Commemoration of the Four Holy Crowned Martyrs

Four brothers: Severus, Severianus, Carpophorus, and Victorinus were cruelly put to death at Rome under Diocletian in 304.

Tonight the ITI hosted a lecture by an ultra-orthodox Hassidic Jewish Rabbi. The topic was the three pilgrimage feasts of the Jewish year, namely, Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. I will try to write up a short summary of the main points for you all tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, there will be offered in the upper chapel at 8:00 the low Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal. Deo gratias!

Continued:

So, Rabbi Shimone Naftalis from Jerusalem lectured on the topic of the Jewish Feasts, specifically the three pilgrimage feasts (all the Jews pilgrimaged to Jerusalem) of Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles.

I learned some interesting details about each one of the feasts that I didn't know before.

For example, the four cups of wine in the Passover liturgy are connected to the four great expressions of redemption in Exodus 6:6-7a:

"Therefore say to the children of Israel: I am the Lord who will bring you out from the work-prison of the Egyptians, and will deliver you from bondage: and redeem you with a high arm, and great judgments. And I will take you to myself for my people."

All three of these feasts, of course, figure prominently in the New Testament. The Eucharist was instituted on the Passover, the Church was born on Pentecost (which in the Old Testament was associated with the giving of the Law) and the Feast of Tabernacles provides the contexts both for Jesus' lengthy discourse in John 7 and 8 as well as the event of the Transfiguration.

The Rabbi made the interesting observation that all three great western religions are the spiritual children of Abraham. His descendants, however, are divided between the children of Isaac (Jews and Christians) and the children of Ishmael (Moslems). The descendants of Isaac are then further divided between the children of Jacob (the Jews) and the children of Esau/Edom/Rome (the Christians).

I have never heard of any physical kinship between the Edomites and the Romans, but in a spiritual sense it is interesting to consider Christianity as descended from Esau.

Lastly, and this is sheer speculation on my part, I wonder if the evident fascination with Jewish customs and traditions (especially liturgical ones) that has arisen in the Christian west is due at all to the fact that we have abandoned so many of our own customs and traditions (especially liturgical ones). I'm thinking, for example, of the Ember days, the Rogation days, the season of Septuagesima, the Friday abstinence, vigil fasts, the forty hours devotion, first Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart, first Saturday devotion to our Lady, and God only knows how many others. I know that not all of these have disappeared completely but many of them have (except, of course, in places where the Traditional Latin Mass is still offered). Just a thought.