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

The reading of the Gospel of Matthew chapter 16 verse 19, reminds us of Matthew 18, 18: "Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven".The relationships and the bond between heavens… Read more… »

A Canaanite woman, and therefore a Gentile, asks Jesus to heal her daughter.Jesus says that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He adds, "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs." And she… Read more… »

Greetings from Jerusalem, about 130 km from the Sea of Galilee, where the episode from Matthew took place. It stands to reason that the story belongs to the initial core of the tradition and, thus, before it was put in writing in Greek, it had been transmitted orally in… Read more… »

Today's verses of the Gospel describe the transfiguration of Jesus in front of his closest disciples on a high mountain. The text does not explicitly name the mountain, but early Christian tradition from around 200 AD, attested by Origen and later by Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius and Jerome, situates… Read more… »

This week’s Gospel reading includes the famous parable that likens the kingdom of heaven to a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds, hides again, and then joyfully sells all that he has, to buy that field and possess that treasure. The parable makes me think of a… Read more… »

Tishah B’Av in history and in Jewish traditionThe First Temple was destroyed during the Babylonian invasion in 586 B.C. The rabbis teach that the cause of its fall was the people's spiritual laziness. Midrash Eichah Rabbasi 1:35 relates the following story: “A man would approach his friend in Jerusalem… Read more… »

The Lord Jesus continues teaching in parables in today's Gospel. He talks about sowing good seed and the weeds growing beside it. We also hear about a mustard seed and a bit of yeast put into the dough. The content of these parables intertwines and constitutes a teaching of… Read more… »

In today’s commentary we will try to find a parallel between the New Testament and the Hebrew Bible on the subject of serving spiritual leaders and their close disciples. In Judaism, the concept of serving the leaders and their wise disciples is an important one and has a significant… Read more… »

It is striking and fascinating to read the Gospel of Matthew on June 18th - in Hebrew, as it includes so many references and contexts to the Hebrew Bible, the Rabbinic Mishnaic teachings as well as to Jewish scholars and thinkers. In Matthew 9:36 we read: At the sight… Read more… »

The main focus of the feast of Corpus Christi is the gift of the Eucharist. Literally in Greek the word means “thanksgiving.” Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper, which happened during a Passover meal. Thanks to the Jewish tradition of Birkat Hamazon prayer (a thanksgiving blessing for… Read more… »

The Book of Acts tells that the apostles and others gathered to celebrate Pentecost or Shavuot (Weeks) – a core Jewish holiday occurring seven weeks after the Passover. By the 1st century CE, this feast, originally with a primarily agricultural meaning, became associated with the gift of the Torah… Read more… »

Shavuot is a time of thanksgiving for the first fruits of the spring harvest. It is also a time of a great gratitude to God for His Covenant of love, for receiving of the Torah and the Ten Commandments. It is a time of spiritual rebirth and the awakening… Read more… »

On the Seventh Sunday of Easter we read the conclusion of the Gospel according to Mathew. This end is in fact a beginning, especially for Jesus’ disciples. The Evangelist describes the event after Resurrection and transports us to Galilee, the venue of Jesus’ last meeting with His disciples.Why Galilee… Read more… »

In the Gospel reading for this Sunday we are confronted by a rather strange situation. We read and hear the Gospel in translation into whatever language: French, Polish, English, but there’s this one word that often doesn’t get translated and instead is kept in Greek: Paraclete.And while I don’t… Read more… »

At the Last Supper, in conversation with the apostles, Jesus prepares them for his final departure to the Father's House.Forty days after his resurrection, he will ascend into heaven. Jesus announces to the apostles that He is going there to prepare a place for them. "In my Father's house… Read more… »

The lectionary for the 4th Sunday of Easter includes Acts 2.14a, 36-41. This reading, unless carefully explained, will either inculcate or reinforce Jew-hatred. In Acts 2, Peter addresses, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem,” (Acts 2.14) and tells them “Let the whole house of Israel know for… Read more… »

The Risen Jesus appears in today's verses of the Gospel to two disciples heading to Emmaus. They are distressed, disappointed, and disillusioned, because the Messiah was supposed to have restored Israel's splendour, renewed the kingdom, liberated the Israelites from Roman occupation, and was to have revealed Himself as the… Read more… »

Children always find it challenging to forgive their fellow friends who offended them.Does it even make sense to forgive someone who upsets us? Forgiveness is a challenge.In the Gospel according to John (Jn 20:23) Jesus is teaching: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain… Read more… »

After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to women first. Moreover, He told them to go to the apostles and tell them He was alive.One of these women was Mary Magdalene, who, in the tradition of the Eastern Churches, is called the Apostle of the Apostles precisely because it was she… Read more… »

Passover or Pesach in Hebrew is a time of celebration of freedom and faith.  Jews remember the story of liberation from Egyptian slavery. God, confessed until then as the Creator of the World, revealed himself as the Liberator. Passover is the time when, abandoning our personal slavery, we are… Read more… »

“If Christians forget the connections between Passover and the Last Supper, they risk forgetting not only the Exodus, they also risk forgetting Jesus’s affirmation of Jewish Scriptures and tradition”, explains Prof. Amy-Jill Levine, Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, the first Jewish woman to teach New Testament at… Read more… »

In a dialogue with a Samaritan woman, Jesus admits clearly that he is the Messiah. In response to the woman's frank confession, " I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything." (John 4:25), Jesus, with disarming sincerity… Read more… »

On the mountain, Peter and the disciples saw Jesus, Moses, and Elijah and Peter thought he had already understood everything. After a while, however, they heard the voice of God saying that Jesus was Someone unique, Someone "qualitatively different" from Moses and Elijah. It was only then that they… Read more… »

In the Old Testament, the desert was a land never covered by God's blessing. God, however, when preparing his chosen ones, such as Moses, Elijah and John the Baptist, for some weighty tasks, leads them out into the desert. Jesus too, at the beginning of his public ministry, spends… Read more… »