I am grateful
to you for having inspired this series of letters, which I purpose herewith to end, at
least for the present. They were prayerfully written to try and turn your mind from error
to truth in matters that relate to Judaism and Catholic Christianity. Thus had I hoped to
mellow your heart towards Jesus as the Expected of Israel, for even worse than an erring
mind is a hardened heart. If at times the reasoning seemed severe, it was due largely to
my intense ambition to win you to Judaism full-blossomed in the Messiah and His Church;
and to the exactness of Catholic theological principles and moral standards, which are
unwavering, being doctrinally as organic and unchangeable as is the multiplication table.
I have ardently endeavored to get you to realize that passing from Judaism to
Catholicity is not a denial of the faith of our fathers of old in Israel. Catholicity is
as far from being a negation of the design implanted by God in the faith of Israel, as set
forth in the Old Testament, as the oak is from being a negation of the design of the tree
implanted by God in the acorn from which it grew. That faith of Israel is the seed from
which the faith of Catholics grew. The seed, be it Judaism or the acorn, ceased to exist,
as Judaism or an acorn, when the design implanted therein had attained its destined end,
by being full-grown. It is the shell that is discarded, so to speak, but not the vital
principle therein. Hence Judaism, as the religion of the Old Testament, ceased to exist
when its objective - the Messiah and His Kingdom - came into being. All the great
personages in the Old and the New Testaments, held, as you and I must reasonably hold,
that there can be but one religion in existence in any age, of God's making, and it must
have a divinely instituted priesthood and sacrifice. A religion without a God-instituted
priesthood and sacrifice may be made up of sincere, moral persons, but they are not in the
Church of God's making, and they have not the God-instituted and God-commanded means of
attaining to an eternity with God. The acknowledged non-existence of an Aaronic priesthood
or Torah-Commanded sacrifices ought to cause Jews, particularly Orthodox Jews, to see that
the synagogues of today have a sentimental, but not a doctrinal nor sacerdotal
relationship with Mosaic Judaism. This is not a mere historic incident due to human
perversity, as Jews have known through the divine prophecy of Osee (Hosea) that Israel
would be without priests, sacrifices, political independence, etc.
"For the children shall sit many days without king, and without
prince, and without altar, and without ephod (sacred vestment of the high priest), and
without teraphim (to consult for oracular answers) - " (3:4)
With Jewish sacerdotal principles as a background, I
have been forced to the conclusion, as have others, that either the Catholic Church, with
its priesthood and Sacrifice instituted by the Messiah, is The Church of God's making, or
God has left man without any priestly ecclesiastical spiritual guidance whatsoever, a
conclusion which would be contrary to the teachings in Holy Scripture.
The hope of Israel centered in the coming of the Messiah from the house of
David. Daniel told Israel (Chapter 9) that in seventy times seventy (490) years
the Messiah would come, that He would "be slain"; and to expect "a people
with their leader that shall come, and shall destroy the city (Jerusalem) and the
sanctuary." Jesus came in the time Daniel foretold, and claimed to be the Messiah,
the claim for which He was "slain." Then came the "leader," Titus, who
destroyed the "sanctuary" (Temple), the priesthood and sacrifices having ended
forever. Thus the Judaism of our fathers of old in Israel became a thing of the historic
past.
The truths set forth in these letters, acceptable though they have been to
the foremost theologians and the saints throughout the Christian ages, have only
influenced a relatively small portion of Israel. It is not because Jews lack intellectual
acumen, not at all, for they are mentally keen. It is, as Isaiah (6:9) said, they
have ears but they hear not, and eyes, but they see not, which is evident when it comes to
Christian truth. Hence they know not that Jesus is their Messiah, and that the Catholic
Church is the spiritual haven God set up for them.
God chastened Israel in the past "with the rod of men, and with the
stripes of the children of men" (2 Kings, 2 Samuel, 7:14); and may not God
be permitting His once chosen children to be chastened today in order to bring them to the
reception of the inheritance awaiting them in the Messiah and His Church? I firmly
believe so. No people have been more favored by God than have the children of Israel.
God's law was revealed to them and placed within their keeping; prophet after prophet was
raised by God from among them; from them was to come, and did come, the human body taken
on by the Only Begotten Son of God when "the Word was made flesh."
