Christians--avoid seder meals

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When my PRIEST and my POPE tell me in no uncertain terms not to attend a Seder I will reconsider.

Until then.
 
Sailor - Thank you.
The voice of reason.

I might feel differently about the matter if it were a Hindu thing or something, but Judaism is part of Christian heritage.
 
Have they said to go to a Muslim place? Need they? It is already considered imprudent to go to an SSPX Mass more than one time out of curiosity, so as not to encourage them (and I believe the same would be true of a non-Catholic rite plus moreso, as that is at least a Catholic liturgy not outlawed), but taking part in another’s rituals was already covered in the past. Not everything needs to be spelled out, but deduced from other authoritative documents. I can’t think of the particular title, but it is not ok to do so. The sedevacantists live out a time before Vatican 2 (some before Vatican 1). Will you participate in their liturgy and have communion? When you eat a ritual meal with those of another religion, it says you are in communion with them in beliefs.
 
Have they said to go to a Muslim place? Need they? It is already considered imprudent to go to an SSPX Mass more than one time out of curiosity, so as not to encourage them (and I believe the same would be true of a non-Catholic rite plus moreso, as that is at least a Catholic liturgy not outlawed), but taking part in another’s rituals was already covered in the past. Not everything needs to be spelled out, but deduced from other authoritative documents. I can’t think of the particular title, but it is not ok to do so. The sedevacantists live out a time before Vatican 2 (some before Vatican 1). Will you participate in their liturgy and have communion? When you eat a ritual meal with those of another religion, it says you are in communion with them in beliefs.
Says who?

Seriously—says who? Our Pope? My Bishop and priest? Who SAYS all this?

And yes, this particular issue needs to be spelled out, preferably by my Pope or Bishop. Once again, until then.

And I’d like to hear a Jew tell me whether attending a Seder means that I am now Jewish. :rolleyes:

I’m certain this will also be news to the elderly Catholic gentleman who was attending the meal as well: “Oops, I’m suddenly JEWISH.”
 
christendom-awake.org/pages/thomas-crean/thomas-crean.htm

The pertinent article is obvious. It covers the understanding of this issue of traditional teaching in light of Vatican 2.
Of course, when he talks about it being ok for a non-Catholic to participate in Catholic liturgies, he doesn’t mean Holy Communion, obviously. Like the condemnations of some sexual behavior in the Old Testament, not being reiterated in the New testament, silence can mean the old understanding hasn’t changed. The popes have not states, as Church law that you cannot wear a clown outfit when reading the Bible at Mass, but prior unchanged understanding of The Mass would preclude that argument. You can say that is not comparable to a respectable Jewish service, but that would be intentionally missing the point.
As a play, I guess one could act out a seder meal (as you could do a play about Moses or Noah’s life as the Bible has it), but definitely not at a Jew’s service, as the article clearly says that it speaks of a communion of belief. I don’t know about belittling the others’ service by not being there to worship with them, though. Maybe that’s true, but let’s focus on how it’s wrong for us to do so.

I have had non-Catholic friends, so I am not anti-Jew or Protestant. Language, borders, culture has its place and we should be in it and objectively learn about others’ from more of a distance than the spirit of Vatican 2 has allowed (and that includes playing legalistic games to try to circumvent doctrine). Our priest was correct, as he deduced the truth from what has been taught and not yet unchanged and did not settle on silence. We are people of faith AND reason. Going to Jews’ seder meals is still not right.
 
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

583 Like the prophets before him Jesus expressed the deepest respect for the Temple in Jerusalem. It was in the Temple that Joseph and Mary presented him forty days after his birth. 349 At the age of twelve he decided to remain in the Temple to remind his parents that he must be about his Father’s business. 350 He went there each year during his hidden life at least for Passover. 351 His public ministry itself was patterned by his pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the great Jewish feasts.

