“The Saviour’s Transfiguration,” icon. Ab. 1403, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. Author unknown (until recently it was believed that the icon was painted by Theophanes the Greek). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Each year the ancient Christian practice of a penitential season in preparation for Holy Week and Easter becomes an integral part of our spiritual journey. The forty-day period follows the pattern established by Moses, Elijah and Jesus, without the same rigor of their fast!

This year Pope Francis continues to draw attention to the synodal process of the universal Church in preparation for the Synod of Bishops in October 2023 and 2024.The message focuses on the Synoptic Gospel account of the Transfiguration of Jesus before Peter, James and John on a high mountain in Galilee. It provides much food for thought.

With sadness I learned that a friend from the early years of my work in Edmonton Alberta, Franklin Henderson, has passed from this world. However, I imagine that both he and his wife Ruth are marveling to be part of the Heavenly Liturgy!

The Archdiocese of Edmonton, Alberta was enriched in many ways when the city grew greatly in population during the 1960s. The University of Alberta hired Dr. Joseph Franklin Henderson in 1963 in the Department of Biochemistry, where he worked with the Faculty of Medicine and published widely. His beloved wife Ruth was pleased to share that citations of Frank’s publications topped a thousand in many a year.

Frank’s approach to the challenges of scientific research was carried into the areas of interfaith relations and the history of the Latin Rite liturgy. In the year when full membership in the North American Academy of Liturgy was restricted to those who had advanced studies in the field, Frank was honored for his significant contribution to this Academy.

He and I participated in Jewish-Christian studies at the International Congress of Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, Michigan) and contributed the essay “Jews and Judaism in the Medieval Latin Liturgy” to the volume The Liturgy of the Medieval Church (Medieval Institute Publications, 2005). In the late 1970s we were participants in the consultation of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy regarding inclusive language in English liturgical texts.

May Frank rest in peace, rewarded for his many contributions to human understanding of the fields of medicine and Christian worship. May his soul rest in peace!

On February 8, 2023 the Church observed the ninth International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking on the feast of Josephine Bakhita (1869-1947), who was abducted and enslaved in South Sudan at the age of 9. Eventually she escaped the worst fate when, at the age of 15, she was purchased by an Italian family. She came to Italy and found freedom.

As a religious Sister of the Canossian Congregation, Josephine Bakhita gave witness to a life of Christian service. She was canonized by Pope Saint John Paul II and is the patroness of those trapped in servitude. Imposed by her abductors, her name Bakhita means “Lucky One.” What some call “Luck” she recognized to be the gift of God which brings eternal blessing.

Below is the video message of Pope Francis for the Ninth International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking on the theme Journeying in dignity, which you can also read in English here.

May those in need of the basic freedom to experience their personal dignity be helped by our prayer and action every day!

Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the Belém Cultural Center in Lisbon in 2010. Photo credit: M.Mazur/www.thepapalvisit.org.uk.

As we recall the life of Joseph Ratzinger, many will focus attention on his theological treatises and his three volumes on Jesus of Nazareth, published under his personal name during his reign as successor of St. Peter the Apostle.

We recall as well his love of music and his attention to Mozart’s works. In The Tablet of July 11, 2015, Christa Pongratz and James Roberts told of an honorary doctorate he received from the Pontifical University of John Paul II University in Krakow.  They remarked:

“It remains indelibly impressed in my memory how, for example, as soon as the first notes resounded from Mozart’s ‘Coronation Mass’, the heavens practically opened and you experienced, very deeply, the Lord’s presence,” the 88-year-old Benedict said.

He recalled the “dramatic tension” after the Second Vatican Council between those who thought large choral works and orchestrated Masses no longer had a place in the liturgy and should only be performed in concert halls, and those who feared the cultural impoverishment this would lead to.

