Pope excerpt from Chapter 7, Section 3, titled "Jesus Before Pilate.

Zenit Saturday 5th 2011

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Israeli Embassy Welcomes Pope's "Positive View"   

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New Book "Exonerates" Jews From Death of Jesus

ROME, MARCH 4, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The Israeli embassy to the Holy See "welcomes wholeheartedly" Benedict XVI's new book, in which the Pope reiterates that the Jews are not guilty of Jesus' death.

A statement released Thursday in English and Italian from the Israeli embassy responded to excerpts of "Jesus of Nazareth" that were released to the press this week. The book will be available March 10.

"We welcome wholeheartedly the emphasis reiterated by the Pope in his new book, in which he exonerates the Jews from responsibility for the death of Jesus," the statement says.

The embassy itself noted that this is not new teaching. In 1965, the Second Vatican Council declaration "Nostra Aetate" already explicitly stated that "what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today."

The embassy observed that the book is consistent with "the Church's official policy" and added that "Jesus of Nazareth" is a "confirmation of the Pope's known positive stance towards the Jewish People and the State of Israel."

Jesus' accusers

"Jesus of Nazareth" takes up the question of the Jews' role in Jesus' death in Chapter 7, Section 3. The Pope asks: "Now we must ask: Who exactly were Jesus’ accusers? Who insisted that he be condemned to death?"

He goes on to look at the various answers offered by the Gospels.

The Pontiff explains: "According to John it was simply 'the Jews'. But John’s use of this expression does not in any way indicate -- as the modern reader might suppose -- the people of Israel in general, even less is it 'racist' in character. After all, John himself was ethnically a Jew, as were Jesus and all his followers. The entire early Christian community was made up of Jews. In John’s Gospel this word has a precise and clearly defined meaning: he is referring to the Temple aristocracy. So the circle of accusers who instigate Jesus’ death is precisely indicated in the Fourth Gospel and clearly limited: it is the Temple aristocracy -- and not without certain exceptions, as the reference to Nicodemus (7:50–52) shows."

Benedict XVI also clarifies the phrase from Matthew, when "the 'whole people' say: 'His blood be on us and on our children' (27:25)."

He says, "[T]he Christian will remember that Jesus’ blood speaks a different language from the blood of Abel (Heb 12:24): it does not cry out for vengeance and punishment; it brings reconciliation. It is not poured out against anyone; it is poured out for many, for all. 'All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God . . . God put [ Jesus] forward as an expiation by his blood' (Rom 3:23, 25). Just as Caiaphas’ words about the need for Jesus’ death have to be read in an entirely new light from the perspective of faith, the same applies to Matthew’s reference to blood: read in the light of faith, it means that we all stand in need of the purifying power of love which is his blood. These words are not a curse, but rather redemption, salvation."

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Pope at Rome Synagogue  

On ZENIT’s Web page:

Excerpt from "Jesus of Nazareth": www.zenit.org/article-31923?l=english

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Excerpt of "Jesus of Nazareth": Christ's Accusers

"Who Insisted That He Be Condemned to Death?"

ROME, MARCH 4, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is an excerpt from Benedict XVI's book "Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection," which is scheduled to be released worldwide March 10. The excerpt comes from Chapter 7, Section 3, titled "Jesus Before Pilate." Ignatius Press is the publisher of the volume in English. * * *

• Now we must ask: Who exactly were Jesus' accusers? Who insisted that he be condemned to death? We must take note of the different answers that the Gospels give to this question. According to John it was simply "the Jews". But John's use of this expression does not in any way indicate—as the modern reader might suppose—the people of Israel in general, even less is it "racist" in character. After all, John himself was ethnically a Jew, as were Jesus and all his followers. The entire early Christian community was made up of Jews. In John's Gospel this word has a precise and clearly defined meaning: he is referring to the Temple aristocracy. So the circle of accusers who instigate Jesus' death is precisely indicated in the Fourth Gospel and clearly limited: it is the Temple aristocracy—and not without certain exceptions, as the reference to Nicodemus (7:50–52) shows.
• 
  
• In Mark's Gospel, the circle of accusers is broadened in the context of the Passover amnesty (Barabbas or Jesus): the "ochlos" enters the scene and opts for the release of Barabbas. "Ochlos" in the first instance simply means a crowd of people, the "masses". The word frequently has a pejorative connotation, meaning "mob". In any event, it does not refer to the Jewish people as such. In the case of the Passover amnesty (which admittedly is not attested in other sources, but even so need not be doubted), the people, as so often with such amnesties, have a right to put forward a proposal, expressed by way of "acclamation".
• 
  
