Cross And Sword

Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi, and he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. (Matthew 16:13-20)

Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Peter got it right.  His “reward” was to be Jesus’ rock upon which Jesus’ church would be built.  I still suspect the reference to “church” was Matthew putting the reference into Jesus’ mouth.  Jesus was a Jew and a rabbi.  He attended the synagogue.  

So, many decades later Jews who followed Jesus as the Christ and Gentiles who believed in him, established a new way of Jewish-based worship. Becoming “Christians” they adopted and strengthened this different faith to “bind and loose it on earth” – as in heaven.  

Our Jewish brothers and sisters went their way, while Christians went another – a way that has prevailed over the centuries, very unfortunately and tragically for the Jews.  What happened is very detailed by James Carroll in his 2001 book “Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews.”  This should be required reading for any Christian.  Here is one book review.

(begin) "Carroll, whose love for the Catholic Church . . . is not only matched by a lovingly critical eye. . . but an urgent plea that Rome set another course." — Boston Globe

In this bold and moving book sure to spark heated debate, novelist, cultural critic, and National Book Award-winning author James Carroll maps the profoundly troubling two-thousand-year course of the Church’s battle against Judaism and faces the crisis of faith it has provoked in his own life as a Catholic. More than a chronicle of religion, this dark history is the central tragedy of Western civilization, its fault lines reaching deep into our culture.

The Church’s failure to protest the Holocaust — the infamous “silence” of Pius XII — is only part of the story: the death camps, Carroll shows, are the culmination of a long, entrenched tradition of anti-Judaism. From Gospel accounts of the death of Jesus on the cross, to Constantine’s transformation of the cross into a sword, to the rise of blood libels, scapegoating, and modern anti-Semitism, Carroll reconstructs the dramatic story of the Church’s conflict not only with Judaism but with itself. Yet in tracing the arc of this narrative, he implicitly affirms that it did not necessarily have to be so. There were roads not taken, heroes forgotten; new roads can be taken yet. Demanding that the Church finally face this past in full, Carroll calls for a fundamental rethinking of the deepest questions of Christian faith. Only then can Christians, Jews, and all who carry the burden of this history begin to forge a new future.

Drawing on his well-known talents as a storyteller and memoirist and weaving historical research through an intensely personal examination of conscience, Carroll has created a work of singular power and urgency. Constantine's Sword is a brave and affecting reckoning with difficult truths that will touch every reader. (end)

Carroll opened my eyes.  Those with eyes ought to read.

Deacon David Pierce