THE ABRAHAM J. HESCHEL CENTER FOR CATHOLIC-JEWISH RELATIONS THE JOHN PAUL II CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF LUBLIN

The Gospel of the Feast of All Saints leads us to a mountain where Jesus, beginning his sermon, delivers eight beatitudes. This text is certainly one of the most famous parts of his teaching. Here Jesus lists eight groups, whose members are called blessed, happy - these are the… Read more… »

Sukkot, Z'man Simchateinu, the "Season of our Rejoicing", is one of the three pilgrimage festivals we are grateful to observe. All three festivals are connected with the agricultural seasons of the year.  As it is mentioned in the Torah [Deuteronomy 16, 16]: "Three times a year shall all thy… Read more… »

Humility should begin with the great people: the understanding of humility in the New Testament and in the Jewish sources.We see that humility is a concept that occupies a prominent place in the New Testament. In the Gospel of Mark (10, 43-45), Jesus tells his disciples: "Whoever wants to… Read more… »

Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar – Day of Atonement is the peak of the period of repentance. Forty days which include the month of Elul and the ten days of Awe, starting with Rosh Hashanah (New Year) and ending up with Yom Kippur.In the Torah,… Read more… »

In today's Gospel, Mark recounts an event that occurred during Jesus' journey to Jerusalem, already within the borders of Judea. He presents two scenes of dialogue with Jesus: an unnamed wealthy man who comes to Jesus with a question about eternal life and a conversation between Jesus and his… Read more… »

This week’s Gospel raises a very sensitive topic, one that is also very controversial today, as it also was in Jesus’ time. The law of Moses clearly permits divorce, as outlined in Deuteronomy 24: 1-4. We’ll look at this passage more carefully in a moment – but broadly, the… Read more… »

Rosh Hashanah [which literally means Head of the Year] is the Jewish New Year. We learn from the Mishanh and the Babylonian Talmud that the world was created on the last five days of the month of Elul. Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day of creation,… Read more… »

Today's reading from Mark's Gospel contains a brief narrative of the apostle John's dialogue with Jesus and a series of instructive statements given by Jesus. When we listen to the word, at first, these two parts seem unrelated. Today's liturgical readings give us the key to grasp the message… Read more… »

Today's passage from Mark 9:32-37 tells of disciples who considered themselves special. The disciples consider themselves special: (1) Jesus called them directly. (2) Jesus teaches them privately. (3) Jesus is with them almost constantly.But instead of being thankful for their privilege, they seek to extend it.  What makes this… Read more… »

Elul is the name of the last month of the Jewish year, prior to the Jewish New Year - Rosh HaShanah. The month of Elul is known as the month of mercy and forgiveness as we spiritually prepare for the High Holidays season. Traditionally it is a time for personal… Read more… »

When Israelites lost their independence after the invasion of Babylonians in 586 BC, a period in which the Jews virtually did not have their own independent state began. It lasted for twenty-six centuries except for the relatively short time of the rule of the Hasmonean dynasty. At the time… Read more… »

The reading of the Gospel of Mark on September 8th – (chapter 7 verse 31-37), tells us about Jesus who is travelling in the northern part of the Holy Land and healing people: "Moving on from there Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee…They placed them at his feet,… Read more… »

The scene in today's Gospel deals with a vital topic: Jesus' attitude towards unclean things, commonly considered unclean in Jesus' time.Here are Jesus' disciples eating a meal with unwashed hands. The Pharisees, who are also Jesus' guests, get offended: how can they do such a thing... It is not… Read more… »

The appellation “son of man” appears repeatedly in the Gospels, clearly referring to its use in broader Jewish tradition, where it had three distinctive meanings. First, in Jeremiah (49:18, 33, 50:40, 43) “son of man” or “son of Adam” equals “man” in general – all men. The same means… Read more… »

The commented text is part of a larger whole consisting of verses 22 through 59 of the sixth chapter of the fourth Gospel. In Christian tradition, we refer to this text as the Eucharistic speech. Although arranged in a dialogue, it has the character of a revelatory speech that… Read more… »

Tisha B’Av simply means “the Ninth day of the month of Av.” Which doesn’t sound particularly meaningful in itself. But this date has always been an inauspicious one in Jewish history, a day of national tragedy on the Jewish calendar.According to Jewish tradition, it is the date on which… Read more… »

The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said,"I am the bread that came down from heaven, "and they said,"Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?Do we not know his father and mother?Then how can he say,'I have come down from heaven'?"Jesus answered and said to them,"Stop murmuring among… Read more… »

In the Gospel of John, Jesus makes the prophetic sign of blessing five loaves and two fish at Lake Kinneret, or the Sea of Galilee, and feeds them to five thousand hungry people. He then allows himself to be found on the opposite shore, in Capernaum, where he tries… Read more… »

The reading for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time is John 6.1-15, John’s version of what we call the “feeding of the five thousand.” The story is the only miracle that is presented in all four Gospels. With it, we have themes concerning gender, the military, the Jewish tradition,… Read more… »

It's vacation time. Many of us have traveled far from the year-round daily routine. We turned off business phone numbers and the email inbox ordered to inform that by this and that day the addressee is "not available".Today's Gospel tells us that Jesus too, along with his disciples, is… Read more… »

The reading of the Gospel of Mark 6:10 reminds us of Matthew 10:12-13. Jesus instructs the disciples: "As you enter a house, wish it peace. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it. If not, let your peace return to you." Greeting people with peace, welcoming… Read more… »

On the backdrop of the Gospel about Jesus' visit to the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, let's make three reflections.First, Jesus was probably reminded of his childhood years and episodes related to this synagogue. At the time of Christ, boys received their schooling. It was essentially a school… Read more… »

In Mark 5 we read about a woman who had suffered from hemorrhage for many years. She was instantly healed when she touched the hem of Jesus' garment. The hem of the garment is not a coincidental description. At the time of Jesus, it was customary in Jerusalem and… Read more… »

The Hebrew language script in which the Old Testament Bible was written had only consonants. Similarly, the Greek text of the New Testament was a continuous script without punctuation marks. For a proper reading of the written content, the reader had to be in relationship with someone who knew… Read more… »