As many of you know who read ACM regularly, I like to use personal examples in order to get a point across. Some are on point. Some maybe a bit obscure. I think this one falls into the latter category.
When I was about 8 years old, my Mother took me on a trip to Florida to visit family friends. We stayed at their home which sat on a canal. It was very beautiful but I spent some time looking out for alligators who might want to visit us. One afternoon our host offered me a plate of Triscuit crackers with cream cheese on them. Not just any cream cheese. This cream cheese had GREEN THINGS in them! Now, remember, I am Italian and all we really had growing up was Italian food. Cream cheese on crackers, especially cream cheese with green stuff in it (turned out to be chives) was not a regular staple of my diet. So, being the brat that I was, I told her to take them away. Yuck. I was not going to eat that stuff. No way, no how.
So my Mom and her friend proceeded to eagerly consume and enjoy the crackers…MY CRACKERS!! After all, she had given them to me. AND, they seemed to be really liking them. Of course, I complained. And rather than our host telling me “Too bad. You didn’t want any” (the right response from my now parental view of child rearing) she made up a new plate full for me. Which I ate then did the “Hey Mikey. He likes it” routine. It was good and I have become a fan of cream cheese, even chive cream cheese, on Triscuits ever since.
Now what possibly could that story have to do with the readings today. Well, bare with me. I will shed some light on things. In the first reading today from Romans, Chapter 11, we hear Paul talking about the rejection of the Israelites for not accepting Jesus as the Messiah. Actually Paul argues that they were not rejected. It is true that Jesus’ inner circle is made up of Jews that chose to follow Him. Plus there were hundreds, if not thousands, of Jews who followed and accepted Him. But, by and large, the majority of Jews at the time did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah that God had promised them.
So Paul went to the Gentiles. And the Jews rejection of Jesus left an opening for Paul to now focus his efforts on the Gentiles. And many, many accepted the Gospel and became followers of Christ. Now, remember, Paul was a Jew. He was Saul who persecuted the early Christians before his conversion on the road to Damascus. He had a soft spot in his heart for his people. He did not want to see them left behind. So in today’s portion from his letter to the Romans, Paul reasons that the acceptance of Christ as the Messiah by the Gentiles would force the Jews to take another look. After all, the Gentiles were worshipping THEIR God and if anyone was going to recognize the Messiah, it wasn’t going to be the Gentiles. And he believed that this jealousy (the coveting of something that you believe rightfully belongs to you) would be the catalyst that would bring the Jews to salvation.
That didn’t really happen to any great extent in Paul’s time. The hearts of most Jews at that time were hardened and no matter the evidence for Jesus as the Messiah. The Jews of the 1st century were not going to espouse that Jesus was in fact the Savior they all were waiting for. Their hearts had been hardened. In fact, Paul gives the example of Elijah debating with God the worthiness of His people. After all, Elijah argues, many Jews have rejected God, have begun following the pagan god, baal, and have destroyed God’s altars. And they have killed God’s prophets and are seeking the life of Elijah himself.
But what about now, in our day? Well, according to a Pew Research Poll, as much as 19% of Jews have converted to Catholicism. Actor, Shia LeBouf has recently accepted Catholicism from Judaism after he portrayed St. Padre Pio in a recent movie. Is there a sense from converting Jews that these Christians have something that is rightly there’s? The God of the Torah and the Messiah promised by that loving, merciful God? Could be. If a little jealousy could get a skinny, bratty Italian kid to eat green cream cheese…anything is possible!
