The New and Eternal Covenant of Jesus Christ

The New and Eternal Covenant of Jesus Christ…

"My Son, His heart is torn asunder by His representatives in the priesthood who now are Judases in His own House. They consort with the enemies of your God. In the manner of humanism and modernism, and an ecumenism that has been designed from hell, man now is plunging fast into making ready the full capitulation of My Son's Church and the world under a dictatorship of evil.” - Our Lady, November 22, 1976

On August 12, 2002, members of the U.S. Bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs (BCEIA), an arm of the National Council of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), along with the National Council of Synagogues (NCS), released the document "Reflections On Covenant And Mission." The Boston Globe reported that the committee sponsored by the U.S. bishops concluded that “it is theologically unacceptable to target Jews for evangelization.” This document has absolutely no binding authority, and is furthermore contrary to the Divine Mandate of Jesus Christ: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” (Mt. 28: 19)

The Old Law...

The legal ceremonies of the Old Law were ordained for a double purpose: the worship of God, and the foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. The Old Law served as the progressive preparation of the human race to accept the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ. St. Paul writes to the Hebrews, “for the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things” (Heb. 10:1). The “very image” was Jesus Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, foretold by the prophets. As Msgr. Glenn explains, “The Old Law stands to the New Law as imperfect to perfect, as promise to fulfillment, as childhood to perfect manhood.” (Tour of the Summa, p. 177)

The Old Law in itself did not give grace, but looked forward to the future justification that would come from the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ. The Old Law justified only through faith in the future Messiah. St. Thomas Aquinas explains that the priests of the Old Law prefigured Christ: “Now Christ is the fountainhead of the entire priesthood: for the priest of the Old Law as a figure of Him; while the priest of the New Law works in His person….” (Summa, III, q. 22, art. 4)

St. Irenaeus of Lyons teaches that salvation in Christ was the purpose of the Old Law. Commenting on St. Paul’s words (Rom. 10:4), Irenaeus writes, “And how is Christ the end of the law, if He be not also the final Cause of it? For He who has brought in the end has Himself also wrought the beginning…” (St. Irenaeus, Adversus haereses, Book IV, Chapter 12, #4)

“The ceremonial law ceased with the coming of Christ,” writes Msgr. Paul Glenn, “For … the ceremonies prescribed by the Old Law were also prophecies. And when a prophecy has been fulfilled, it ceases to exist; it has reached its term; it no longer has meaning.” (Tour of the Summa, Msgr. Paul Glenn, p. 175)

The Jewish sacrifices were figurative of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, whose death would take away the sins of the world. No sacrifices of the Old Law in and of themselves ever washed away sins; only by faith in the future Messiah (which these sacrifices symbolically represented) were sins forgiven. As St. Paul writes, “For it is impossible that with the blood of oxen and goats sin should be taken away” (Heb. 10:4). Rather, we are redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled" (1 St. Peter 1:19).

Tertullian explains that “the Old Law being obliterated … it follows that, after all these precepts had been given carnally, in time preceding, to the people Israel, there was to supervene a time whereat the precepts of the ancient Law and of the old ceremonies would cease, and the promise of the new law, and the recognition of spiritual sacrifices, and the promise of the New Testament, supervene.”

The New Law of Jesus Christ...

The final consummation of the Old Law occurred when Jesus cried out upon the cross, “It is finished”, and the veil of the Jewish temple was rent in two (Mt. 27:51). At this moment the Old Law absolutely ended and no longer had any binding force. It would be a serious error for anyone to believe that the Old Law was still in effect. St. Peter boldly proclaimed this truth before the Jewish high priest Caiphas, saying:

“Be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God hath raised from the dead, even by him this man standeth before you whole. This is the stone which was rejected by the builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:10-12).

At the Council of Florence, the Catholic Church taught:

“But she asserts that after the promulgation of the Gospel (post promulgatum evangelium) they [the ceremonial precepts of the Old Law] cannot be observed without the loss of eternal salvation. Therefore, she denounces as foreign to the faith of Christ all those who after that time observe circumcision, the Sabbath and other laws, and she asserts that they can in no way be sharers of eternal salvation, unless they sometime turn themselves away from their errors.”

St. Thomas Aquinas explains in the Summa:

“Consequently, just as it would be a mortal sin now for anyone, in making a profession of faith, to say that Christ is yet to be born, which the fathers of old said devoutly and truthfully, so too it would be a mortal sin now to observe those ceremonies which the fathers of old fulfilled with devotion and fidelity. Such is the teaching of Augustine (Contra Faust. xix, 16), who says: ‘It is no longer promised that He shall be born, shall suffer and rise again, truths of which their sacraments were a kind of image; but it is declared that He is already born, has suffered and risen again, of which our sacraments, in which Christians share, are the actual representation.’” (Summa, I-II, q. 103, art. 4, reply)

Commenting on St. Thomas, Msgr. Paul Glenn writes:

“It would be seriously sinful to observe the ceremonies of the Old Law as though they still had significance and binding force. This would be a practical denial that the prophecies expressed in the ceremonies had been fulfilled. It would be a practical denial of Christ, and of the necessity and sufficiency of the Christian order.” (Tour of the Summa, Msgr. Paul J. Glenn, p. 175)

Divinity of Jesus Christ...