• Popular acclamation in this case has juridical character (cf. Pesch, Markusevangelium II, p. 466). Effectively this "crowd" is made up of the followers of Barabbas who have been mobilized to secure the amnesty for him: as a rebel against Roman power he could naturally count on a good number of supporters. So the Barabbas party, the "crowd", was conspicuous, while the followers of Jesus remained hidden out of fear; this meant that the vox populi, on which Roman law was built, was represented one-sidedly. In Mark's account, then, in addition to "the Jews", that is to say the dominant priestly circle, the ochlos comes into play, the circle of Barabbas' supporters, but not the Jewish people as such.
• 
  
• An extension of Mark's ochlos, with fateful consequences, is found in Matthew's account (27:25), which speaks of "all the people" and attributes to them the demand for Jesus' crucifixion. Matthew is certainly not recounting historical fact here: How could the whole people have been present at this moment to clamor for Jesus' death? It seems obvious that the historical reality is correctly described in John's account and in Mark's. The real group of accusers are the current Temple authorities, joined in the context of the Passover amnesty by the "crowd" of Barabbas' supporters.
• 
  
• Here we may agree with Joachim Gnilka, who argues that Matthew, going beyond historical considerations, is attempting a theological etiology with which to account  for the terrible fate of the people of Israel in the Jewish War, when land, city, and Temple were taken from them (cf. Matthausevangelium II, p. 459). Matthew is thinking here of Jesus' prophecy concerning the end of the Temple: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning
• those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken . . ." (Mt 23:37–38: cf. Gnilka, Matthausevangelium, the whole of the section entitled Gerichtsworte", II, pp. 295–308).
• 
  
• These words—as argued earlier, in the chapter on Jesus' eschatological discourse—remind us of the inner similarity between the Prophet Jeremiah's message and that of Jesus. Jeremiah—against the blindness of the then dominant circles—prophesied the destruction of the Temple and Israel's exile. But he also spoke of a "new covenant": punishment is not the last word; it leads to healing. In the same way Jesus prophesies the "deserted house" and proceeds to offer the New Covenant "in his blood": ultimately it is a question of healing, not of
• destruction and rejection.
• 
  
• When in Matthew's account the "whole people" say: "His blood be on us and on our children" (27:25), the Christian will remember that Jesus' blood speaks a different language from the blood of Abel (Heb 12:24): it does not cry out for vengeance and punishment; it brings reconciliation. It is not poured out against anyone; it is poured out for many, for all. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God . . . God put [ Jesus] forward as an expiation by his blood" (Rom 3:23, 25). Just as Caiaphas' words about the need for Jesus' death have to be read in an entirely new light from the perspective of faith, the same applies to Matthew's reference to blood: read in the light of faith, it means that we all stand in need of the purifying power of love which is his blood. These words are not a curse, but rather redemption, salvation. Only when understood in terms of the theology of the Last Supper and the Cross,  drawn from the whole of the New Testament, does this verse from Matthew's Gospel take on its correct meaning.

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On the Net: 

"Jesus of Nazareth": www.ignatius.com/Products/JN2-H/jesus-of-nazareth.aspx

PRAYER FOR THE SOULS IN PURGATORY

Friday, March 04, 2011 

Monthly Office of the Dead, and Mass

Night Office Hymn Prayer Reading

Prayer:  

For Brethren, Relatives and Benefactors

Lord God,
as you are the fount of mercy and wish all men to be saved:
have mercy then on our
deceased brethren, relatives and benefactors.
Through the intercession of Blessed Mary ever-virgin,
and of all your saints,
bring them to the fellowship of eternal joy. Amen

A Reading about Praying for the Dead.

There are many instances in the Old Testament of God forgiving sins yet demanding that reparation be made by those who have offended him. Thus, although God, as the Book of Wisdom says, "brought man out of his first disobedience and gave him power to govern all things" (10,2) he still condemned him to "eat his bread in the sweat of his brow" until he returned to the dust from which he was made. Again, when Moses and Aaron doubted his word, he forgave their sins but kept them from the land of promise (Num. 20, 12). David's sin was forgiven but the life of the child was declared forfeit because David had made the enemies of God blaspheme (II Kings 12, 13-14).

