Two homelands

Almost 46 years have passed since the promulgation of “Nostra Aetate” (October 28 1965) and the ensuing guidelines for implementing the Declaration (1974 and 1985). What is the state of Jewish-Christian dialogue today? The opening of new horizons between Christians and Jews is largely due to three events: the Shoah, the birth of the State of Israel and the Second Vatican Council. Despite their profound differences, these three events signal irreversible transformations. Nothing will be as before. The theme is fully broached by Nathan Ben Horin in the book “Nuovi orizzonti tra ebrei e cristiani” (“New horizons between Christians and Jews“, trans.’s note) edited by Piero Stefani (Messaggero, Padova). In the volume, the author brings his personal reflections and experience – from 1980 to 1986 as Israel’s Minister Plenipotentiary in Rome for relations with the Holy See -, on the role assumed by the Land of Israel in Judaism. Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum wrote the preface.Difficulties and the importance of dialogue. In the opening lines of the book His Eminence writes: “I was born in Espelette, a village in the Basque regions of France. I am deeply bound to my homeland”, but “today I know that I have two home countries. I was born at the foot of the Pyrenees, but I was also born in Jerusalem, in the shade of Zion”. “Without Abraham’s faith and that of his descendants – the Cardinal explains – our faith would not exist. The Council declaration Nostra Aetate, n. 4, justly begins by recalling the spiritual ties of the people of the New Testament with the descendants of Abraham”. In his capacities as Archbishop of Marseilles, cardinal Etchegaray had frequent meetings with Jews. “In 1972, I was given the honour to hold the second reunion of the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee”, the prelate writes. “These encounters enabled me to acknowledge the importance, along with the hurdles, of Jewish-Christian dialogue. We don’t know enough of the Jewish world and we’re often unaware of its multifarious realities. In fact, Orthodox Jews, who rigorously abide by all religious precepts, as well as Jews from more ‘liberal’ branches of Judaism, i.e. with a more ‘flexible’ religious observance, attended the meetings. However, they all mutually identified each other as Jews”. In fact, Cardinal Etchegaray recalls, “I gradually discovered an aspect that is justly underlined in the book: namely, the impossibility of avoiding the political aspects underlying religious themes, such as that regarding the bond between a people and their land, the Promised Land, which is vital for the Jewish faith”.Permanent vocation. Card. Etchegaray recalls his trip to Israel in 1985, when, on behalf of the Pope, he visited Yad Vashem. He retraces the visit of John Paul II to the synagogue of Rome along with the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and the Holy See (1994). “What amazes me – admits the prelate – is the continuation of the Jewish People despite all the pogroms, their survival even after having been sent to the ovens to die. Is it not the undeniable witness of a permanent vocation, a message for the contemporary world, and especially within the Church?” In fact, “the big, unavoidable question that the Church is called to address regards the permanent vocation of the Jewish people, and the meaning of this vocation for Christians. Discovering the richness of our common heritage is not enough”. In fact, “the perenniality of the Jewish people stands as a challenge for the Church to improve not only her internal relations, as it also calls into question her very self-understanding. This relationship, that can only be experienced in the form of a serene tension, is it not one of the pillars of the dynamic history of salvation?” Until Judaism remains outside our history of salvation “we will be left at the mercies of anti-Semitic inclinations”.Unexpected gesture. “The mysterious difference and remarkable kinship of Christians and Jews – continues Cardinal Etchegaray – must jointly bring us on the same path of repentance: the “teshuvah” that underlies biblical thought. Church – Synagogue confrontation, worsened by hardening on both sides – as each is affected by the other’s hardening – has characterized our historical experience. On this path of penance, John Paul II will always be remembered as our indefatigable guide. He recurrently spoke of the plead of forgiveness asked of the Jewish people bearing the deadly wounds of the Shoah. But in Jerusalem, after the visit to Yad Vashem, he accompanied the spoken words with the most unexpected gesture for a pope, (albeit familiar to all pilgrim Jews) when, leaning on his old-age cane, he introduced a message inside a fissure in the Western Wall (commonly known as the Wailing Wall) bearing the following words: ‘Our Lord who has chosen Abraham and his seed to carry his message to the gentiles, we are deeply saddened by the actions of those who have caused suffering to your children all through history, “We ask for your forgiveness and we commit ourselves to true harmony and peace with the Jewish people”.