Sunday, March 2, 2014
Our Jewish Heritage
It is only in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church that one would find the Jewish roots and heritage. Why? Because Christianity began with Jesus Christ and the Apostles. The first Christians were Jewish. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that in order to understand our Catholic liturgy, one must first understand Jewish liturgy (See the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1096). The weblink below is from the United States of Catholic Bishops. They give a detailed and better explanation of the Jewish roots found in the Catholic Mass.
The Jewish Roots of the Mass
The Neocatechumenal Way is not trying to Judiaze the Mass or even bring Jewish ornaments into the Mass. Our Jewish heritage was already in the Mass. The origin of the Catholic Church goes back to Jesus Christ and the Apostles. They were the ones who established "New Israel"....the Catholic Church.
CCC 877 Likewise, it belongs to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry that it have a collegial character. In fact, from the beginning of his ministry, the Lord Jesus instituted the Twelve as "the seeds of the new Israel and the beginning of the sacred hierarchy. "Chosen together, they were also sent out together, and their fraternal unity would be at the service of the fraternal communion of all the faithful: they would reflect and witness to the communion of the divine persons. For this reason every bishop exercises his ministry from within the episcopal college, in communion with the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter and head of the college. So also priests exercise their ministry from within the presbyterium of the diocese, under the direction of their bishop.
The Pope is the successor of the Apostle Peter. Only the Church has the authority to bind and loose. The Neocatechumenal Way has been endorsed by four different Popes, which makes the Way part of the Catholic Church.
However, all of us are sinners and each of us will be judged. Being Catholic does not guarantee that one is going to be saved. So, regardless of whether one is a Tradtional Latin Mass Catholic, a Catholic walking in the Neocatechumenal Way, a Charismatic Catholic, a Catholic walking in the Focolare movement, or a Francisican Catholic, all will be judged by God. It matters not what kind of Catholic Christian one is, but how you walk as a Catholic Christian.
Not everyone who says "Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father, which is in Heaven" (Matthew &:21). And what is the will of God? To love God with your whole mind, heart, and soul and to love your neighbor as Christ loves you.
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I am amazed by the charges JungleWatch folks level against the Way. Now they make accusation of heresy. But when they are denying the historical heritage of Christianity, they are the ones who fall into heresy. The same gnostic heresy as.the early bishop Marcion of Sinope, one of the firsts who was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. He said exactly what Tim Rohr and gang is claiming: that there is discontinuity between the the Old Testament and the New Testament, between the Jewish people and Christians. Marcion entirely threw out the Torah from his canon and he had to pay the price of excommunication.
ReplyDeleteLearn about Marcion in the Catholic Encyclopedia: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09645c.htm
I think the JungleWatch folks don't even realize what direction their blog owner and exclusive author, Tim Rohr is guiding them. We need to pray that by the time they recognize the dangers of heresy, it won't be too late for them to turn back and return to Catholic teaching. The same goes with the views of Archbishop Marie Joseph LeFebvre who was excommunicated by John-Paul II for denying Vatican II. Tim and his arch-conservative ilks try to lead the gullible on the self-destructive path of LeFebvre and the Pius 12th Society.
Read more about LeFebvre here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Lefebvre
Dear Zoltan,
DeleteI'm not quite sure where Mr. Tim Rohr stands as I did not read everything in his post. However, I did notice one of the commentors named Frenchie who wrote the following:
Some at the time thought you had to follow the jewish laws, since Jesus was a Jew, up to and including circumcision.
This was rejected by the Church as an Heresy.
As far as the main origin of Catholic celebrations, you in fact have a direct line from the Greek culture at large, which made it easy for our religion to spread through the Roman Empire, the romans having appropriated Greek culture and revised it to their test.
To pretend otherwise is highly revisionist, and definitly a gross attempt at diluting our beliefs.
http://junglewatch2.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-problem-with-kikos-tabernacle.html
If I understand this correctly, Frenchie is saying that circumcision was declared a heresy?? In the Old Testament, it was God who established circumcision as a covenant. What God has established in the Old Testament is never a heresy. However, circumcision was replaced by baptism. To replace something does not mean that the old practice of circumcision was a heresy. At Jerusalem, it was decided that the Gentile converts did not have to follow the Jewish law of circumcision, but they never declared that circumcision was a heresy. In fact, the Apostle Paul had Timothy circumcised to avoid conflict with the Jewish converts (Acts 16:3). Surely, St. Paul was not practicing heresy.
Furthermore, Frenchie also says that the origin of Catholic celebration has a direct line to the Greek culture. Catholic celebration of the Mass has its origin in Jewish liturgy.
Yeah Frenchie kinda confuse me also with her comment but the celebration is link to jewish roots. Again, is kinda difficult to watch from the outside vice experience it. You have to experience it, rather speculate.
ReplyDeleteThis what Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said about the way about the liturgy
ReplyDeleteThe Pope then made references to his views on the liturgy as part of the life of the Church:
The celebration in the small communities, regulated by the Liturgical Books, that are to be followed faithfully, and with the specificities approved in the Statutes of the Way, has the goal of helping those who walk on the neocatechumenal itinerary realize the grace of being inserted in the salvific mystery of Christ, who makes possible a Christian testimony capable of also assuming signs of radicalness.