In the New Testament we are bidden "yield the acceptable fruit of repentance" (Matt, 3,8). The whole penitential system of the Church is clear evidence of the traditional belief in the necessity of self-denial to atone for forgiven sins and for the conviction that unless atonement is made during this life, it will have to be made after death.

St Cyprian, Clement of Alexandria and Origen are all perfectly clear in their evidence that it was just taken for granted in their day that the departed faithful were in a condition in which they could be helped by their brethren still on earth. In fact, the practice of praying for the dead soon passed into the official liturgy of the Church, and it is as clear in the fourth century as it is today in the twentieth.

In a famous passage in his 'Confessions', St Augustine writes this of his mother, St Monica: "Lay this body anywhere, she says: let not the care of it in any way disturb you. Only this do I ask of you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you are."

This is the Faith by Francis J. Ripley
(Print Origination Press, Liverpool, 1973, pp. 285, 287.) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aV5ol4-jKw&feature=player_detailpage   

Our Lord dictated the following prayer to St. Gertrude the Great to release 1,000 Souls from Purgatory each time it is said.

"Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen."

http://christtotheworld.blogspot.com/2009/10/pray-for-souls-in-purgatory.html

To help the Holy Souls in Purgatory

1. Have Masses offered for them.
2. Pray the Rosary and and the Chaplet for the Holy Souls.
3. Pray the Stations of the Cross.
4. Offer up little sacrifices and fast.
5. Spread devotion to them.
6. Attend Eucharistic Adoration and pray for them. 

Mark 10:52 Bartimaeus followed Jesus along the road. JB

 

----- Forwarded Message ----  From: Nivard McGlynn …

Subject: Bartimaeus

In today’s Gospel St Mark, (8:46-52), “Bartimaeus shouted all the louder”.

When we recognize the darkness of our own blindness, let us cry out with all our heart. “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” The people ahead told Bartimaeus to ‘shut up’. The people ahead of Jesus are the crowds of bodily desires and the uproar caused by our temptations. Before Jesus comes into our hearts these disturb our thoughts by tempting us. They thoroughly muddle the words in our hearts as we pray.

    We often wish to be converted to the Lord when we have committed some wrong. When we try to pray earnestly against the wrongs we have committed, images of our sins come into our hearts. They obscure our inner vision. They disturb our minds and overwhelm the sound of our voice. The more our heart's voice is attacked, the more firmly we must persist to overcome the uproar of forbidden thoughts. We must break in on our Lord's ears by our perseverance.

   When we persist in our prayer, we fix Jesus to our hearts as he passes by. He stops and calls us into his presence to be healed of our blindness.

  

NJB 52 Jesus said to him, 'Go; your faith has saved you.' And at once his sight returned and he followed him along the road.

Vulgate 52  Iesus autem ait illi vade fides tua te salvum fecit et confestim vidit et sequebatur eum in via

KJV 52  And1161 Jesus2424 said2036 [5627] unto him846, Go thy way5217 [5720]; thy4675 faith4102 hath made4982 thee4571 whole4982 [5758]. And2532 immediately2112 he received his sight308 [5656], and2532 followed190 [5707] Jesus2424 in1722 the way3598.

DRB 52  And Jesus saith to him: Go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he saw and followed him in the way.

(GILL) and followed Jesus in the way: that is, to Jerusalem. The Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, read "him", instead of "Jesus"; but the Syriac and Persic versions read neither. This man was an emblem of the people of God, before, at, and after conversion: before conversion; for, as he was blind, so are they; they are without any spiritual sight and discerning of God, as in Christ, as the God of all grace, as their Covenant God and Father; …

(Clarke) Mar 10:52 -

Followed Jesus in the way - Instead of τῳ Ιησου, Jesus, several eminent critics read αυτω, him. This is the reading of ABCDL, fourteen others, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, later Syriac in the margin, two Persic, Vulgate, all the Itala, and Origen once. Jesus is the common reading; but this sacred name having occurred so immediately before, there could be no necessity for repeating it here, nor would the repetition have been elegant.

Verse 52 followed him along the road. Jerusalem Translation re-echoes along the road –the disciples, followers, Mk.9:34, 10:17,32,52.

  

Jericho Tell es Sultan from south

(Navarre Bible) And immediately he received his sight and followed Him on His way." Following Jesus on His way. You have understood what our Lord was asking to from you and you have decided to accompany Him on His way. You are trying to walk in His footsteps, to clothe yourself in Christ's clothing, to be Christ Himself: well, your faith, your faith in the light our Lord is giving you, must be both operative and full of sacrifice. Don't fool yourself. Don't think you are going to find new ways. The faith He demands of us is as I have said. We must keep in step with Him, working generously and at the same time uprooting and getting rid of everything that gets in the way" ([Blessed] J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 195-198).

