With “Ash Wednesday” ushering the Lenten season we may take some time to ponder on the notion that the Jews were to blame for the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.   It may spell the difference on how one would celebrate this year’s Holy Week and Easter.  

Catechists and religious leaders who interpreted the Holy Bible made me believe that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. In a way, this led me to have reservations interacting with Jewish people. Yet, I experience the revolting feeling every time I watch movies depicting the slaughter of the Jewish population in holocaust.

It is from this fundamental knowledge from early church teachers that millions around the globe have developed similar seething bias against the Jewish people. History in the European theatre said it all. Hitler and his cohorts openly express their inner selves when they murdered millions of Jews in the gas chambers.

Recently, the Vatican through Pope Benedict XVI has absolved the Jewish people for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in a book he authored. In “Jesus of Nazareth-Part II”, the AP newswires said “Benedict uses biblical and theological analyses to explain why there was no basis in Scripture that the Jewish people as a whole were responsible for Jesus’ death”.

Actually, the Roman Catholic Church has already taken a stand on the issue in Vatican II.

Rabbi David Rosen, head of the inter-religious affairs of the American Jewish Committee and a leading figure in the Vatican-Jewish Dialogue, noted according to the AP: “that the Vatican issued its most authoritative document on the issue in its l965 Second Vatican Council document ‘Nostra Aetate’”.

The same “revolutionized the Catholic Church’s relations with Jews by saying Christ’s death could not be attributed to Jews as a whole at the time or today”, AP quoted Rosen.

The AP report also said:

“The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit who writes frequently about spirituality, said the pope’s new book was a ‘ringing reaffirmation’ of Nostra Aetate, . . . with the pope putting his ‘personal stamp on it in a way that’s irrefutable’”.

“A Vatican Council is the highest teaching authority of the church,” Martin said. “Now that you have the pope’s reflections underlining it, I don’t know how much more authoritative you can get”.

With this declaration, the Pilipino expression “hudyu” signifying mistrust could also be modified to the positive. Like the weather, times are changing.-hp