Jesus
of Nazareth was a Jew and his God was the God of the Hebrew Scriptures. He grew
up in Galilee and the religious tradition in which he was educated was that of
Judaism. That is why it is inevitable for us not to acknowledge the Jews
because Jesus himself was a Jew. We are not to make troubles with the Jews
because whether we accept it or not, Jesus himself was a Jew. As I was reading
the “pastoral orientation” part I agree with St. John Paul’s idea which is to
go hand in hand with the Jews for a better humanity not by promoting division
against each other rather than chaos. Thereby, we are to recognize that the God
whom we worship and pray is the God of the Jewish religious tradition.
In
the course of reading the suggested paragraphs, I came to realize that
Christians and Jews are but one, thus we don’t need for a more complicated
understanding of where we want to be which results to a greater division. I
mean here, ‘’no more anti-christians, no more anti-jewish”. This is all what I
want as a reaction, we are all love by God whom we are worshipping and praying
to. Thus, we are but equal in his eyes! This community of ours whether
Christian or Jewish tradition came into being through the experience of God and
that these experiences were preserved in stories. When these stories came to be
written down each new generation interprets the written stories in the light of
its own situation and its own experiences that is why today Christians and Jews
are not so closely related with each other even though we are worshipping the
same God because of our varied interpretations. However, God continues to be
present with each generation whether Christian or Jew. The content and character of my faith comes to
me in various ways from this community (Christian Community) from its Scriptures;
from the way these Scriptures have been understood, interpreted, preached and
discussed through the centuries from the past practices of prayer and devotion
I have learned. That is why the “celebration of the Passover Meal” reminded me
of how our celebration of the Holy Eucharist came in, which is very Jewish in
its culture. I acknowledge the Jews simply by guiding as how we are to live a
life of faith by means of visible signs to an invisible reality. I have learned
through this course in which I am very thankful, the public worship which was
handed down to us by the Jews in which we can never have our present without
our past. I have found in this Judaeo-Christian community to be one which,
despite its inevitable human weakness, nevertheless, in general promotes LIFE,
HOPE and JOY!
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