More than 20 years ago, Pope St. John Paul II called on Jews and Catholics to be “a blessing to one another,” so as to be a blessing to the whole world together. The Polish pontiff did much to promote and to develop the teaching of Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council’s “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions.”
The sainted pope’s words were literally fulfilled in Brooklyn last July, when newly ordained Auxiliary Bishop James Massa asked a friend of his, Rabbi Eric Greenberg, to bless him moments after his ordination to the episcopacy.
“The photo of this event serves as a symbolic gesture of our deepening friendship over the last 50 years,” said Rabbi Greenberg. “It is ever more important as Christians and religious minorities are being persecuted in the Middle East and North Africa and as anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe and around the world. This image shows how we must stand together in these challenging times.”
Bishop Massa said: “It meant so much to me that Rabbi Greenberg and other ecumenical and interreligious guests were present at my episcopal ordination. When I saw Rabbi Greenberg at the reception afterward, it felt so natural to ask for his blessing. I have found him and so many other Jewish friends to be blessings in my life. This is truly one of the joyful, tangible fruits of Nostra Aetate and of the work that so many Jews and Christians have done over the past half-century.”
To fulfill Bishop Massa’s thoughtful request and gesture of friendship, Rabbi Greenberg quickly realized that the most appropriate blessing would be the ancient Jewish priestly blessing, which begins: “May the Lord bless you and watch over you.”
Star Trek, Exodus, Bishop Massa
This blessing is performed with spread hands and bifurcated fingers, a gesture made popular by Star Trek’s Mr. Spock during his greeting “Live Long and Prosper.” The late actor Leonard Nimoy was a committed Jew. He borrowed the gesture from his Jewish tradition.
Rabbi Greenberg recited the prayer in Hebrew and English – complete with the traditional gesture – just as the biblical Aaron, Moses’ brother, once blessed the children of Israel and as the Jewish high priests blessed the people in the Holy Temples in Jerusalem for centuries. Archaeological evidence in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem suggests that this prayer may be the oldest in Judaism.
Bishop Massa noted that this blessing is also sometimes used at the final blessing at Mass.
The photo of this moment visually demonstrates how Catholics and Jews have become closer in a positive, productive way as brothers and sisters in faith.
This moving moment took place on the cusp of the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, which occurred last week. Nostra Aetate began a profound reversal of the tragic and negative relations between Jews and Christians that existed for two millennia.
The document remains a model for how relations between different faith traditions can be changed for the better, an example sorely needed in today’s world, which is so filled with religious strife.