597 The historical complexity of Jesus’ trial is apparent in the Gospel accounts. The personal sin of the participants (Judas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate) is known to God alone. Hence we cannot lay responsibility for the trial on the Jews in Jerusalem as a whole, despite the outcry of a manipulated crowd and the global reproaches contained in the apostles’ calls to conversion after Pentecost. 385 Jesus himself, in forgiving them on the cross, and Peter in following suit, both accept “the ignorance” of the Jews of Jerusalem and even of their leaders. 386 Still less can we extend responsibility to other Jews of different times and places, based merely on the crowd’s cry: “His blood be on us and on our children!”, a formula for ratifying a judicial sentence. 387 As the Church declared at the Second Vatican Council: . . . neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his Passion. . . the Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from holy Scripture. 388

598 In her Magisterial teaching of the faith and in the witness of her saints, the Church has never forgotten that “sinners were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings that the divine Redeemer endured.” 389 Taking into account the fact that our sins affect Christ himself, 390 the Church does not hesitate to impute to Christians the gravest responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus, a responsibility with which they have all too often burdened the Jews alone:
We must regard as guilty all those who continue to relapse into their sins. Since our sins made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross, those who plunge themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the Son of God anew in their hearts (for he is in them) and hold him up to contempt. And it can be seen that our crime in this case is greater in us than in the Jews. As for them, according to the witness of the Apostle, “None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” We, however, profess to know him. And when we deny him by our deeds, we in some way seem to lay violent hands on him. 391
Nor did demons crucify him; it is you who have crucified him and crucify him still, when you delight in your vices and sins. 392

781 “At all times and in every race, anyone who fears God and does what is right has been acceptable to him. He has, however, willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people who might acknowledge him and serve him in holiness. He therefore chose the Israelite race to be his own people and established a covenant with it. He gradually instructed this people… All these things, however, happened as a preparation for and figure of that new and perfect covenant which was to be ratified in Christ . . . the New Covenant in his blood; he called together a race made up of Jews and Gentiles which would be one, not according to the flesh, but in the Spirit.” 201

839 “Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to the People of God in various ways.” 325
The relationship of the Church with the Jewish People. When she delves into her own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant, discovers her link with the Jewish People, 326 “the first to hear the Word of God.” 327 The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to God’s revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews “belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ”, 328 “for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.” 329
1096 Jewish liturgy and Christian liturgy. A better knowledge of the Jewish people’s faith and religious life as professed and lived even now can help our better understanding of certain aspects of Christian liturgy. For both Jews and Christians Sacred Scripture is an essential part of their respective liturgies: in the proclamation of the Word of God, the response to this word, prayer of praise and intercession for the living and the dead, invocation of God’s mercy. In its characteristic structure the Liturgy of the Word originates in Jewish prayer. The Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical texts and formularies, as well as those of our most venerable prayers, including the Lord’s Prayer, have parallels in Jewish prayer. The Eucharistic Prayers also draw their inspiration from the Jewish tradition. The relationship between Jewish liturgy and Christian liturgy, but also their differences in content, are particularly evident in the great feasts of the liturgical year, such as Passover. Christians and Jews both celebrate the Passover. For Jews, it is the Passover of history, tending toward the future; for Christians, it is the Passover fulfilled in the death and Resurrection of Christ, though always in expectation of its definitive consummation.

1334 In the Old Covenant bread and wine were offered in sacrifice among the first fruits of the earth as a sign of grateful acknowledgment to the Creator. But they also received a new significance in the context of the Exodus: the unleavened bread that Israel eats every year at Passover commemorates the haste of the departure that liberated them from Egypt; the remembrance of the manna in the desert will always recall to Israel that it lives by the bread of the Word of God; 156 their daily bread is the fruit of the promised land, the pledge of God’s faithfulness to his promises.
The “cup of blessing” 157 at the end of the Jewish Passover meal adds to the festive joy of wine an eschatological dimension: the messianic expectation of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. When Jesus instituted the Eucharist, he gave a new and definitive meaning to the blessing of the bread and the cup.

Our Church does not villify the Jews in the Catechism. Neither do I.
 
The sedevacantists live out a time before Vatican 2 (some before Vatican 1).
I don’t think that’s very accurate… would you say the FSSP are living out a time before VII as well? There is room in the modern post-VII Church for the TLM. The problem with the sedevacantists is that they deny that there’s a Pope in Rome right now. Not their tradition, which is Catholic tradition, and always will be…

VII was just a pastoral council, not the same as what Christ did by fulfilling the Law…

maybe I was just confused by your post…:confused:
 
Again, if either my Bishop or Pope VERY clearly tells me, “Don’t attend a Seder! Baaad!” I will not cower in fear of that particular expression of Christianity’s genesis.
 
