What The Catholic Church Teaches About The Jews – Part 3
Table of Contents
The Catholic Church Teaches That Jews Are Faithless And Perfidious
The Mass of the Ages has Good Friday prayers for all the people of the world, and, until it was edited in 1955, it contained this prayer for the Jews:
Let us pray also for the faithless Jews: that our God and Lord would withdraw the veil from their hearts: that they also may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ.
Pre-1955 Holy Week Masses
The faithful were also instructed to not genuflect or give an “amen” for the Jews, since they committed Deicide, unlike the pagans, schismatics, and heretics, who are given a respectful genuflect and “amen”.
The prayer then concludes:
O almighty and eternal God, who drivest not away from Thy mercy even the faithless Jews: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people: that acknowledging the light of Thy truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through our Lord. Amen
ibid.
Let’s continue by showing proof of Jewish faithlessness and perfidy.
The Bible On Jewish Faithlessness And Perfidy
The New Covenant that Christ signed with His Blood replaced the Old Covenant with the Jews, which is no more.
The Jews that rejected Christ were cutoff from the New Covenant, and the gentiles that accepted Christ were added to the New Covenant.
We know this because the Bible tells us so. Let’s take a look, shall we?
John 19:15
The Jews rejected Christ as their king, and called for His death:
But they cried out: Away with him; away with him; crucify him. Pilate saith to them: Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered: We have no king but Caesar.
John 19:15
Matthew 27:51
Upon the death of Christ, the temple veil was torn in half, and the Old Covenant was no more:
And behold the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top even to the bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rocks were rent.
Matthew 27:51
Romans 7:4
St. Paul clarifies that the Old Law is no more upon the death of Christ:
Therefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law, by the body of Christ; that you may belong to another, who is risen again from the dead, that we may bring forth fruit to God.
Romans 7:4
Romans 11:7-10
St. Paul says of the Jews that rejected Christ, who were not given the grace to convert, are blind:
What then? That which Israel sought, he hath not obtained: but the election hath obtained it; and the rest have been blinded. As it is written: God hath given them the spirit of insensibility; eyes that they should not see; and ears that they should not hear, until this present day. And David saith: Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see: and bow down their back always.
Romans 11:7-10
Romans 11:11-20
Finally, St. Paul makes it clear that the faithless Jews that rejected Christ were replaced by believing gentiles:
I say then, have they so stumbled, that they should fall? God forbid. But by their offence, salvation is come to the Gentiles, that they may be emulous of them. Now if the offence of them be the riches of the world, and the diminution of them, the riches of the Gentiles; how much more the fulness of them? For I say to you, Gentiles: as long indeed as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I will honour my ministry, If, by any means, I may provoke to emulation them who are my flesh, and may save some of them. For if the loss of them be the reconciliation of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
For if the firstfruit be holy, so is the lump also: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken, and thou, being a wild olive, art ingrafted in them, and art made partaker of the root, and of the fatness of the olive tree, Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then: The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well: because of unbelief they were broken off. But thou standest by faith: be not highminded, but fear.
Romans 11:11-20
Thus, St. Paul makes it crystal clear in the New Testament that the Jews who rejected Christ have no relationship with God.
Moreover, they have been replaced by gentiles who do accept Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
However, St. Paul does admonish gentiles to not be prideful, as they too can be cut off if they lose Faith.
The Saints On Jewish Faithlessness And Perfidy
What did the Saints say regarding the faithlessness and perfidy of the Jews?
Ambrose
The faithlessness of the Synagogue is an insult to the Savior. Therefore He chose the barque of Peter, and deserted that of Moses; that is, He rejected the faithless Synagogue, and adopts the believing Church.
Sermo 37, The Two Ships
Augustine
Our Lord Jesus Christ referred to Himself as ‘the Stone’ (Mt. 21:44). Lying on the ground, it shakes whoever falls over it; coming from on high, it crushes the proud. The Jews have already been shaken by their previous stumble. What awaits them is to be crushed by His Coming.
Augustine Sermons, Sermon 91, pg. 458
Hippolytus
And then hear what follows: ‘Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not.’ And surely ye have been darkened in the eyes of your soul with a darkness utter and everlasting. For now that the true light has arisen, ye wander as in the night, and stumble on places with no roads, and fall headlong, as having forsaken the way that saith, ‘I am the way.” – John xiv. 6. Furthermore, hear this yet more serious word: ‘And their back do thou bend always’; that means, in order that they may be slaves to the nations, not four hundred and thirty years as in Egypt, nor seventy as in Babylon, but bend them to servitude, he says, ‘always.’ In fine, then, how dost thou indulge vain hopes, expecting to be delivered from the misery which holdeth thee? For that is somewhat strange. And not unjustly has he imprecated this blindness of eyes upon thee. But because thou didst cover the eyes of Christ, (and) thus thou didst beat Him, for this reason, too, bend thou thy back for servitude always. And whereas thou didst pour out His blood in indignation, hear what thy recompense shall be: ‘Pour out Thine indignation upon them, and let Thy wrathful anger take hold of them’; and, ‘Let their habitation be desolate,’ to wit, their celebrated temple.
Expository Treatise Against the Jews
Jerome
Instead of the grace of the law which has passed away, we have received the grace of the gospel which is abiding; and instead of the shadows and types of the old dispensation, the truth has come by Jesus Christ. Jeremiah also prophesied thus in God’s name: ‘Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah…’ Observe what the prophet says, not to Gentiles, who had not been partakers in any former covenant, but to the Jewish nation. He who has given them the law by Moses, promises in place of it the New Covenant of the gospel, that they might no longer live in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the spirit.
Letter 75, From Jerome To Augustine, 4
John Chrysostom
Yet surely Paul’s object everywhere is to annul this Law… And with much reason; for it was through a fear and a horror of this that the Jews obstinately opposed grace.