The numerous prophecies concerning the Messiah (i.e., that He would be born of a Virgin, Isaias 9:6, and would be a “man of sorrows”, Isaias 53:3), all met in the divine Person of Jesus Christ: “Search the scriptures, for you think in them to have life everlasting; and the same are they that give testimony of Me” (John 5:38).

Jesus also clearly affirmed He was the God of Moses when He told the Jews, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am” (Jn. 8:57-58) and, “I and the Father are one” (Jn. 10:30-33). The confession of St. Peter (“Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God,” Mt. 16:16), of the centurion at the foot of the cross (“Indeed this was the Son of God”, Mt. 27:54), and of St. Thomas the Apostle (“My Lord and my God”, Jn. 20:28-29) all witness to the divinity of Christ. The eternal high priest who is “higher than the heavens” (Heb. 7:26) is Jesus Christ, the high priest prophesied by King David in the Psalms, “Thou art a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisidech” (Psalm 109:4).

The Catholic Faith: the greatest of gifts...

Several Catholic magazines (notably, Catholic World Report and Inside the Vatican) have contested the report by the U.S. Bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. Peter Herbeck of Inside the Vatican writes:

“The immediate question that statement raised for me was, how could conversion of the Jewish People to their Messiah, God’s own Son, impede God’s purposes for the Jews in the world? Didn’t Jesus say, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Mt. 15:24)?… it is troubling to think that those appointed by the American bishops to spearhead the interreligious dialogue with the Jewish community are coming up with conclusions that contradict the teaching of scripture and the Magisterium.” (“Has the Teaching Changed?” Inside the Vatican, October 2002, pp. 55-56)

Referencing the Boston Globe article, Philip Lawler of Catholic World Report writes:

“The story went on to report that a commission sponsored by the US bishops had concluded that ‘it is theologically unacceptable to target Jews for evangelization.’ How could that be? faithful Catholics wondered. Were the US bishops now retracting the Lord’s instructions that we should ‘preach the Gospel to all nations’? Were they suggesting that one religion is as good as another, that the Church of Christ is not necessary for salvation? The Church of New Testament times, as described in the Acts of the Apostles, could be characterized as an institution dedicated to the conversion of Jews; was that a bad thing? Should we now apologize for our Catholic heritage, and renounce the doctrines of the past?” (“The Pope’s Burden,” Catholic World Report, October 2002, p. 1)

The Church teaches that before the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time, the Jewish people will come to recognize Jesus Christ as their Messiah. It appears that a concerted effort is now underway to oppose their evangelization. The false teachers in the Church today are legion, and Our Lady of the Roses has warned us that many, even in the hierarchy, are seeking to build a church of man that has no resemblance to the true Church of Christ. Our Lady reminds us that “the greatest of gifts to mankind” is to have been called into the Catholic Church. This great gift we should desire to share with all our unconverted brothers and sisters throughout the world, for “freely have you received, freely give” (Mt. 10:8):

"You must not, O pastors, you must not compromise your Faith; do not be misled. O pastors, you have forgotten your teachings. You must renew in a manner that is not new. You must go back, I say, go back and start anew with Tradition! You cannot separate Tradition, for you held the truth. You were given the grace, the greatest of gifts to mankind, to be born into or come into by conversion, My Son's Church. And now you go about, O you of little faith, to chip away and chop at the walls until it crumbles. But you shall not remove the foundation, for the foundation is My Son.” (Our Lady, April 10, 1976)

“I am the way! No one shall come to the Father but through Me, for I am the way. All who deny My visit to your world, all who have not accepted Me as the Messiah, they are against Me, and as such, will seek to destroy all who uphold the truth." - Jesus, August 5, 1974

Directives…

D87 - Divinity of Christ
D119 - Jesus Christ: Redeemer
D123 - Catholic Church, Part 1
D124 - Catholic Church, Part 2
D125 - Ecumenism
D161 - The Great Apostasy
D164 - Heresy

Articles…

Ecumenitis: Conversion of the Jews not necessary???
http://www.tldm.org/News5/conversion_of_Jews.htm

Links…

Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews
http://www.ewtn.com/library/PATRISTC/ANF3-7.TXT

St. Cyprian, Three Books of Testimonies against the Jews
http://www.ewtn.com/library/PATRISTC/ANF5-20.TXT

Response of Fr. John Paul Echert
http://www.ewtn.com/vexperts/showresult.asp?RecNum=263386&Forums=7&Experts=0&Days=14&Author=&Keyword=jew

Conversion of the Jews Not Necessary?? The Apocalyptic Ramifications of a Novel Teaching (Catholic Apologetics International)
http://www.catholicintl.com/epologetics/Conversion_of_the_Jews.htm

Our Lady converts the Jew, Alphonse Ratisbonne
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12659a.htm

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