“There is great literature, great architecture, great art and great sculpture in the diverse cultures and religious fields. And there is music everywhere. But you will not find music of the magnitude of that which the Christian world brought forth – the music of Palestrina, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and Bruckner – in any other cultural region,” Benedict said. “This music is unique…it must not disappear from the liturgy as its presence means partaking in the mystery of faith in a very special way.”

As we recall the theological insights of Pope Benedict XVI we might also consider the way in which music inspires a reflection on the hints of the divine order that are offered to those who listen for the sublime and bring this gift into our daily lives.

For Catholics the First of January, the Octave of Christmas, is the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, with the Gospel of Luke telling of the Circumcision of Jesus. In the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, another dimension was added. Pope St. Paul VI declared that this day also should be a time of prayer for peace throughout the world.

We continue to need such a time of prayer, with its challenge to become ever better builders of peace in our situation of life.

Each year the Pope offers a message of peace for the world to consider. Each person and group is invited to incorporate aspects of these reflections into their own lives. I invite our readers to consider Pope Francis’s message for the 56^th World Day of Peace.

May this reflection on our common vulnerability help us to see that our shared response can include acts of service in the name of common hope for true and lasting peace.

Rabbi Alan Brill, Ph.D.

Rabbi Dr. Alan Brill will present, “A Jewish View of Contemporary Ideas of the Trinity,” as the Twenty-Ninth Annual Monsignor John M. Oesterreicher Memorial Lecture.

The event will be presented online through Microsoft Teams on Thursday, October 27, 2022, at 7:45 p.m. and may be accessed by clicking here.

Rabbi Brill is the Cooperman/Ross Endowed Chair for Jewish-Christian Studies at Seton Hall University, where he teaches Jewish studies in the Department of Religion and the Jewish-Christian Studies (JCST) Graduate Program. He is also the director of the JCST program.

Dr. Brill specializes in interfaith theology, Jewish mysticism, modern Jewish thought and contemporary Jewish Orthodoxy. His forthcoming book, A Jewish View of the Trinity, Incarnation, and Salvation will be published by Fortress Press in 2023.

The event is sponsored by the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies and is free and open to the public. I hope you will join us this Thursday!

Johann Reuchlin (1455–1522)

The advancement of knowledge in any discipline involves both intensive research by individuals and collaboration among scholars across languages and cultures. In past centuries European scholars used Latin as the common language for exchange.

Serious efforts were made to build on the legacy of ancient translations of the Hebrew Bible in Greek and Latin. The translation of Aristotle’s works and Arabic commentaries brought new challenges to revitalize the search for knowledge. Sometimes these endeavors developed in a spirit of collaboration and with a search for justice on behalf of a minority.

Johann Reuchlin (1455–1522) was educated in the Latin of the Middle Ages, but he learned Hebrew to share areas of Jewish scholarship and practice with people of good will and intellectual curiosity. After meeting Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463 -1494) in Florence in 1490, Reuchlin became interested in Kabbalah. His purpose included the elucidation of Jewish mystical traditions for the benefit of Christian theology and piety.

The great contribution of Reuchlin was not only to tap Jewish sources, but also to defend the rights of Jews (grounded in Roman law beginning with the privileges granted long ago by Julius Caesar) and to respect the Jewish literary heritage.

After the invention of the printing press, the ancient practice of burning books was less destructive of a heritage but has continued into modern times as an act of rejection regarding the value of another culture. At great personal cost, Reuchlin defended the Jewish texts that others tried to defile. His “Expert Opinion concerning the Destruction of Jewish Books” opposed confiscation of Jewish liturgical and theological books. Jews were to be treated kindly to fulfill the command to love our neighbor.

Tragically that teaching of the Torah (Lev 19:18) and Jesus was ignored in many Christian settings! The witness of scholars today can be enhanced by recalling those who struggled against bigotry in their time.

See my review of Franz Posset, Johann Reuchlin (1465- 1522): A Theological Biography in SCJR 13 no. 1 (2018) p. 1-3.