Homily on Romans, 6:12
Justin Martyr
Now, law placed against law has abrogated that which is before it, and a covenant which comes after in like manner has put an end to the previous one; and an eternal and final law – namely, Christ – has been given to us, and the covenant is trustworthy…Have you not read…by Jeremiah, concerning this same new covenant, He thus speaks: ‘Behold, the days come,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…
Dialogue with Trypho, Ch 11
Thomas Aquinas
Whether Christ should have preached to the Jews without offending them?
…On the contrary, It was foretold (Isaiah 8:14) that Christ would be ‘for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to the two houses of Israel.’
I answer that, The salvation of the multitude is to be preferred to the peace of any individuals whatsoever. Consequently, when certain ones, by their perverseness, hinder the salvation of the multitude, the preacher and the teacher should not fear to offend those men, in order that he may insure the salvation of the multitude. Now the Scribes and Pharisees and the princes of the Jews were by their malice a considerable hindrance to the salvation of the people, both because they opposed themselves to Christ’s doctrine, which was the only way to salvation, and because their evil ways corrupted the morals of the people. For which reason our Lord, undeterred by their taking offense, publicly taught the truth which they hated, and condemned their vices. Hence we read (Matthew 15:12,14) that when the disciples of our Lord said: ‘Dost Thou know that the Pharisees, when they heard this word, were scandalized?’ He answered: ‘Let them alone: they are blind and leaders of the blind; and if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit.’
… By publicly reproving the Scribes and Pharisees, Christ promoted rather than hindered the effect of His teaching. Because when the people came to know the vices of those men, they were less inclined to be prejudiced against Christ by hearing what was said of Him by the Scribes and Pharisees, who were ever withstanding His doctrine.
ST III, q. 42, a. 3
Many other Saints said similar things that affirm the Jewish faithlessness And perfidy.
The Magisterium On Jewish Faithlessness And Perfidy
What did the pre-Vatican II Magisterium say regarding the faithlessness and perfidy of the Jews?
Council IV of Toledo
Concerning those who show support and favour to the Jews against the faith of Christ. The avarice of some is so great that they therefore separate themselves from the faith, just as the Apostle expressed it; just as even many among the clergy and laity accept presents from the Jews and aid their perfidy, in that they allow them to enjoy their protection; to those, of whom one knows not without reasons, that they belong to the body of the Antichrist, since they work against Christ. Every bishop, priest or layman, who in the future grants support to them (the Jews) against the Christian faith, be it through briberies or favours, shall be regarded as profane and blaspheming God. He shall be excluded from the Communion of the Catholic Church and be regarded as not belonging to the kingdom of God; for it is no more than right that those who reveal themselves as protectors of the enemies of the Lord be separated from the body of Christ.
Council IV of Toledo, Spain, Canon 58
Gregory IX
Ungrateful for favors and forgetful of benefits, the Jews return insult for kindness and impious contempt for goodness. They ought to know the yoke of perpetual enslavement because of their guilt. See to it that the perfidious Jews never in the future grow insolent, but that they always suffer publicly the shame of their sin in servile fear.
“Epistle to the Hierarchy of Germany,” in 1233 A.D., Annales Ecclesiastici, Cardinal Caesar Baronius, ed. August Theiner, 1864, vol.I
Innocent IV
The impious perfidy of the Jews–from whose hearts because of the enormity of their crimes our Redeemer did not lift the veil but still permits them to remain, as is fitting, in the blindness which is characteristic of Israel–not regarding the fact that Christian piety receives them only out of pity and patiently endures dwelling together with them, commits those enormities which stupefy hearers and horrify narrators.
Letter to King Louis IX of France, May 9, 1244
St. Leo the Great
So clearly was the transition then made from the Synagogue to the Church that, when the Lord gave up His soul, the veil of the Temple was rent in two.
Sermon CLXVIII; BVM vol.II, p.119
St. Pius V
The Jewish people fell from the heights because of their faithlessness and condemned their Redeemer to a shameful death. Their godlessness has assumed such forms that, for the salvation of our own people, it becomes necessary to prevent their disease. Besides usury, through which Jews everywhere have sucked dry the property of impoverished Christians, they are accomplices of thieves and robbers; and the most damaging aspect of the matter is that they allure the unsuspecting through magical incantations, superstition, and witchcraft to the Synagogue of Satan and boast of being able to predict the future. We have carefully investigated how this revolting sect abuses the name of Christ and how harmful they are to those whose life is threatened by their deceit.
Hebraeorum gens
Pius VII
For when the liberty of all ‘religions’ is indiscriminately asserted, by this very fact truth is confounded with error and the holy and immaculate Spouse of Christ, the Church, outside of which there can be no salvation, is set on a par with the sects of heretics and with Judaic perfidy itself.
Post Tam Diuturnas
Venerable Pius XII
…the New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished…but on the gibbet of His death Jesus made void the Law with its decrees fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross.
Mystici Corporis, para. 29
Many other Popes said similar things that affirm the Jewish faithlessness And perfidy.
But What Do The Jews Say Regarding Christ?
The Jews say this about Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ:
He is punished with boiling excrement.
Jewish Talmud, Gittin 57a
That blasphemy says it all about what the Jews think about Christ.
If you want to learn more about the blasphemies levied against Christ, the Blessed Mother and all Christians, then read The Talmud Unmasked.
Of course, then you can verify the claims made by looking at the English translation of the Talmud itself.
But it is clear that the Jews rejected Christ and have hatred towards Him and us Christians.
They are faithless and perfidious. That being said, we must love them and pray for their conversion!
Again, I will leave you with this quote from Our Lord:
