 | Father Richard James Cleary was born and reared in Wichita. After graduation from Cathedral High School in 1947, he attended the seminary operated by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey in Northwestern Missouri. There he came to appreciate the life of the monks and, having obtained the permission of Bishop Mark Carroll of Wichita, he became a monk of that monastery. After being ordained a priest in 1955, his superiors sent him to get his master’s degree at the University of Ottawa, Canada, then to study in Athens, Greece, and then in Rome, Italy, where he obtained his doctor’s degree in Theology. Finally, he spent a year of study at Harvard University. Later, Fr. Cleary was assigned to teach for many years in Rome. In 1998, he returned to Wichita, where he served in parish ministry at St. Mary’s Cathedral and at Blessed Sacrament parishes. In 2001, his abbot (superior) transferred him to Arkansas, where he served as chaplain of the Benedictine Sisters of Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro, and helped in the parishes of northeast Arkansas. In March 2010, he was re-assigned to his monastery, Conception Abbey, Conception, in Missouri 64433. He can be contacted there at, 660-944-2877, or by email: rjcleary@juno.com. |
Religion
2012-11-19 10:06:27
Israel and Judaism: is it a biblical thing?
Q- We have a relationship with Israel, whereby whatever (to a point) they get involved in, the U.S.A. government backs them. Is it a biblical thing?
A- This is a very delicate question. My response will not please everyone, as I am not seeking to be politically correct. Perhaps in a future article I can present the problems of the displaced peoples of Palestine.
First of all, we must distinguish clearly between the state of Israel and the Jewish religion. Judaism is not co-extensive with Zionism. Judaism is the religion and culture, handed down from the patriarch Abraham and Moses and the prophets in the Old Testament of the Bible, and the Talmud and other ancient Jewish testimonies. Israel is the proper name of the patriarch Jacob, whose sons and grandsons gave their names to the twelve tribes of ancient Israel, the land bordered on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, on the North by the Lebanon and Syria, on the east by the Jordanian desert and the Dead Sea, and on the south by Egypt and the Negev desert. That Israel was formed into a kingdom by King David a thousand years before Christ. That state of Israel was destroyed by the Roman army under Titus in the years 69-70, when the conquered Jewish people were exiled from their homeland and dispersed around the world. Their homeland was occupied by native Palestinians, Arab nomads, and settlers from various countries, especially during the Crusades. Within a hundred years after the foundation of Islam by Mohamed, Palestine was dominated by Moslems, first by Saracens and later by Turks. For nineteen centuries the Jewish people dreamed of returning to their homeland, encouraged by the writings of their ancient prophets, but also by their sages, e.g. Moses Maimonides, one of the great philosophers and codifiers of Law in the Middle Ages. Through the centuries most Jewish families prayed every night and every Passover: “Next year in Jerusalem!” Sometimes Jews were prohibited from coming to Palestine, which was and is commonly called “the Holy Land.”
After World War I, which Turkey lost, the Holy Land was entrusted by mandate of the League of Nations to Great Britain. The British allowed a trickle of Jewish immigrants to settle in their ancient territory. Gradually, this trickle became a stream: so that, within a few years there were many Jewish settlers in that land. In Europe there formed a movement called “Zionism,” which worked for and encouraged the return of Jews to Palestine. Persecution of Jews in several countries of Europe forced many Jews to emigrate to the Americas and Africa and, of course, to Palestine. After World War II, the British retired from their mandated territory, and there was a brief power-vacuum, in which several groups struggled to gain power. In May 1948 the Jews in the Holy Land seized the opportunity to establish their own sovereign country, which they called Israel. The U.S.A., under President Truman, was the first of the countries of the world to recognize this new nation. The Arab countries, bordering Israel, undertook a war against the new nation, which war was won by the military forces of Israel aided by the U.S.A. and Great Britain. This return of Jews to their ancient homeland necessarily involved the dispossession of many Arabs and non-Jews, who had been living in the Holy Land peacefully for some nineteen centuries. The Arabs have always been hospitable to strangers and visitors and exiles, and welcomed Jews --- until the Jewish settlers took control of all Palestine. The now-dominant Israelis occupied the homes and buildings abandoned by Palestinians, who felt their former hospitality had been betrayed. Many Palestinians became refugees in neighboring countries, and some have settled in the Americas and Australia and Africa. The Israelis have transformed that country, formerly known as Palestine, into a modern state patterned somewhat on America. The Jewish citizens of America and Great Britain exercised great pressure on the leaders of those countries to recognize and aid their relatives in the new state of Israel. In New York city there are more Jews than in the whole country of Israel. And those American citizens and their friends do vote. American and British politicians watch carefully for the Jewish vote, just as they are interested in the Catholic vote. Thus, our country’s backing of Israel in most undertakings is more a political matter than religious. However, Jewish culture and life is based on their ancient religion. Thus indirectly there is a religious influence in that backing. Israel is a secular state, in which religious freedom is guaranteed to all citizens and visitors.
Secondly, we should understand that the Jewish religion, while looking at and remembering their ancient homeland, does not require that all Jews support the state of Israel. In fact, many Jews – even some of those living in Israel – do not support or back the government of that small state in the Middle East. The majority of Jews in Israel and around the world are not particularly religious, except on their high holydays. But they support and defend their fellow-Jews who are religious.
Thirdly, the Catholic Church holds in great esteem the Jewish religion, and the Vatican state has diplomatic relations with the state of Israel. To understand the Church’s relationship with Judaism it is necessary to read in the New Testament: St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans, chapters 9 and 10 and 11. The Church recognizes that the Jewish people were chosen by God to be his special people. God made with them the first or Old Covenant and gave them his Law through Moses. The Church realizes that she was born from Judaism, as the fulfillment of that ancient religion, and that her roots are thoroughly Jewish. The Church’s founder, Jesus and all his Apostles and early disciples were Jewish. Thus the relationship of the Church to Judaism is indeed “a religious thing.” But the relationship of the Church to modern Israel is a political thing.
