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 The Promise, by Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger

Born to non-observant Ashkenazi Jews in Paris, Aaron Lustiger happened upon a Protestant Bible at the age of 10 years old which led to his conversion to Catholicism at age 13.  Being baptized Aaron Jean-Marie he later entered the seminary and was ordained to the priesthood in 1954 ascending to the roles of both Bishop of Orléans (1979) and Archbishop of Paris (1981).  In 1979 the nuns of the Sainte François Romaine convent of the Bec-Hellouin Abbey, asked the then Father Lustiger to preach at a week-long retreat on the topic of; “The Mystery of Israel”.  Lustiger was deeply moved by this invitation considering it a direct call from G-d.  The talks he gave were taped by the sisters with his permission and later written down as transcripts which were widely circulated among both the clergy and laity.  More than twenty years later Lustiger was approached by friends and a publisher who encouraged him to make his thoughts available to the broader public.  After much personal hesitancy, the resultant work; The Promise, was first published in French in 2002, being a compilation of his 1979 talks and later speeches given to various Jewish organizations between the years 1995-2002.

The majority of the book (ten of the fifteen chapters) encompasses the talks given at the convent retreat in 1979 in which Lustiger expounds on the “mystery” expressed by St. Paul in Ephesians 1 as being Israel’s election opened to the pagans through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Beginning with the topics of “Jesus and the Law” and “The Ten Words”, the foundational understanding of the Law as a crucial component of the pagans’ share in Israel’s election is expounded upon.  Although the pagans are not exempt from observing the Law, Lustiger explains that due to the gift of the Holy Spirit and the grace of Messiah their observance differs from that of Israel who alone is charged with “the delightful burden of [obligatory] observance”.   

Next, the Gospel of Matthew is considered in which extensive midrashic ideas are presented regarding the life of Jesus as symbolically relating to the Jewish disciples and pagan population.  Details surrounding the birth and infancy of Jesus are presented as prophetically foretelling the relationship of “pagan” Christians vs. “unbelieving” Jews.  Herod’s massacre of the innocents is seen as foreshadowing the “pagan’s sin” of refusing their participation in the election of Israel because such appears as a mortal threat to them.  This leads to the murderous persecution and scandalization of the descendants of David based on the understanding that the Jews alone killed the Messiah.  With this erroneous accusation the pagans took possession of Christianity, disfiguring it and the Messiah by transforming him into a form of her own paganism, a pagan deity.

The result of the pagan’s sin, as seen in the massacre carried out by Herod, is the refusal of the Jews (symbolized by Rachel weeping for her children) to be comforted and to believe in G-d’s goodness in the ultimate Comforter of consolation, the Messiah himself.  This according to Lustiger is a “scandal” due to the Messiah being the fulfillment of Israel and the very realization of their vocation. In this way, the Jews will share, in a mysterious manner, in the life of Messiah, their greater son, by suffering and “being hidden” just as he was.  Thus Jesus said to his Jewish disciples; “you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake”.   Both the pagans sin of refusing election and the Jews sin of refusing consolation must be forgiven by Messiah himself, a process understood by Lustiger as forshadowed in the Parable of the Talents (which describes Israel’s judgment) and the separation of the Sheep and the Goats (which describes the judgment of the nations).

Lustiger continues by expounding that through faith in Christ the pagans of the nations have a share in Israel’s history.  Not in their physical history, but in a spiritual history as Abraham becomes “their father” not in a physical sense but in a spiritual sense.  This reality is foreshadowed in Jesus ministry, especially in the second miracle of the loaves and fishes which took place in Gentile territory.  Here, Lustiger sees the miracle of the Exodus and wilderness wanderings as offered to the pagans through Messiah as they are miraculously fed through “the Word of G-d” (Jesus).  Yet, this miracle to the Gentiles does not occur until the miracle of the Exodus is first reaffirmed to the Jews through the first feeding of the multitudes.  In like fashion, Lustiger expounds that through John’s baptism the Jews must see themselves as pagans because they have broken the Covenant and must now re-enter it again through repentance and the grace of G-d.  Similarly, the pagan enters into Israel’s history via G-d’s grace through baptism in the Messiah. 

In concluding his midrashic exposition on Matthew, Lustiger points out that both Jew and Gentile have access to all the riches received by Israel, in a “radically new way” through faith in Christ.  This includes, for the pagan, participation in Israel’s history, its Scripture, prayer, the reign of its Messiah (Kingdom of G-d), its mission as servant, and its repentance.  Therefore, the greatest and most illogical of tragedies involves the denial of Israel’s election, which denies the election of Christ and also therefore denies the election of the nations in him.  In Lustiger’s view; “no one can be a Christian, a disciple of Christ, without recognizing that [the calling and election of Israel] is irrevocable”.  This election is a gift given to Israel.  For the pagan to deny this gift of Israel is to destroy the very basis by which they are considered “elect”.  Therefore; “what Christians attack in Israel is a reflection of what they reject in Christ”. 

The final five chapters are transcripts from talks that Lustiger presented to Jewish groups between 1995 and 2002.  In these talks ideas and convictions regarding the possible future of “Jewish-Catholic” relations are related.  As Lustiger summarizes, in the afterward to the English edition of the book, his goal for such talks was for Jew and Christian to acknowledge their “common mission toward humanity”, as both have received the revelation of  Scripture, “a common legacy” given to the Jewish people, from whom the Christians received it.  

Lustiger’s thoughts in The Promise are eloquently stated in an English translation of  the original French in which every word is painstakingly thoughtful and appropriate, although an unmistakable angst is found in its presentation from beginning to end.  In the forward the author relates the risk he has taken in writing this book for the general public as both Jewish and Gentile audiences will likely find various parts of it “disconcerting”.  In his talks given at the convent retreat Lustiger often reminds his audience of contemplative nuns that the ideas he is presenting are mysteries that require G-d’s grace to receive.  Such thoughts are summed up by Lustiger in the afterward of the book as a means for quiet and deep contemplation, meditation and prayer, and not as proof texts to define or platforms to debate “The Mystery of Israel”.  Perhaps this explains the cover of the book in which the silver-haired and kindly looking  Cardinal is glancing upward toward the heavenly realms.

 In a nutshell:  A unique and challenging exposition on the Mystery of Israel drawn from midrashic expositions of Matthew’s gospel meant to stimulate meditation and prayer regarding the common mission to humanity of Christianity and Judaism.   

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