In the past few weeks our Catholic-Jewish Commission’s Institute for Understanding has been exploring the topic of “Transformation — Passover and Easter” during our spring lecture series. The description of our classes this spring explained that this is the time of year for celebrating new birth in nature and in the spiritual realm for both Jews and Christians. Our upcoming celebrations of Easter and Passover immerse us spiritually in a greater awareness of hope and rebirth. Our classes helped us to be aware that at this time of year our “world wakes from its winter slumber, we feel ourselves restored to life. We sense the power of life renewed within us. We put aside our old selves and strive for a newer and better way of being. In this way the great spring festivals of Passover and Easter are more than commemorations of historical events. They mark this deep transformation. Their respective stories provide the insights and images we need to discuss and experience our dreams of a better life for ourselves and our loved ones and for a world reborn.”
Many Christian communities desire to enter into the distinctive spiritual experience afforded us in the celebration/commemoration of the Jewish Passover Seder. Some of our parishes plan and celebrate the Seder with children, RCIA and other church groups. While their sentiments are praiseworthy, the appropriateness of celebrating a Seder with no Jewish people present or worse, a Christianized version, is highly questionable, and experts in Jewish-Catholic relations instruct us not to celebrate the Jewish Seder in an exclusively Christian context. Father Thomas Ryan, CSP, an expert in Jewish-Catholic dialogue instructs us, “It is ambiguous to speak of a Christian Seder. It must be avoided because the term is historically incorrect. The expression ‘Christian celebration of the Passover Seder’ is also to be avoided, for the Passover Seder belongs to the Jewish tradition and only Jews celebrate it.”
Father Ryan advises us, “The ideal would be to participate in a Passover Seder as a guest of Jewish friends. Thus one would be truly a ‘guest’ of the Jewish tradition and faith to which the church is ‘linked’ in its very identity.” The Bishops’ Conference of North America and England and Wales give the following directive in their guidelines for pastoral activity during Lent and Holy Week: “In recent years the custom has grown in many parishes to arrange a demonstration Seder. This can have educational and spiritual value. It is wrong, however, to ‘baptize’ the Seder by interspersing or concluding it with New Testament readings or Christian associations — or, worse, turn it into a Eucharistic or a prologue to a Eucharist. Such merging shows a lack of respect for Judaism and a distortion of both Christian and Jewish traditions.”
What are we to do if we want to celebrate this wonderful religious experience? Again the guidelines tell us, “Demonstration Seders arranged in cooperation with local synagogues are strongly encouraged. Wherever possible, a Jew should be invited to lead the Seder and assist Christians present to understand its ritual and meaning to the Jewish community…. In all events, Christians should take every care to ensure that the correct Jewish ritual is followed and that the Seder be respected in its full integrity.”
To this end each year our Catholic-Jewish Commission in conjunction with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Southern New Jersey sponsors an Interfaith Seder. St. Pius X Retreat House also celebrated an authentic Seder with Rabbi Jerry David before its closure. The combined effort this year will be a buffet style Kosher Seder to be held Sunday, March 25, at 4 p.m. at Kellman Brown Academy, 1007 Laurel Oak Road, Voorhees, NJ. Cost is $35/adult, $18/child. The Seder will be led by local rabbis. You can register on line at www.jcrcsnj.org RSVP required by March 22. For questions or more information, please call Helene Klimberg at 856-751-9500×1117. Or you can send your name and address along with your check to Helene Klimberg, JCRC, 1301 Springdale Road, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003.
I hope to see you at Kellman Brown Academy as we celebrate a traditional Passover Seder and be transformed from slavery to freedom. Hope to see the St. Pius X Retreat House participants as well.
Father Joseph D. Wallace is coordinator, Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs, Diocese of Camden.
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