mountain

A new ecumenical religious community came into being recently through the foundation of the Little Sisters of Joy. I became aware of its existence through a 'chance' encounter with Sister Gila Margolin as we passed each other one Sunday morning, she on her way to Mass at the local Roman Catholic church, I on my way to the Parish Eucharist at the Anglican church in which I lend a hand as a retired priest. Sr. Gila is a Jewish woman who converted to Roman Catholicism in 1989. The Little Sisters are intended to be a foundation oriented to prayer, peace and reconciliation. Their vision embraces the whole human community, but one of their particular missions is 'To build bridges of peace between Jews and Christians, for it is from the same Stock that we both come'. Naturally, this is an aspect of the Sisters' work that is a matter of special concern for Sr. Gila.

And so it should be also for all Christians, for we too look back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as founding figures of our faith tradition. It is the God whom they knew who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sad story of Jewish-Christian conflict and persecution over the centuries is a matter for real repentance. Hostility between the two faiths is quite contrary to the spirit of St. Paul. In his wrestling with perplexity about how his Jewish heritage related to his new-found experience of salvation through faith in the risen Christ, an argument that he sets out in Romans 9-11, Paul answers his own question "has God rejected his people?' by a resounding 'By no means!'

Occasionally one feels that some Christians are in danger of forgetting that Jesus and the Apostles were all Jews. Much recent New Testament scholarship has been enriched by a recovery of knowledge about and interest in the Jewish background to Jesus's life. Jewish scholars such as Geza Vermes ¹, Christian scholars such as N.T. Wright ², and secular historians such as E.P. Sanders³, have all helped us to see more clearly the religious context of first century Judaism, and so to understand better the teaching and significance of Jesus of Nazareth.

We need to remember that when Paul and the other New Testament writers spoke of the 'scriptures', it was, of course, the Hebrew Bible to which they were referring, those writings that later Christians were to call the 'Old Testament'. Two passages from the Hebrew scriptures that are particularly significant for the Little Sisters in their joyful and peace-making mission are Isaiah 2:2-5 and Micah 4:1-5. These two passages are very similar to each other, only differing noticeably in their endings. Many scholars believe that this near identity derives from their both being derived from an earlier oracle that circulated in the oral tradition before becoming incorporated into two different collections of prophetic writings.

The central image of the passages is 'the mountain of the Lord's house', exalted above all other peaks, not in domination over the nations but as the focus of the desire of all people who long to learn the ways of God and to walk in God's paths. The picture is of a universal pilgrimage to the Temple on Mount Zion, in search of divine truth. The Christian meditating on these passages will think of how in 1 Peter 2:6, Jesus is identified as 'a corner stone chosen and precious' laid in Zion, and how in John's gospel (4:33), he says that "The hour is coming, and now is here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth", wherever they may be. The Writer to the Hebrews (12:22-24) tells his readers that they have come 'to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, &ldots;. And to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel'. The fact that the Christian sees in Jesus the fulfillment of the great hope first received and embraced by Jewish people, is to acknowledge our debt to our brothers and sisters in Judaism to whom, as Paul says, 'belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises, to whom belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah' (Romans 9:4-5).

According to the prophetic vision, as Torah flows from Zion, the result for the nations is the dawning of universal peace and prosperity. The weapons of war are turned into the agricultural implements of peace. "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more' (Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3). Lest we should think that this picture is just 'pie in the sky', the unrealistic image of a phantasy future, Micah adds his additional verse (4:4), describing peace in terms of everyday peasant prosperity and harmony, in which 'they shall all sit under their own vine and under their own fig trees'.

One can readily see why these two familiar and powerful passages from the Hebrew Scriptures hold a special significance for the Little Sisters of Joy as they seek to sow peace and reconciliation through a life of prayer and joyful simplicity.

John Polkinghorne

1.G. Vermes, Jesus the Jew, Collins, 1973.
2.N.T.Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, SPCK, 1992.
3.E.P. Sanders, The Historical Figures of Jesus, Penguin, 1993.

Sister Gila Margolin's address is: The Haven, 61 Edgecombe, Cambridge, ENGLAND CB4 2LW.
sistergila@hotmail.com