There was a priest and a rabbi.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to sensor this.
They were having a conversation about their faiths.
The rabbi went first.
Our faith was established by the One G-d, Who told us there shall be no other gods before me. He came to us as His particular people. Through Moses he taught us how He formed the earth and told us about our ancestors that came before us. He established our ancestor lineage through Abraham, Issac, and Jacob and gave us the law and we established covenants with Him. Through Abraham he made us a great nation that was first ruled by the elders and priests ordained by God, then as he grew our people through the Judges and then as a great nation through our Kings beginning with David. In the Torah was the law we live by.
He told us to build a central place of worship where He would meet us beginning in the desert with the meeting tent and later in His temple. He prescribed ways that we should honor him through our cleansing and sacrifices and feast days. He gave us our commandments through which He stabilized our society through His divine wisdom under spiritual rule.
Our people fell into bondage and later the diaspora after the destruction of the temple.
Our prophets told us about a messiah who would come and free our people from its bondage and we look to our messiah to come. It is your Jesus who said “ Salvation is from the Jews.”
The priest after listening to the Rabbi, began to explain His faith.
I will always be grateful for you and the Jewish people for you are our ancestors. The Catholic Church was born from the lineage of David in Christ Jesus and born out of the Synagogue which in the liturgy of the word, the apostles incorporated this into the Holy Mass which is the true Passover for the general redemption of the world. It is composed of the liturgy of the word and the liturgy of the Eucharist which you know means “ thanksgiving “ like your sacrifices of thanksgiving.
You see, Paul who studied under your great Rabbi Gamaliel, was given a vision of heaven and the spiritual realities of the fulfillment of your covenants with God which is fulfilled in the true Passover for the general redemption of the world celebrated with heaven which your meeting tent expresses.
This he begins to teach in His letters yet this was so sacred that the deepest understanding was kept in the heart of the church. It also would have created a great scandal between Jews and Gentiles in apostolic times if Jews who were not like the Bereans, prepared through humility, were told these most sacred truths. Therefore Paul says, “ If our gospel be veiled it is veiled from those who are perishing.” It was veiled from those outside the church who were not celebrating the true Passover in the breaking of the bread.
David proclaimed in your Psalms, God your God has anointed you. Jesus who came down to us from the lineage of David through Mary was anointed before His death on the cross establishing His reign. It was written on the cross that He was the King of the Jews and this is still true. One of our Church Fathers, Justin Martyr explained that At Jamnia Jews removed books of your ancestors and changed words. Words including where it is prophesied that a Virgin shall give birth to Emanuel to, a young woman would give birth. This is tragic in itself. But in the process, many books were removed for Protestants at this time.
Listen to your King David who told you about the anointed God when he said:
"Fullfilled are all that David sang in true song, saying unto the nations that God had reigned from the tree."
Psalms 96:10
Image in your soul the story of the building of your temple and the penalty for the one who destroys the temple
Ezra tells you
3In the first year of Cyrus the king: Cyrus the king decreed, that the house of God should be built, which is in Jerusalem, in the place where they may offer sacrifices, and that they lay the foundations that may support the height of threescore cubits, and the breadth of threescore cubits, 4Three rows of unpolished stones, and so rows of new timber: and the charges shall be given out of the king's house.
And I have made a decree: That if any whosoever, shall alter this commandment, a beam be taken from his house, and set up, and he be nailed upon it, and his house be confiscated
Ezra 6
Jesus took on the curse of the oath your people swore on their own lives to keep.
“ No greater love than a man has then to give us His life for another.” He did this as fully God and fully man.
Your people failed in the law but the promise of Abraham that Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars still needed to be kept. God keeps His promises. The Kingdom that you saw as lost was build up and restored through the cross.
Paul before the destruction of the temple said , “By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear. “( Hb 8:13) Your temple was destroyed in 70 AD and Jesus the Christ took on your curse so that through baptism, the tree of life, you could be cleansed and enter the true reality of the Kingdom that came through the Jews; a sacramental Kingdom fulfilled.
Your prophet Jeremiah told you that
David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the earthly House of Israel.
Your prophet Daniel prophesies a 5th kingdom that will never be destroyed. And it will not be made by hands. Either this is a false prophecy, or the earthly kingdom also requires succession. If it is not made by hands then it is sacramental. It is united to heaven itself or it would not last forever.
