Who did Bergoglio celebrate Christmas with?) Jorge took great care, as he did so a few years later at Casa Santa Marta when he had his rabbinical friends over for lunch, to make sure the food was kosher that night. Fittingly, Jorge and his rabbis turned the sacristy at the Cathedral into their personal dinning room.
In recent years, Bergoglio shared Christmas Eve with Claudio Epelman, director of the Latin American Jewish Congress, and Alberto Zimerman, protreasurer of the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations (DAIA). After the 21 o'clock (11:00PM) Mass in the Cathedral, in which the guests and their wives were placed in the same chairs in which the presidents sit for the official ceremonies in row zero, that is, in front of the first row of the pews, the present pope shared with them a modest supper: soda and cheese sandwiches, without ham showing respect to Jewish customs. They did it in the sacristy, where toasts were held during the Te Déum, in times when they were there more frequently than now.
"It was all very simple, with no sophistication," recalled Epelman, who met Bergoglio in Aparecida, Brazil, during a meeting of the Latin American bishops in May 2007. Epelman participated in that conference as the only invited Jewish observer. "In Aparecida we bonded personally and at the end of that year it was the first time that I went to the Cathedral to greet him for Christmas. It seemed important to accompany him at that moment so important for his personal and religious life. Before Christmas, we talked on the phone and he said: "I imagine you coming here this year too, do you not also?" "
Over the years Zimerman (also) joined the curious celebration....They prepared rice with prawns, chicken matambre, stuffed eggs and salads. For dessert they ate ice cream and fruit salad and toasted with a champagne.
"It was cold food and also very simple," Epelman said. And he agreed with Zimerman to point out that Bergoglio rose to serve the wine. "If I got up, he would make me sit and touch my shoulder," said Zimerman, who admitted that tonight will miss the friendly meeting.
The collaborators at the Cathedral will also remember tonight their last Christmas with the present pope. "They are very excited. It seems impossible to have spent Christmas Eve with he who is the Pontiff today," Father Russo told the NATION.
[...]
"We knew where he'd go to do the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday, but we did not know where he went on the 25th," said a person of close relationship with the former archbishop. Other contributors confirmed that "the boss", as they called him, warned that he would not be in the house and asked his vicar general to celebrate the Christmas Mass. "We later learned that he had gone to visit prisoners in some prison, the sick in a hospital or a poor neighborhood," added the person, who asked not to be mentioned.
[...]
One of the memories that Epelman treasures is the greeting with which the night they said goodbye on the 24th. "I said, "Merry Christmas" and he answered me: "L'ejaim" , which in Hebrew means: "For life" "
source: La Nación, La vieja Navidad de Bergoglio: misa, cena con amigos...
Conversations With Jorge Bergoglio, p. 208: “Not long ago I was in a synagogue taking part in a ceremony. I prayed a lot and, while praying, I heard a phrase from one of the books of wisdom that had slipped my mind: ‘Lord, may I bear mockery in silence.’ It gave me much peace and joy.”
The Apostle says (Gal 5:2): “If you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.” But nothing save mortal sin hinders us from receiving Christ’s fruit. Therefore since Christ’s Passion it is a mortal sin to be circumcised, or to observe the other legal ceremonies.
All ceremonies are professions of faith, in which the interior worship of God consists. Now man can make profession of his inward faith, by deeds as well as by words: and in either profession, if he make a false declaration, he sins mortally. Now, though our faith in Christ is the same as that of the fathers of old; yet, since they came before Christ, whereas we come after Him, the same faith is expressed in different words, by us and by them. For by them was it said: “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,” where the verbs are in the future tense: whereas we express the same by means of verbs in the past tense, and say that she “conceived and bore.” In like manner the ceremonies of the Old Law betokened Christ as having yet to be born and to suffer: whereas our sacraments signify Him as already born and having suffered. Consequently, just as it would be a mortal sin now for anyone, in making a profession of faith, to say that Christ is yet to be born, which the fathers of old said devoutly and truthfully; so too it would be a mortal sin now to observe those ceremonies which the fathers of old fulfilled with devotion and fidelity. Such is the teaching Augustine (Contra Faust. XIX, 16), who says: “It is no longer promised that He shall be born, shall suffer and rise again, truths of which their sacraments were a kind of image: but it is declared that He is already born, has suffered and risen again; of which our sacraments, in which Christians share, are the actual representation.” (Saint Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica I-II, q.103, a.4, s.c. /co)
Bergoglio on Heaven and Earth, p. 37: “There also exists the ministerial intercession of a rabbi or a priest who prays or asks for the health of another and it is granted. What gives credibility to a person who is healing according to the law of God is simplicity, humility and the absence of a spectacle.”
On Heaven and Earth, p. 220: Bergoglio speaks to Jewish pro-gay Rabbi Skorka: “I did not forget how you invited me twice to pray and to speak in the synagogue, and I invited you to speak to my seminarians about values.”