Who said anything about villifying Jews? I’m just going to stop this now as others seem interested in equating difficult truths about their persistence in a once viable faith to slander. Was Pope Benedict 16th villifying the Muslims with the Regensberg speech? No. Was it difficult to hear and made the ecumenical Catholics with Christian guilt shiver? Yes? It’s the same false ecumenism that rabbi spoke of. This is evidence of liberalism’s infiltration into the ranks of devout Catholics and it’s why things aren’t getting done what needs to get done. Even that rabbi said so of the lifting of the popes’ efforts to reunite traditionalist schismatics. If an outsider can see this, why can’t we Catholics? It’s pointless to go on. I provided a link by a Vatican 2 Dominican scholar that explains the Church’s stance on attending non-Catholic services outside of those, which would be an act of charity, and I don’t know what else to do.

The FSSP priest in my city, anyway, has covered Divine Mercy Sunday and how a couple other post Vatican 2 things. They do what they can to preserve traditional worship and teachings that have not been changed with or after Vatican 2, such as what was in the sermon about seder meals. I believe they hope some of the imprudent parts will be reversed and that the TLM will become the ordinary rite again, but they will only see that done by the lawful authorities, regardless of their sometimes odd decision-making.
 
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

583 Like the prophets before him Jesus expressed the deepest respect for the Temple in Jerusalem. It was in the Temple that Joseph and Mary presented him forty days after his birth. 349 At the age of twelve he decided to remain in the Temple to remind his parents that he must be about his Father’s business. 350 He went there each year during his hidden life at least for Passover. 351 His public ministry itself was patterned by his pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the great Jewish feasts.

597 The historical complexity of Jesus’ trial is apparent in the Gospel accounts. The personal sin of the participants (Judas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate) is known to God alone. Hence we cannot lay responsibility for the trial on the Jews in Jerusalem as a whole, despite the outcry of a manipulated crowd and the global reproaches contained in the apostles’ calls to conversion after Pentecost. 385 Jesus himself, in forgiving them on the cross, and Peter in following suit, both accept “the ignorance” of the Jews of Jerusalem and even of their leaders. 386 Still less can we extend responsibility to other Jews of different times and places, based merely on the crowd’s cry: “His blood be on us and on our children!”, a formula for ratifying a judicial sentence. 387 As the Church declared at the Second Vatican Council: . . . neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his Passion. . . the Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from holy Scripture. 388

598 In her Magisterial teaching of the faith and in the witness of her saints, the Church has never forgotten that “sinners were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings that the divine Redeemer endured.” 389 Taking into account the fact that our sins affect Christ himself, 390 the Church does not hesitate to impute to Christians the gravest responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus, a responsibility with which they have all too often burdened the Jews alone:
We must regard as guilty all those who continue to relapse into their sins. Since our sins made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross, those who plunge themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the Son of God anew in their hearts (for he is in them) and hold him up to contempt. And it can be seen that our crime in this case is greater in us than in the Jews. As for them, according to the witness of the Apostle, “None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” We, however, profess to know him. And when we deny him by our deeds, we in some way seem to lay violent hands on him. 391
Nor did demons crucify him; it is you who have crucified him and crucify him still, when you delight in your vices and sins. 392

781 “At all times and in every race, anyone who fears God and does what is right has been acceptable to him. He has, however, willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people who might acknowledge him and serve him in holiness. He therefore chose the Israelite race to be his own people and established a covenant with it. He gradually instructed this people… All these things, however, happened as a preparation for and figure of that new and perfect covenant which was to be ratified in Christ . . . the New Covenant in his blood; he called together a race made up of Jews and Gentiles which would be one, not according to the flesh, but in the Spirit.” 201