In your book of Isaiah
Shebna has an office in the kingdom of David. You know that in order for it to be an office, it has successors. In order for an earthly kingdom to last, a succession of representatives is also required. This was the case of the Old Covenant kingdom of David , and it is the case in the New Covenant kingdom.
Your people described Eliakim as being a father of God's people. In the New Covenant kingdom we also describe the ambassador of Christ in this office as father from which we establish the word papa, pope.
This office in the reestablished kingdom was established by Christ in the line of David as he made the Kingdom sacramental through baptism and to secure the Kingdom through all generations, passing on the authority of the Kingdom while the King is away through His first vicar in Peter.
This is done in order for the true Passover to last until the end of time therefore Paul tells us.
For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink this cup, you will show the death of the Lord until He comes again.
Peter would never have been given the keys of authority which was previously used by your people as a symbol of authoritative interpretation of the Torah, unless he was fulfilling the prophecy of Daniel reestablishing the Kingdom of David as the 5th kingdom made by God not man. It is the Christ. “ God your God had anointed you.” That established this kingdom.
James at the council of Jerusalem saw the prophecy of Amos fulfilled when he explained that the Kingdom of David with both Jews and Gentiles had been reestablished in Gods church.
Your prophet Amos told you that there would be a time when Gentiles would hear the word of God and enter the church.
Paul told us that we are no longer Gentiles or Jews freeman or slaves because we have been baptized into Christ Jesus, the promise of Abraham fulfilled.
Remember that I said that even though your people failed in the law, through the cross, Jesus took on your curse. Also, through the blood, water, and spirit of baptism, God raised up the church of both Gentiles and Jews through the spiritual reality of what Issac represents.
As Paul tells us:
“6Not as though the word of God hath miscarried. For all are not Israelites that are of Israel. 7Neither are all they that are the seed of Abraham, children: but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8That is to say, not they that are the children of the flesh are the children of God: but they that are the children of the promise are accounted for the seed.”
Rm 9:6
It is through the cleansing power of baptism that we are born again into the family of God.
The children of God are called to obedience to the faith in the final covenant with man. The messiah told us, I did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law.
You are of course right that Salvation is from the Jews and written spiritually in your laws, written to our very souls, is how your laws are fulfilled in Christ.
In order to be freed from Egypt which is a symbol of sin, you were told to kill an unblemished Lamb ( Jesus told us He is the true Lamb of God. The true manna bread from heaven that sustained your ancestors for 40 years in the desert before you crossed the Jordan in your baptism into the land flowing with milk and honey. In the spiritual reality, the flesh of Christ nourished by the sacraments as helps to holiness and obedience and humility against our fallen nature.). You were told to spread the blood of the Lamb on the Lintel and door posts signifying the triune God.
We see the spiritual reality in our baptism where Jesus told us to “ go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name ( singular) of the Father, ( Lintel ) and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. ( Door posts). The blood shows you the spiritual reality of what occurs to the soul at baptism. It shows you the mystery of your red heifer fulfilled where the true ashes of the ( wood) cross mixed with water and scarlet cleans the soul of both Gentiles and Jews.
You were told to consume the entire Lamb and in doing these things the angel of death would Passover your homes.
Jesus who told you to do these things, came to a Passover with 12 representatives of your people 1300 years later and said, “ I strongly desire to celebrate this Passover with you.”
What magnificent majesty. What wonder!
He told us that this is the blood of the New Covenant, the final covenant with man, and that in memory of this covenant his priests should do the same.
You understand that memory in Greek is Anamnesis, and that this is not simply a memory in modern terms but a call to a presentation in perpetuity as your Passover, Todah, and Tamid sacrifices were . Todah and Tamid being a sacrifice of thanksgiving ( Eucharistasis)
In Leviticus 24:7 we read:
And thou shalt put upon them the dearest frankincense, that the bread may be for a memorial of the oblation of the Lord. The bread your priests sanctified, set apart for God as an offering for the Lord.
In numbers 10:10 we read
If at any time you shall have a banquet, end on your festival days, and on the first days of your months, you shall sound the trumpets over the holocausts, and the sacrifices of peace offerings, that they may be to you for a remembrance of your God. I am the Lord your God.
