Sin is the cause of Jesus’ death. The circumstances around His death were littered with the sins of men, many of them Jewish ; nonetheless, my gut (as it were) is troubled that the recent and beneficial re-understanding of the very Jewish roots and context of our Faith does present the danger also of inviting Judaizing back into the Church. We cannot forget that while Jesus did not abolish the law, He did still fulfill the law. The difference is akin to that of Protestantism’s ideal of “Mere Christianity,” and Catholicism’s defiant reply, More Christianity!
Presenting this information as if Catholicism or the Catholic Church ever even once “blamed the Jews” as a whole (past, present or future) to the exclusion of all others (i.e., gentiles also) is bizarre, misleading, and calumnious. The Church has never done this. As Trent clearly and explicitly declared, all sin is to blame for Jesus’ suffering, agony, and death, and Christian sins are all the more abhorrent as we claim to know Him, the Christ, the Son of the Living God. We have no veil covering His Truth and Reality. We see Him and know Him clearly, even intimately and, at minimum, better than any one else. We know His Goodness fully.
The headline of this thread makes it seem as if there was a time when the Jewish people were “blamed” for His death. That they did what they had done in ignorance, and would not have done what they did had they known and understood truly Who it was they were putting to death, is a matter of biblical fact. That God, in His infinite and perfect wisdom, took this opportunity to bring about the greatest of goods from the greatest of evils (Deicide) is a testimony to the character and quality of God’s surpassing Love.
Pax Christi,
Tim
