NOSTRA AETATE FOR TODAY

 

NOSTRA AETATE FOR TODAY

Pope St. Paul VI promulgated a “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-Christian Religions” on October 28, 1965, the shortest of the sixteen documents of the Second Vatican Council.  He explains the reason for its promulgation: “In our time [nostra aetate] when day by day mankind is being drawn closer together, and the ties between different peoples are becoming stronger, the Church examines more closely her relationship to non-Christian religions. In her task of promoting unity and love among men, indeed among nations, she considers above all in this declaration what men have in common and what draws them to fellowship.” 

Nostra aetate first briefly speaks of the relation of the Church to Hinduism and Buddhism, highlighting what she considers to be positive elements in their beliefs and practices.  It affirms that “The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men.”

Nostra aetate notes that there is some correspondence between Christianity and Islam on the subject of God and of morality.  Moslems “adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men.”  Muslims link themselves with the Patriarch Abraham, and revere Christ, not as the Son of God but as a prophet.  They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother.  Like Christians, Muslims await the day of judgment when God will “render their deserts” to all who have been raised from the dead.  Moslems and Christians engage in praying, almsgiving and fasting.  Nostra aetate counsels all sides to “forget the past” – that is, wars fought over the centuries between Christians and Moslems – “and to work sincerely for mutual understanding” and for “social justice and moral welfare, as well as [for] peace and freedom.”

The greater focus of Nostra aetate is naturally on the Church’s relation to Judaism.  It celebrates “the bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham’s stock.”  The Church continues to believe what the Apostle Paul taught about his kinsmen: “Theirs is the sonship and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises; theirs are the fathers and from them is the Christ according to the flesh” (Rom. 9:4-5).  The apostles, the pillars of the Church, were Jewish, and so were the first men to bring the gospel to the Gentiles.  What Christians profess today has its foundation in the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and the prophets. The Church “professes that all who believe in Christ – Abraham's sons [and daughters] according to faith – are included in the same Patriarch's call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church is mysteriously foreshadowed by the Chosen People's exodus from the land of bondage. The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant.” 

The Church believes that the call and election of the Jews remains valid, even though Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation and most Jews did not accept the gospel.  For the sake of the patriarchs God continues to hold the Jews dear to His heart.  “He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues...The Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and ‘serve him shoulder to shoulder’ (Zephaniah 3:9).”  God has a special love for the Jews, and we are obligated to remember this when Jews are hated because of their race and origin.  “The Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.”  The message of Nostra aetate is very relevant today and should guide all Christian judgment about persons of other religions, tribes, and races.  More on this in my next article.