In your Seder feast through divine Providence you have a hidden piece of Matzah. Jesus used this piece of Matzah in the new Eucharist of His body glorified; the thanksgiving for the cross in the true memorial of the oblation of the Lord. He did this when He raised the Matzah into the air and called it his body. That Matzah understood as that which comes last, in the Greek, the word that is used is Afikomen. A word translated as "the coming one."
That Afikomen fulfilled in the body of Christ that Paul referred to when He said, “ Christ our true pasch ( Passover Lamb) has been sacrificed, let us keep the feast.
That Afikomen that Paul referred to when He said.
“Behold Israel according to the flesh, are not those who offer the sacrifice partakers of the altar?”
“That Afikomen Paul referred to when he said, “ We have an altar at which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat of.”
That Afikomen, that coming one Paul referred to when He said,
“ For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink this cup you will show the death of the Lord (((until He comes again.)))"
The coming one; our life and our hope.
You prayed for this hope everyday in your benedictions.
As Christ took on your curse on the cross, Israel, not even understanding what God did, was praying the 18 benedictions.
My God my God why have you forsaken me.
All they that saw me have laughed me to scorn: they have spoken with the lips, and wagged the head.
For many dogs have encompassed me: the council of the malignant hath besieged me. They have dug my hands and feet.
They have numbered all my bones. And they have looked and stared upon me.
They parted my garments amongst them; and upon my vesture they cast lots.
I am poured out like water; and all my bones are scattered. My heart is become like wax melting in the midst of my bowels.
I will declare thy name to my brethren: in the midst of the church will I praise thee.
With thee is my praise in a great church: I will pay my vows in the sight of them that fear him.
For the kingdom is the Lord's; and he shall have dominion over the nations.
There shall be declared to the Lord a generation to come: and the heavens shall shew forth his justice to a people that shall be born, which the Lord hath made.
You prayed
"Look upon our affliction and plead our cause,and redeem us speedily for your name's sake, for you are a mighty redeemer. Blessed are you, O Lord, the redeemer of Israel." (7th Benediction)
You prayed
"Forgive us, O our Father, for we have sinned; pardon us, O our King, for we have transgressed; for you pardon and forgive. Blessed are you, O Lord, who is merciful and always ready to forgive." (6th Benediction)
You prayed
"Speedily cause the offspring of your servant David to flourish, and let him be exalted by your saving power, for we wait all day long for your salvation. Blessed are you, O Lord, who causes salvation to flourish." (15th Benediction)
You prayed for the resurrection of the dead at the time of Christs death when the curtain in the temple was torn from heaven to earth and the dead were raised.
"You, O Lord, are mighty forever, you revive the dead, you have the power to save. You sustain the living with lovingkindness, you revive the dead with great mercy, you support the falling, heal the sick, set free the bound and keep faith with those who sleep in the dust... Who resembles you, a king who puts to death and restores to life, and causes salvation to flourish? And you are certain to revive the dead. Blessed are you, O Lord, who revives the dead." (2nd Benediction)
What the cross put in place in the spiritual reality includes the fulfillment of your meeting tent where the outside walls made of coarse animal hair is fulfilled in the baptism of repentance for you Jews. This is what John who wore camel's hair called you to while your messiah walked the earth in the flesh among you.
The bronze laver that your Levitical priests needed to wash in “ less perhaps they died “. Is fulfilled in baptism into the flesh of Christ.
Paul in Titus 3:5 tells us that we are not saved by our own justices but by the laver of regeneration and renovation of the Holy Spirit. This is baptism, being saved by the blood of the Lamb. The fulfillment of the Ref Heifer.
David cried out.
I was born in iniquity in my mothers womb.
Job cried out, who can make unclean seed clean, only thou.
Only the Christ.
We are not saved from original sin through anything that we can do of our own but through the true laver of regeneration of baptism which is grace given freely.
After your priests washed in the bronze laver then they were prepared to sacrifice or enter the veil. Your veil by God's design is fulfilled in the mystical reality of entering the glorified flesh of Christ through the marriage feast of the Lamb.
" You are not of the world, if you were of the world the world would know it's own."
19Having therefore, brethren, a confidence in the entering into the holies by the blood of Christ: 20A new and living way which he hath dedicated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh: 21And a high priest over the house of God: 22Let us draw near with a true heart, in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with clean water.
