Monday after Pentecost
Deacon Robert Banet
I don’t tell everybody that my father was Jewish.
Oh? Why not?
He really wasn’t Jewish. But you know, in a way we are all spiritual Jews.
Oh? How do you figure that?
Jesus never intended to start a separate religion. He was the Messiah, expected by Jews for ages. Jesus and all his disciples were Jews and they followed His way.
I see. Then the Blessed Mother was Jewish too?
Yes. And St. Peter and St. John would go to the temple, the Jewish temple, to pray. And we are the descendants, the spiritual descendants of those Apostles.
I see.
And you know, we even have Hebrew words that we say in every Mass. They remind us of our Jewish background.
Oh? Come to think of it. I know one of them: Amen.
Right you are. Then there’s Hosanna. We say that at the Sanctus. And of course Hallelujah.
Hallelujah? Don’t we say Alleluia, not Hallelujah?
You got me there. Alleluia it is.
Thanks for the history lesson. It makes me a little more comfortable about my Jewish father.