Pathetic indeed is the lot of the Jews. They seek solace in success, which
they have attained to a great degree in the arts, sciences, finance and commerce, yet they
have not found peace of soul and security of habitation. There is a void in their hearts
that they mournfully yearn to fill, that remains vacant. Catholics have appealed to them
time and time again to realize that in Jesus as their Messiah alone can the ultimate
solution of their problems be found. The Christian indebtedness to the Jews is universally
regarded by Catholics to be so great, that to disregard endeavoring to bring them to the
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, would be an omission bordering on uncharitableness. To the
Jews of old Catholics owe the basis of their faith and the glorious personages they love
to honor.
That is why Catholic Christianity pays deserved homage to such Jews of
pre-Christian times as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and others. Were it not for the
Lily of Israel, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the spiritual Mother and Mediatrix, Christianity
would lack the human Ark of the Covenant from which came forth the Emmanuel, God with us,
foretold by Isaiah.
What would Christianity be without Jesus, the King who came to human kind
from Israel? It would have been a Messianic Kingdom without a Messiah, which would be a
delusion.
What would Christianity be without the Twelve Jews who became Apostles of the
Messiah? It would have been an abstract belief without a divinely appointed teaching body,
the Catholic Church.
What would the Bible be minus the Old Testament of the Jews united with the
New Testament? It would be an incomplete and unintelligible book.
This has been said over and over again in these letters, in order to drive
home the fact that when a Jew enters the Catholic Church, it is because he loves the faith
of his fathers of old in Israel, as Catholic Christianity is Judaism full-blossomed.
My dear Mr. Isaacs, you and your fellow-Israelites are to Catholics like
stray sheep whom they want united with them in the Sheepfold of the Good Shepherd, who is
your Messiah as well as theirs. Therefore Catholics pray to God to have compassion on you
all. One of the many expressions of prayerful sympathy for the Jews is seen in "The
Lamp of Israel" that burns permanently before the Altar of the Lithostrotos (Hebrew
Gabbatha, St. John 19:13), the central place in the drama of Christ's crucifixion,
where He was scourged, crowned with thorns, condemned by Pilate to death, and laden with
the Cross upon which He died. I have long been privileged to have my name inscribed on a
slab in that regenerated tragic historic place as a prayerful expression of desire for the
conversion of Israel.
Above the Lithostrotos, stands the Basilica of the Ecce Homo, connected with
the Convent of the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame de Sion, the religious
Community that owes its existence to the Fathers Theodore and Alphonse Ratisbonne,
converts from the Orthodox Synagogue to the Church. There, from the loving hearts of the
Sisters, as well as the Sisters of this Congregation in other parts of the world,
including our U.S.A.; and members of their world-wide Confraternity of Prayer for the
Conversion of Israel, an Act of Reparation is made for the Jews. The latter part of it
brings this correspondence to a close.
"Thou didst love them, O Jesus! and Thou lovest them yet for
the sake of their fathers. Thou hast never ceased to call them under the wings of Thy
divine tenderness, and Thou didst weep for them over Jerusalem. But they did not
understand Thy tears, they did not comprehend Thy love, and profoundly blinded by pride as
well as ignorance, they stray far away from Thee, like wandering sheep, and have remained
for now nearly two thousand years in the shadow of death, without country, without priests
or prophets, without altar or sacrifice.
"How long, O Lord, shall these just chastisements last? Arise,
O God of goodness, and remember Thy mercies of old! Save the rest of Israel; then, with
contrite and humble hearts will they adore Him who they pierced with wounds. Save them, O
Savior of the world! Hasten the time for the accomplishment of Thy promises. Remove from
their eyes the veil which hides Thy light and bring them back into the paths of peace.
"Remember Thy first alliance their first fruits were saints;
they had for their fathers the patriarchs, and out of their tribes came the Apostles, who
carried Thy Gospel to the uttermost extremities of the world; and Mary, Thine Immaculate
Mother, and Thou Thyself, O Divine Emmanuel, who art God, blessed in all ages. It is for
this that from morning even unto night Israel hopes in the Lord; for the Lord is full of
mercies and abundant in redemption. He Himself will deliver Israel from all her
iniquities. "O Father all powerful, be Thou favorable to the children of Thy people,
and convert them. Remember the promises Thou didst make unto Abraham and his posterity!
Have pity on them; for the sake of Mary hear the prayers of the Daughters of Sion, who
repeat with humble confidence - `Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are
doing'!"
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