The Three Passion Predictions

in the Synoptic Gospels

Prediction Mark Matthew Luke Following

First 8:31 16:13-33 9:18-22 Peter’s Confession

Second 9:31 17:22-23 9:44 Transfiguration and Healing of Demon Possessed Boy

Third 10:32-34 20:17-19 18:31-33 Rich Young Ruler Dialogue

+ + +

Sacra Pagina The Gospel of MARK
inter pp 316-320

The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus (10:46-52)

Verse 52: And Jesus said to him: “Go. Your faith has saved you.” And immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

Notes

52.Go. Your faith has saved you: There is no healing word or touch here (compare 8:22-26). There is simply Jesus' declaration that Bartimaeus' faith has "saved" him-a verb (sozein) that can refer to both physical and spiritual healing (even "salvation"). See the same declaration by Jesus in the story of the woman with the flow of blood in Mark 5:34.

immediately he regained his sight: The healing is instantaneous and complete, in contrast to the gradual healing in Mark 8:22-26.

followed him on the way: The combination of the words "follow" and "way" suggests that Bartimaeus became a follower of Jesus and went up to Jerusalem with him (though he is never heard from again).

INTERPRETATION   

The healing of blind Bartimaeus is on the surface a miracle story, but it is also, and more profoundly, a dialogue about faith. After setting the scene in 10:46 Mark narrates Bartimaeus' repeated cry in vv. 47-48: "Son of David, have mercy on me!" When Jesus summons him in v. 49, Bartimaeus rushes to Jesus in v. 50. Jesus elicits his request ("that I may see again") in v. 51, and in v. 52 declares him healed from his blindness ("your faith has saved you"), and Bartimaeus follows Jesus on the way up to Jerusalem. 

The blind Bartimaeus displays prophetic insight. His choice of the epithet "Son of David" evokes Jesus' royal lineage as well as contemporary Jewish traditions about Solomon as a magician and healer. The beggar Bartimaeus here asks for more than money ("that I may see again"), and he gets even more than he asks for ("your faith has saved you"). Bartimaeus emerges as an exemplar of faith in Jesus and seems to accept Jesus' invitation to become his disciple.

As the conclusion of Mark's journey narrative the Bartimaeus episode in 10:46-52 is linked to the earlier healing of a blind man in 8:22-26 (which constitutes the beginning of the journey). Besides bearing witness to Jesus' power as a healer, the two accounts by their very position in Mark's outline have obvious symbolic significance.

Both texts are stories about blind men who receive the gift of sight from Jesus, and both feature a large amount of dialogue. In 8:22-26 there are ritualistic or even magical elements (use of spittle, laying on of hands), whereas in 10:46-52 there are no healing actions or words, and what stands out is the faith of Bartimaeus ("your faith has saved you"). In 8:22- 26 the healing is complicated and gradual, whereas in 10:46-52 it is immediate and complete. In 8:22-26 the man is sent home and told not to enter the village, while in 10:46-52 Bartimaeus follows Jesus on the way.

The Markan journey narrative has been primarily concerned with com­ing to see who Jesus is and what it means to follow him. At the outset Mark 8:22-26 reminds the reader how difficult it can be to see these things clearly, while at the end Mark 10:46-52 illustrates a clear-sighted faith in Jesus the Son of David as the agent of God's healing power and the en­thusiastic and wholehearted response that he evokes from people of faith. More important than the restoration of Bartimaeus' physical sight is his spiritual insight into the person of Jesus.

The Bartimaeus story also serves as a bridge to the next phases in Mark's story of Jesus' public ministry: his teaching in deed and word in Jerusalem (chs. 11-12); his apocalyptic discourse (ch. 13); and his Passion, death, and resurrection (chs. 14--16). In Markan geography Jerusalem is the place where Jesus is rejected and put to death.

The way of Jesus turns out to be the way of the cross: the way of rojcc tion by his Jewish contemporaries, the way of betrayal by his own dis ciples, and the way of suffering and death at the hands of the Jewish and Roman authorities. Along the journey described in 8:22-10:52 Jesus has taught his disciples who he is, what awaits him (see 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34), and what it means to follow him. Bartimaeus has received the gift of sight and sets out on the way of Jesus: the way that leads to Jerusalem.