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Christian Passover? Is this weird?

2
reine.de.tout4/26/2011 7:07:10 pm PDT

Some Catholics will celebrate the Last Supper by having a family seder meal - but not a “party”.

The dignity of the human person requires the condemnation of all forms of anti-Semitism (Vatican II Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions). In view of these relations of the Church and the Jewish people, it is easier to see how anti-Semitism is essentially opposed to the spirit of Christianity. Still more do these relations show forth the duty of better understanding and mutual esteem…

We call to mind the strong link that binds the Christian liturgy to the Jewish liturgy, which continues to live in our own time. The fundamental conception of liturgy as expression of community life conceived as service of God and mankind is common to Jews and Christians. We grasp the importance for Jewish-Christian relations of an awareness of those common forms of prayer (texts, feasts, rites, etc.) in which the Bible holds an essential place…

The meal is often the traditional seder meal, and the observance stresses commonalities and a recognition that Jesus was a faithful Jew who observed Jedaic law. It is not intended to be a theft of Jewish tradition - so there are no yarmulkes, etc. It is intended to be a Christian observance in preparation for
the Paschal season which celebrates man’s redemption from the effects of sin by Christ’s passion and resurrection, and God’s gift of grace, rather than the Jewish observance which, in my limited understanding, is more related to a spirit of thanksgiving and blessing, a recognition of the total dependence of each upon God.

Like you, I find the usurpation of the traditions, rituals, symbols, etc., of a faith other than one’s own to be an offense to that other faith. For instance, I love the concept of the mezzazuh - but I would never put one at my door, because I would be using it merely as an ornament, rather than as Jews use it, which is in fulfillment of the commandment of putting the words of Torah on your gates to be contemplated as you leave and enter your home. It would be very wrong of me to usurp that, IMO.