All ceremonies are professions of faith, in which the interior worship of God consists. Now man can make profession of his inward faith, by deeds as well as by words: and in either profession, if he make a false declaration, he sins mortally. Now, though our faith in Christ is the same as that of the fathers of old; yet, since they came before Christ, whereas we come after Him, the same faith is expressed in different words, by us and by them. For by them was it said: “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,” where the verbs are in the future tense: whereas we express the same by means of verbs in the past tense, and say that she “conceived and bore.” In like manner the ceremonies of the Old Law betokened Christ as having yet to be born and to suffer: whereas our sacraments signify Him as already born and having suffered. Consequently, just as it would be a mortal sin now for anyone, in making a profession of faith, to say that Christ is yet to be born, which the fathers of old said devoutly and truthfully; so too it would be a mortal sin now to observe those ceremonies which the fathers of old fulfilled with devotion and fidelity. Such is the teaching Augustine (Contra Faust. XIX, 16), who says: “It is no longer promised that He shall be born, shall suffer and rise again, truths of which their sacraments were a kind of image: but it is declared that He is already born, has suffered and risen again; of which our sacraments, in which Christians share, are the actual representation.” (Saint Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica I-II, q.103, a.4, s.c. /co)
Bergoglio on Heaven and Earth, p. 37: “There also exists the ministerial intercession of a rabbi or a priest who prays or asks for the health of another and it is granted. What gives credibility to a person who is healing according to the law of God is simplicity, humility and the absence of a spectacle.”
On Heaven and Earth, p. 220: Bergoglio speaks to Jewish pro-gay Rabbi Skorka: “I did not forget how you invited me twice to pray and to speak in the synagogue, and I invited you to speak to my seminarians about values.”
The ceremonial precepts cannot purify from sin for they do not contain grace within themselves
On the other hand, they had no power of cleansing from uncleanness of the soul, i.e. from the uncleanness of sin. The reason of this was that at no time could there be expiation from sin, except through Christ, “Who taketh away the sins [Vulgate: ‘sin’] of the world” (John 1:29). […] Consequently they could not cleanse from sin: thus the Apostle says (Hebrews 10:4) that “it is impossible that with the blood of oxen and goats sin should be taken away”; and for this reason he calls them (Gal 4:9) “weak and needy element”: weak indeed, because they cannot take away sin; but this weakness results from their being needy, i.e. from the fact that they do not contain grace within themselves. […] It is therefore evident that under the state of the Old Law the ceremonies had no power of justification. (Saint Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica I-II, q.103, a.2)
Catechism of the Catholic Church
•It is an offense to God not to fix one’s eyes entirely upon Christ
Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father’s one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one. Saint John of the Cross, among others, commented strikingly on Hebrews 1:1-2: ‘In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word – and he has no more to say… because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behavior but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 65)
Council of Florence (XVII Ecumenical)
•No one living outside the Catholic Church, not even the Jews, can participate in eternal life
It firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart “into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41), unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock. (Denzinger-Hünermann 1351. Council of Florence. Bull Cantata Domino, February 4, 1442)
Saint John Chrysostom
•The Jews when be forgiven neither by circumcision nor by other deeds, but only by Baptism
“For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Rom 11:27). Not when they are circumcised, not when they sacrifice, not when they do the other deeds of the Law, but when they attain to the forgiveness of sins. If then this hath been promised, but has never yet happened in their case, nor have they ever enjoyed the remission of sins by baptism, certainly it will come to pass. Hence he proceeds, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom 11:29). (Saint John Chrysostom, Homily XIX, Letter to the Romans, no. 6)
Related topic: La Stampa: Vatican Insider, Jewish-Catholic Celebration of Hannukah inside Vatican Walls
Catechism of the Catholic Church
•It is an offense to God not to fix one’s eyes entirely upon Christ
Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father’s one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one. Saint John of the Cross, among others, commented strikingly on Hebrews 1:1-2: ‘In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word – and he has no more to say… because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behavior but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 65)
Council of Florence (XVII Ecumenical)
•No one living outside the Catholic Church, not even the Jews, can participate in eternal life
It firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart “into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41), unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock. (Denzinger-Hünermann 1351. Council of Florence. Bull Cantata Domino, February 4, 1442)
Saint John Chrysostom
•The Jews when be forgiven neither by circumcision nor by other deeds, but only by Baptism
“For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Rom 11:27). Not when they are circumcised, not when they sacrifice, not when they do the other deeds of the Law, but when they attain to the forgiveness of sins. If then this hath been promised, but has never yet happened in their case, nor have they ever enjoyed the remission of sins by baptism, certainly it will come to pass. Hence he proceeds, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom 11:29). (Saint John Chrysostom, Homily XIX, Letter to the Romans, no. 6)
Related topic: La Stampa: Vatican Insider, Jewish-Catholic Celebration of Hannukah inside Vatican Walls
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