by the Messiah” - as Benedict XVI says evocatively in his book Jesus of Nazareth - and what is its relation with the Torah which God gave Moses on Mount Sinai? What is the relation, after the preaching of Jesus, between the Law and freedom? But most of all, how valid are the old Jewish rules for the salvation of the “chosen people” in the light of the New Covenant, inaugurated by Christ?
These are only a few of the questions we will try to answer on the basis of the Sacred Scripture, then Church Tradition and Teaching, and then no few interesting official documents on Jewish-Christian dialogue and the thought of some of the most authoritative thinkers of present day Judaism.
The intention of this new Section is therefore to foster understanding of the necessity of dialogue and comparison between Judaism and Christianity, and the need for in depth explanation on the basis of shared elements such as monotheism, the one story of salvation, the Covenant, sacred books, worship. In spirit and in truth and in respect for diversity we will strive to make known to all, - including Jews, - the person of Jesus and the message He left with us before returning to the Father.
The Church in fact, the greatest work of Jesus of Nazareth, has the task of announcing his message to the ends of the earth (Mt 28,19), bringing communion, life and truth to every man and woman. Interreligious dialogue, said John Paul II, is much more than a way to promote reciprocal knowledge and enrichment; it is part of the Church's evangelising mission, an expression of mission ad gentes (Ecclesia in Asia 31). This statement, that interreligious dialogue is both an intrinsic necessity of the faith and an expression of the Church's mission, can in no way be taken for granted today.
It is from this observation that we will start explaining in stages the more important themes of Jewish-Christian dialogue, highlighting points of continuity and discontinuity, fulfilment and exceeding. (Michele Loconsole) (Agenzia Fides 3/12/2007; righe 40, parole 560)