839 “Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to the People of God in various ways.” 325
The relationship of the Church with the Jewish People. When she delves into her own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant, discovers her link with the Jewish People, 326 “the first to hear the Word of God.” 327 The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to God’s revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews “belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ”, 328 “for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.” 329
1096 Jewish liturgy and Christian liturgy. A better knowledge of the Jewish people’s faith and religious life as professed and lived even now can help our better understanding of certain aspects of Christian liturgy. For both Jews and Christians Sacred Scripture is an essential part of their respective liturgies: in the proclamation of the Word of God, the response to this word, prayer of praise and intercession for the living and the dead, invocation of God’s mercy. In its characteristic structure the Liturgy of the Word originates in Jewish prayer. The Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical texts and formularies, as well as those of our most venerable prayers, including the Lord’s Prayer, have parallels in Jewish prayer. The Eucharistic Prayers also draw their inspiration from the Jewish tradition. The relationship between Jewish liturgy and Christian liturgy, but also their differences in content, are particularly evident in the great feasts of the liturgical year, such as Passover. Christians and Jews both celebrate the Passover. For Jews, it is the Passover of history, tending toward the future; for Christians, it is the Passover fulfilled in the death and Resurrection of Christ, though always in expectation of its definitive consummation.

1334 In the Old Covenant bread and wine were offered in sacrifice among the first fruits of the earth as a sign of grateful acknowledgment to the Creator. But they also received a new significance in the context of the Exodus: the unleavened bread that Israel eats every year at Passover commemorates the haste of the departure that liberated them from Egypt; the remembrance of the manna in the desert will always recall to Israel that it lives by the bread of the Word of God; 156 their daily bread is the fruit of the promised land, the pledge of God’s faithfulness to his promises.
The “cup of blessing” 157 at the end of the Jewish Passover meal adds to the festive joy of wine an eschatological dimension: the messianic expectation of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. When Jesus instituted the Eucharist, he gave a new and definitive meaning to the blessing of the bread and the cup.

Our Church does not villify the Jews in the Catechism. Neither do I.
Okay, so I decided to return. Foolishmortal, did you even bother to read this post and compare it to your own words about Judaism? 🤷
 
I hope you’re right - I’d hate to think there are folks who can find such stuff even vaguely amusing.

Thanks for providing me with another way of looking at the comment.
It was humorous satire which spewed out spontaneously and irresistibly after being referred to by the poster as “Jewish guy”.

For instance, my question about the effect on Jews of swine flu considering that they don’t eat pork, lampoons these type of threads concerning Jews and Judaism as well as the earnest seriousness by some of the posters who truly believe that attending a passover meal with Jews might actually be detrimental to Christianity.

However I am cognizant that humor and its various forms may be a somewhat unknown quantity and to this end I would be happy to send to anyone who pm’s me (whether by e-mail or fax) the excellent article written on this subject by Professor Julius Rosenberg "Why didthe Chicken cross the road? published in the International Journal of Humor and Satire (vol.2 1998) pg. 147.
 
Just last night I stumbled upon a show called The God Squad. A priest and a rabbi were crossing the road and----

NO! Wait! 😃

A priest and a rabbi were answering viewer questions. I only caught the tail end of one where the rabbi says he attends church services at times as a guest (he knows better than to take Communion), and that he sometimes brings guests into his temple, where they do not take part in similar things but can listen to the service, etc.

Now, since the Seder celebrates something PRE-DATING Christ, it is part of our shared history and nothing to fear. The Old Testament does exist, y’know.
 
Did the one who reposted the Catecghism passages read it? It doesn’t say they are not in spiritual darkness; many Christians, by sinning, can be, but that doesn’t change the Jews’ spiritual condition. It did not say in what ways we can better understand another’s faith and how we cannot. Therefore, we return to what has not be explicitly changed…that we don’t play a role in another’s service or partake of that which implies a communion of belief. The same is almost true for an SSPX Mass, but OKing rare attendance (as, in addition to Vatican 2 documents not carrying anathemas anyway, as what was was and what was new was not necessary, they will not know you at an SSPX Mass; at a Jewish friend’s seder meal, where I’m sure there’s not a lot of people, they would), and they are only schismatic. Bishops and priests don’t have to repeat everything that previous popes said in order for what was prohibited to remain prohibited. That is not needed any more than the New Testament writers rewriting everything of the old Testament that would still be in play for the flock of the new priesthood. I don’t believe the Dominican in the article I provided was of the SSPX or something similar. I think that explains what still is of what was.

