After the Fall, God continued to reveal Himself to man through patriarchs and prophets, binding men to Himself in a series of covenants, leading to the final and inclusive Covenant sealed in the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. All other covenants are now obsolete (Hebrews 8:13).
True worship has always been offered to God, from the acceptable sacrifice of Abel to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: "For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles: and in every place there is sacrifice and there is offered to my name a clean oblation" (Malachi 1:11).
After the flood, God made a covenant with Noah: "I will set my covenant with you, and with your descendants after you… I will set my bow in the clouds and it shall be a token of the covenant between me and the earth" (Genesis 9:9;13). There is no biblical record, however, of God issuing seven commandments to Noah, the so-called Noahide Laws, which, according to the Jews, bind all mankind, except for the Jews themselves, who alone are bound by the Ten Commandments which God gave to Moses at Mount Sinai.
God also made a covenant with the patriarch Abraham, promising him numerous descendants. His descendants did indeed multiply. After the Twelve Tribes of Israel left Egypt under the leadership of Moses, God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, giving him the tablets of the Ten Commandments, and establishing a covenant with His chosen people. The covenant was ratified by the sprinkling of the blood of sacrificed animals upon the altar and upon the people: "Taking the Book of the Covenant, he (Moses) read it aloud to the people, who answered, 'All that the Lord has said, we will heed and do.' Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying, 'This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words of his'" (Exodus 24:7,8).
God also made a covenant with King David, promising that his Heir would sit upon his throne in a kingdom that would endure forever, as we hear from the words of the Angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he shall be king over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:30-33).
All earthly kingdoms have a fatal flaw that results in their eventual decline and fall. The forces of nature themselves seem to conspire to bring down what man has wrought, harassing us with droughts, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis and floods. The Davidic kingdom will endure only because the Son of David, Jesus Christ, the God-Man, now sits upon the Royal Throne, as Jesus infers in His conversation with the Pharisees recorded in today's Gospel:
"'What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is He?' They said to Him, 'David's.' He said to them, 'How then does David in the Spirit call Him Lord, saying, 'The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool'? If David calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his son?' And no one could answer Him a word…" (Matthew 22:42-46).
It should come as no surprise to us that the former things must pass away to make room for those which are more perfect. St. Paul speaks of the religious rites of the Old Covenant: "This first tabernacle is a figure of the present time, inasmuch as gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshipper in conscience, since they refer only to food and drink and various ablutions and bodily regulations imposed until a time of reformation. But when Christ appeared as high priest of the good things to come, He entered once for all through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made by hands (that is, not of this creation), nor again by virtue of blood of goats and calves, but by virtue of His own Blood, into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:9-12).
Yet the conciliar church, speaking with forked tongue, continues to lie to the Jews about the continuing validity of the Old Covenant. In an interview two years ago, Cardinal Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) was questioned about an apparently contradictory statement, "God did not revoke His covenant to the Israeli people, or the people of Israel, rather; but that Jesus is the Messiah for everyone and therefore, conversion was still necessary, or should be a possibility."
The Cardinal replied: "Perhaps, it's not our possibility to reconcile it, to leave it to God. Because two things are very clear in the Holy Scripture. In the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, he clearly says, 'The fidelity of God is absolutely clear. He is faithful to His promises.' And so, the people of Abraham are always God's people, on the one hand. And he says also clearly, 'All Israel will be saved.' But, it's also clear that Jesus is the Savior, not only of the other peoples, He is a Jew and He is the Savior, especially of His Own people." (The World Over: Cardinal Ratzinger Interview, Raymond Arroyo, EWTN, Sept. 5, 2003).
This is an astonishing piece of sophistry, a pathetic attempt to satisfy everyone. It is true that St. Paul says, "All Israel be saved" (Romans 11:26). But a few verses before that he says: "And they also (the Jews), if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in…" (Romans 11:23). By "all Israel," St. Paul means the surviving remnant of the Jews that shall be converted just before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Also, it is true that "the people of Abraham are always God's people," but who are "the people of Abraham?" St. Paul tells us: "Know therefore that the men of faith are the real sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, announced to Abraham beforehand, 'In thee shall all the nations be blessed.' Therefore the men of faith shall be blessed with faithful Abraham" Galatians 3:7-9).
Belief in Jesus Christ is a condition sine qua non for the attainment of salvation. It is cruelty to deceive the Jews, and to leave them in their unbelief. What a strange irony, that the reason for only a remnant of the Jews being saved in the end might be the refusal of the Church to preach to them the Gospel. We can only say to them, Believe in the Son of David, and be washed clean of your sins in the Blood of the true Lamb of God! For there is "one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, Who is above all, and throughout all, and in us all, Who is blessed forever and ever. Amen" (Ephesians 4:5,6).
