"The religion good enough for my parents is good enough for me. Even if I were convinced of the correctness of what you say, which I am not, I would rather remain a Jew than break the hearts of my parents by becoming a Christian."

   I can well appreciate the sentiment you express, as that sentiment was once mine. I, like other converts from the Synagogue to the Church, have suffered the soul-racking experience of bringing sorrow to the hearts of my father and mother on account of entering the Catholic Church. It was not so much- a matter of religious belief on their part, as the knowledge that the son they loved would be looked down upon with contempt by their Jewish relatives and friends.
   Even when convinced that Jesus is the Messiah; that Christianity is not a denial of Old Testament Judaism, but rather its full-blossoming; that the Catholic Church speaks with God's authority, as does no other church or synagogue, I endeavored to smother my favorableness towards the Church by trying to dismiss it as a delusion. The emotional conflict continued within me, even though I kept from reading and speaking of things Catholic, until the desire for peace of soul aroused in me a determination to follow the dictates of conscience to the baptismal font. A period of deep sorrow followed for me as well as for my parents, as I had to leave their home to which I was devoted. Thanks be to God, the hostility of my parents changed to admiration for their son long before they died. Their sympathetic regard for me, caused them to see in the Christian way of life I followed something to which they had never before paid any serious attention. They became interested in Catholics in general, though their acquaintances were nearly all Jewish. They saw in them an adherence to religious principles and practices such as is seen only incidentally among present-day Jews, and then invariably among the Orthodox division of Jewry. They contrasted the regular church attendance of Catholics with the indifferentism of their Jewish relatives and friends. It was a common thing for them to hear Jews who attended synagogue services, usually twice a year, on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kipper, say, apologetically, that they went "to shule for the children's sake," instead of for their own soul's satisfaction as well.
   Love of parents is a commendable thing, and, thank God it abides to a great degree among Jews, even among those who do not go to synagogues. We are all obligated to love and obey our parents, and that includes refraining from things that will disturb their peace of heart. There is but one consideration that takes precedence to parents, that is God, the Author of the Commandment to "honor your father and your mother." God has the first claim to our affection. We belong to Him more than to our parents. We owe our lives primarily to God, who brought us into the world through our parents; and we are here on earth for one great purpose, to return to God for eternity. Therefore, God's will must be our will, even at the cost of unhappiness on the part of our parents, due to our determination to do the will of God as He makes it known to us.
   Both the Jewish and the Christian religions teach that God comes first in all things. That is why the first three of the Ten Commandments deal with the love and worship of God. This principle is announced by Moses in Deuteronomy 33:9, wherein the duty of the priest is declared to precede all consideration of flesh and blood. If interfered with, the priest is told to say to "his father and to his mother: I do not know you; and to his brethren: I know you not - ."
   Our own fathers and mothers become our enemies, as well as God's enemies, when they protest against our following the will of God as God makes it known to us through the voice of conscience. "A man's enemies will be those of his own household" (St. Matt. 10:36) said Jesus, who fully realized that fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, would be obstacles at times to Jews following Him as the Messiah.
   Jesus, the Prince of Peace, brought a "sword," a spiritual sword, to man which is "keener than any two-edged sword," when He commanded man to follow Him as their Messiah:

"Do not think that I have come to send peace upon the earth; I have come to bring a sword, not peace. For I have come to set a man at variance with his father, and a daughter with her mother, and a daughter-in-law with her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be those of his own household."

This is the cross, the affliction, the price, Jews would sometimes have to pay for love of Him, said the Son of God, if they remain true to conscience. Continuing, Jesus said:

"He who loves father and mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me, is not worthy of Me" (St. Matt.10:33-39).

   Jesus, being true God as well as true man, has a right to command supreme obedience. That it did not conflict with the love due to parents, was shown by Jesus when He took the "hypocrites" to task for making void the Commandment to "honor thy father and thy mother" (St. Matt. 15:4-7).
   When Jews become Catholics, they take up the sword of truth to cut themselves away from the error of present-day Judaism. It often makes life hard for them among the people they love, especially when their motives are questioned, as they invariably are, often by "Jews" who are Jews in name only. It sometimes causes the tenderest of human relations to be severed, yet it must be bravely met to be true to one's self and to God.
   The Catholic Church is a Church of converts and descendants of converts. Jesus, His Blessed Mother, and St. Joseph were Jews. So were the Twelve Apostles; so were thousands of converts from Judaism who made up the first members of the Catholic Church; as well as Saul of Tarsus, and a host of others, some of them sons and daughters of parents who were hostile to Christianity. Being convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, the expected of Israel for whom their forefathers prayed and suffered, these converts held themselves conscience-bound not to permit any misunderstanding on the part of their parents to prevent them from following the light with which God had blest them. In many instances determination to be true to principle finally brought their hostile parents to the peace of heart that comes with being one with the Messiah in His Church.
   You cannot rightly claim to believe in God, and in religion which binds you morally to listen to and obey God, and say at the same time that even "if convinced" that the Church has by God's will displaced the Synagogue, you would not enter the Church because it would grieve your parents. That is a false concept of duty, according to Jewish as well as Christian principles. Both religions hold that the voice of conscience is the voice of God speaking through the soul of man:

"Whatever creed be taught or land be trod,
Man's conscience is the oracle of God"
                                (Byron, "The Island").