I think it’s sad that so many would more likely go to a seder meal than to a latin Mass or even one done in Aramaic in a time when so many don’t really know their Catholic Faith and the extremely instructive imagery, music, liturgy and architecture of our Catholic patrimony (that given us by the holy people of the priesthood God gave us), which has been dropped for community center worship buildings where too many people wear people wear play clothes to Sunday Mass and some leave early. We’ll never know enough about it and have it soak in in our lifetime and so let’s focus on learning or relearning and living our faith to the fullest first and save the Jewish Passover for movies and Scott Hahn tapes.

The “New Faithful” understanding of ecumenism is ecumenism on steroids to where “spiritual darkness”, when used to describe the Jews, becomes synonymous with “Hebe” to other Catholics. That is disordered ecumenism. Even the Jews on this webpage news story about The Vatican running the building where the cenacle is were saying they need to wake up and be more attentive to their patrimony, when their leaders seem to be giving away a bit too much in ecumenical sentiment. Language, borders, culture. Even if the Vatican said you could go to Seder meals, it, like eating meat on Friday or attending a Thursday holy day on the upcoming Sunday, doesn’t mean the license is wise and that you should. The Dominican in the article was using Faith AND reason and not just charity. It keeps one from being legalistic and informs charity. Let’s do that as well and let’s, regarding ecumenism, focus on our Catholic heritage, when a plane is going down, you put the mask on yourself first as passing out won’t help your kid put his/her mask on. That way, we don’t lose perspective.
 
EWTN’s homily this morning was about the Passover. Coincidence? I think not.

And please don’t put words in my mouth or anyone else’s. Don’t tell us we’d rather attend a Seder than attend a Latin Mass. I’ve listened to Latin Mass whenever possible. We don’t have them here.

And I still lack horns and a tail.
 
I think it’s sad that so many would more likely go to a seder meal than to a latin Mass or even one done in Aramaic in a time when so many don’t really know their Catholic Faith and the extremely instructive imagery, music, liturgy and architecture of our Catholic patrimony (that given us by the holy people of the priesthood God gave us), which has been dropped for community center worship buildings where too many people wear people wear play clothes to Sunday Mass and some leave early. We’ll never know enough about it and have it soak in in our lifetime and so let’s focus on learning or relearning and living our faith to the fullest first and save the Jewish Passover for movies and Scott Hahn tapes.
Is it really necessary to be so judgmental based on your own assumptions about our faith? Who here has ever said they preferred a seder meal over a Latin Mass? And if it hasn’t been stated enough times, Jesus, who was Himself a Jew, did not ignore the significance of the Passover as you seem to want us to. Would it be a sin to read Leviticus and fill our minds with obsolete Jewish laws and “spiritual darkness”?
 
BTW, you know I would never use that slang I did in talking to friends or to a Jew, as I would never call or think of a Jew in such a derogatory way. You just have to call a spade a spade. No! I didn’t mean it that way! Seriously, though, an apostate may mean well, but they’re still an apostate.
Code:
I was deriving my assumptions from a learned priest.  One whose community takes The Faith seriously and is not as permissive as the mainstream one, though they are united to the mainstream Church as not being in schism.  They're superior even checks up on them occasionally to make sure they're doing their job and The Mass and liturgies right.  Thus, I tend to adhere to their analysis.  However, the Dominican did not seem to be a traditionalist, and he said the same things, without the mortal sin part.  

Jesus came to fulfill the law.  He replaced the law.  If Leviticus's bans on damnable lewd acts is old news, then what is all the fuss from conservative bishops about fornication?  It did not change.  Some things, like polygamy, did.  If the New Testament and the Magisterium has said nothing different, the laws remain, though you can do works of mercy on the Sabbath or talk in a soft voice during Mass for very important reasons like, "Excuse me" and "Is anyone sitting there" or "that is liturgical abuse".
 
The odd thing was, they were secular Jews who did not believe in God.

I MIGHT actually have known more about Passover and its significance than they did, but I can’t be certain. I still found it fascinating—especially when one of the highly orthodox EWTN priests elaborates on its meaning according to our shared history.
 
All this fussing over something as innocent as some friends getting together for a meal? Hmmmm…🤷
Kathy
 
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