Hb 10:19
The cross was a marriage bed between God and His Gentile bride which your prophets also told you would happen.
19And I will espouse thee to me for ever: and I will espouse thee to me in justice, and judgment, and in mercy, and in commiserations.
20And I will espouse thee to me in faith: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord…23And I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy on her that was without mercy. And I will say to that which was not my people: Thou art my people: and they shall say: Thou art my God.
Hosea 2
And Paul showed you this marriage of God and His church through the image of covenant which you know means much more than a contract in the semitic word “ Berit”, but it means I am yours and you are mine. A covenant that you know includes a sharing of blood in a blood bond and a meal before God, therefore Paul tells us.
The chalice of benediction, which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? And the bread, which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord ?
1 Cor 10:16
Which consummated the marriage.
25Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church and delivered himself up for it: 26That he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the (((laver of water in the word of life: )) [ Baptize in the NAME?] 27That he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 28So also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the church: 30Because we are members of him, body, of his flesh and of his bones. 31For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother: and shall cleave to his wife. And they shall be two in one flesh. 32This is a great sacrament: but I speak in Christ and in the church.
Ephesians 5
It is finished/ the marriage is consummated.
I will go and prepare a place for you.
In the spiritual reality of the body of Christ the holies has become the church militant on earth and the holy of holies has become the heavenly realm. The veil is torn from heaven to earth at every Holy Mass and the holy and holy of holies becomes one room.
Heaven and earth unites in laud of the Trinity.
The bread of the presence and the libation offering that your high priests brought out before the people, raised into the air and proclaimed before the people, “ behold, Gods love for you “, has become the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
This is my body.
Behold Gods love for you.
The smoke of the incense in the tent is now the prayers of the saints rising before the throne of the Father for the sins of the world and the Menorah has become the life giving cross.
Therefore in the Anamnesis Paul says.
O you foolish Galatians, who before your very eyes Christ is portrayed as crucified before you.
We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, to the Gentiles foolishness.
The people of God are the chosen people, the holy nation, the Royal Priesthood, Jews and Gentiles that with the hosts of heaven through our mediator and true high priest Melchizedek offers with the hosts of heaven in the 5th kingdom the true Passover for the general redemption of the world. Therefore Paul gives us the beatific vision of this heavenly reality when he tells us.
18For you are not come to a mountain that might be touched and a burning fire and a whirlwind and darkness and storm, 19And the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, which they that had excused themselves, that the word might not be spoken to them. 20For they did not endure that which was said: and if so much as a beast shall touch the mount, it shall be stoned. 21And so terrible was that which was seen, Moses said: I am frighted, and tremble. 22But you are come to mount Sion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of many thousands of angels, 23And to the church of the firstborn who are written in the heavens, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the just made perfect, 24And to Jesus the mediator of the new testament, and to the sprinkling of blood which speaketh better than that of Abel.
25See that you refuse him not that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke upon earth, much more shall not we that turn away from him that speaketh to us from heaven. 26Whose voice then moved the earth; but now he promiseth, saying: Yet once more: and I will move, not only the earth, but heaven also. 27And in that he saith: Yet once more, he signifieth the translation of the moveable things as made, that those things may remain which are immoveable. 28Therefore, receiving an immoveable kingdom, we have grace: whereby let us serve, pleasing God, with fear and reverence. 29For our God is a consuming fire.
Yes salvation is from the Jews. Thank you. You were told by your prophets that there would be a time where the law would be written on our hearts. This prophecy fulfilled is grace given freely as opposed to your law of the letter in rule fear and temporal punishment. Through the law of conscience and the narrow road of the sacramental life is our process of returning to the Garden; transforming grace.
And yet God in divine mercy has also established invincible ignorance which is becoming more and more rare in our world of the internet.
He who knows what is right and refuses to do so for him this is sin.
The wages of sin is death.
The rabbi sat and thought about what had been told to him by this priest of apostolic succession of the reestablished Kingdom of David for a while. He then responded. So why did you tell me?
There is only assurance on the narrow road of obedience to the faith in the sacramental life. On both sides of the road is Satan’s deceptions waiting to devour anyone he can.
Luke Haskell
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