Indeed, even the Catechism states:
The Old Testament is an indispensable part of Sacred Scripture. Its books are divinely inspired and retain a permanent value, for the Old Covenant has never been revoked.
However, as Pope Benedict XVI clarified:
The first consideration is that the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law were abrogated by the coming of Christ and that they can no longer be observed without sin after the promulgation of the Gospel. …] the precepts of the old Law …] as everybody knows have been revoked by the coming of Christ. (Ex Quo Primum)
Also Pope Pius XII, in
Mystici Corporis, writes:
by the death of our Redeemer, the New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished; then the Law of Christ together with its mysteries, enactments, institutions, and sacred rites was ratified for the whole world in the blood of Jesus Christ. For, while our Divine Savior was preaching in a restricted area – He was not sent but to the sheep that were lost of the house of Israel -the Law and the Gospel were together in force; but on the gibbet of his death Jesus made void the Law with its decrees, fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross, establishing the New Testament in His blood shed for the whole human race. “To such an extent, then,” says St. Leo the Great, speaking of the Cross of our Lord, "was there effected a transfer from the Law to the Gospel, from the Synagogue to the Church, from many sacrifices to one Victim, that, as our Lord expired, that mystical veil which shut off the innermost part of the temple and its sacred secret was rent violently from top to bottom.
Even further, we find the infallible declaration of the Council of Florence (1441):
The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments… after our Lord’s coming… ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began
Notice, however, how the Church never contradicts herself in matters of faith.
- We hear Pope John Paul II state that “the Old Covenant was never revoked” (and the statement is not just - as some exceedingly zealous Catholics affirmed - a random idea of his, but was also accepted by the theological commission that included that statement in the Catechism).
- Yet this does not contradict previous teachings: the law ceased, not as in a revoking, but as in a transfer from Old to New, for the New fulfills the Old and it would be not only wrong but offensive to the Lord for those under the New Covenant to try to keep up with the Old Covenant (as if they did not have faith in the work of redemption of Christ, the Messiah).
- This is why the Apostles, chosen and instructed by Christ, taught the Law had been abrogated (a teaching the Church holds till this very day and forever) all the while keeping in mind and not contradicting the teaching of Christ who said: “I did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them” - for grace, the heart of the New Covenant, fulfills the Law in the most perfect way: through love.
The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
What shall we say of our brethren in the Jewish faith who do not know Christ as we know Him, who have not been baptized in the New Covenant and try with good faith to obey God as the Law and the Prophets establish?
Certainly our most kind and merciful Lord would not revoke the first Covenant, nor would He abandon them making their obedience of the Law vain. For even the Apostles teach us that ultimately it is not the obedience of the Law that saves, but the
faith in God that it shows (Romans 4:13), and without which everything, Old or New, would be reduced to rituals and uttering of words, like seeds full of life thrown on rocky soil.
Thus I see no contradiction in the Church, the “city on the hill that cannot be hidden”, inviting all nations, even and especially our Jewish brethren, to acknowledge Christ, the Anointed One, all the while reminding all men of good will that our God is the God of mercy and forgiveness, and that in a most mysterious way His salvation is truly universal, without negating - but, rather, reaffirming - that the Church of Christ and the Sacraments Christ gave Her are the
ordinary means of attaining eternal life, to which we are all called, and to which some of us - the baptized - are bound.
Clearly, in this context, the Jewish people hold a “place of honor”, for while all men who do not know Christ or do not unite in His Church are shielded by some lesser or greater degree of invincible ignorance, they are also shielded by God’s very own words, which make us Christians bow our heads in respect even as we call all nations (the chosen nation included) to enter the New Covenant, for after all they are following what God mandated them to follow, and we can lovingly presume that if they knew, they would certainly follow Christ with equal love and zeal.
