Prayer and its Enemies

As we begin Holy Week, I thought it would be a good idea to focus on a couple of prayers from the Good Friday liturgy. One prayer in particular, the prayer for the Jews, always seems to get people worked up, so let's take a look at it and see what could possibly be so upsetting.

Let's start with the prayer for the Jews before the revisions implemented in 1955. Here's what it looks like: Let us pray also for the faithless Jews: that Almighty God may remove the veil from their hearts; so that they too may acknowledge Jesus Christ our Lord. Almighty and eternal God, who dost not exclude from thy mercy even Jewish faithlessness: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people; that acknowledging the light of thy Truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

From my missal by the Maryknoll Fathers, copyright 1957: Let us pray also for the unbelieving Jews, that our God and Lord will lift the veil from their hearts so that they may also acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ.

From the St. Andrew Daily Missal, copyright 1960: Let us pray also for the Jews, that the Lord our God may take the veil from their hearts and that they also may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Novus Ordo prayer from 1970: Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant. Almighty and eternal God, long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and his posterity. Listen to your Church as we pray that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen

In 2008, PB16 amended the prayer for the Jews in the Latin Mass: Let us also pray for the Jews: That our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men. (Let us pray. Kneel. Rise.) Almighty and eternal God, who want that all men be saved and come to the recognition of the truth, propitiously grant that even as the fullness of the peoples enters Thy Church, all Israel be saved. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

I have to say that PB16 wrote a pretty good prayer. I like it better than PJ23's prayer, and it might even be better than PP12's prayer. I know I can live with it. But why do Jews and spurious Catholics get so upset about the prayer? I mean, if a Moslem prayed a certain prayer to convert Christians, why should I be offended? The Moslem, with a religion started by a plagiarist and scam artist, is the one with the issue, not me or any other Christian. I think the Jews (and by Jews I mean authentic, believing Jews, not the secular Jews who comprise the majority of Jews) are offended because the prayer hits a nerve. I suspect that, deep down, they understand the rich historical evidence that leads to the conclusion that Jesus was in fact the Christ. And yet they remain "stiff necked" as God aptly called them.

So, what is wrong with the prayer for the Jews? We are rightly reminded of the amazing power of prayer. Prayer is the most perfect expression of love and hope. Christians would be remiss in their duties if they were not to pray for everyone, which leads me to the second prayer in the Good Friday liturgy, the prayer for the pagans. True, committed Jews must comprise something on the order of a small fraction of one percent of the world's population. Yet they are influential, quite obviously have a history that is shared with Christians, and live in the very place that Christians call the Holy Land. Thus the Jews have a voice that is vastly disproportionate to the number of their adherents.

What strikes me as odd, though, is the prayer that follows the prayer for the Jews, the one for pagans. It reads: Let us pray also for the pagans, that almighty God will dispel the blindness of their hearts, so that they may renounce their false gods and be converted to the living and true God, and his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our God and Lord.

Think for a moment about how many pagans there are in the world. If there are 6 billion people, then at least 5.5 billion are pagans of one stripe or another. Many people who call themselves Christians are really pagans. Yet pagans seem to wear the label as a badge of honor and mock, as do the Jews, the prayerful offerings of those who believe in the True God.

This year I will put the emphasis on the prayer for the pagans.

R. Catesby