Are Jews Still God’s Chosen People?
The reading in Mt.21:33-43,45-46, makes me wonder if Jews are still the chosen people of God. For a long time, I’ve thought that when Jesus died on Good Friday and the Temple veil was torn in turn it ended the Old Covenant the Father had with the Jews and it was replaced with the New Covenant with Christians.
Catholics United for Faith provides the answer to the question:
“…. but I’ll attempt here to provide a brief explanation based on Vatican II’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate), no. 4.
While the Church is the new people of God, “the Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from holy Scripture.” St. Paul affirms that to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises (Rom. 9:4-5). The above declaration further notes St. Paul’s teaching “that the Jews remain very dear to God, for the sake of the patriarchs, since God does not take back the gifts He bestowed or the choice He made.”
In a real way, Christians and Jews share a common spiritual heritage. Vatican II, mindful of this heritage and of the dictates of Christian charity, therefore strongly denounced all hatred, persecution, and other displays of anti-semitism against the Jewish people.
While Christ fulfilled the Old Testament covenants and Jews and Gentiles alike are called to accept Christ and His New Covenant ratified on the Cross, the Jews are in some the sense the “people of God” in terms of being the recipients of God’s irrevocable covenants in making them His chosen people. They are not the “people of God” inasmuch as this term is now commonly used to describe the Christian Church.”
Sincerely in Christ,
Leon Suprenant
President, CUF
Catholics United for the Faith
