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Events and religious services are held in many places in Austria on Jewish Day. Since 2019, the focus has been divided over three days: the “Day of Learning” on 12 January, the “Day of Remembrance” on 15 January, and the “Day of Celebration” on 17 January. The Coordinating Committee for Christian-Jewish Cooperation organizes its own events and provides supporting information. Its new president is university professor Regina Polak.

Regina Polak organizes a field of research in practical theology with a focus on interfaith dialogue. When and why did you begin to study Judaism in depth?

Regina Polak: I read Jewish philosophers such as Martin Buber and Emmanuel Levinas while I was studying philosophy. I have always been interested in non-Christian thinkers because they broaden and inspire both scientific horizons and questions about the meaning of life. Engaging with their approach helps to clarify what is one’s own. Martin Jäggle, a professor of religious education who was my colleague at the University of Vienna, later introduced me to Christian-Jewish dialogue. This helped me better understand the person of Jesus. And I discovered the anti-Jewish tradition in Christianity, which I had not been aware of before.

It is a dark chapter in the history of the Church…

specializedPolak: Anti-Jewish tradition is deeply rooted in the matrix of the Church and theology. It is essential to be aware of this so that theology and faith can continue to develop. It is exhausting, but it also brings joy. I remember an event with a rabbi where we interpreted Old Testament texts together. It was so enriching to perceive the wealth of meanings in the texts! In Whichlove, ofJewish tradition, there is an excellent love of interpretive diversity. It has brought me an enormous deepening of my own faith. Later, I specialized further and completed a university course in Krems on interfaith encounters between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Interreligious dialogue is not just a hobby, but actually an obligation for believers. You have to know your own traditions and those of others well. You cannot be a Christian without reference to Judaism.

However, it is no longer so easy to establish a living connection to Judaism in Austria. Since the Shoah, only about 10,000 to 15,000 Jewish people live in Austria, most of them in Vienna.

Polak: On Judaism Day on 17 January, there are events and opportunities to meet in many cities across Austria. In the digital age, however, there are additional ways to engage, such as YouTube, podcasts, or good old books (see the extra box for tips). Dialogue is above all a spiritual attitude!

With Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council brought about a turnaround in the understanding of Judaism. Is there a need for a new document on the relationship with Judaism?

Polak: Many documents have been published since then. The Catholic Magisterium is further ahead on this point than global theology and is often not sufficiently appreciated. In this regard, John Paul II cannot be highly enough esteemed theologically. This also applies to his teaching on Islam. The Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism published the document “Guidelines for a Correct Presentation of Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis in the Catholic Church” back in 1985. It contains some fundamental points. The Vatican website, vatican. VA has a wealth of additional documents.

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Anti-Semitism is growing rapidly again in Austria and worldwide. How is this manifested?

Polak: The study “What does Austria believe?”, which our institute conducted in 2024 in collaboration with ORF, shows that anti-Semitism is on the rise across society. For example, a culture of remembrance is not welcome. Forty percent of those surveyed are “against constantly bringing up the fact that Jews died in the Second World War”. Anti-Semitism is particularly pronounced on the left and right wings of the political spectrum. It is even stronger on the right than on the left, but it is also present on the left. Anti-Semitism is like a chameleon and changes throughout history. One of the most significant challenges is certainly anti-Semitism related to Israel.

What should we be mindful of? Unfortunately, anti-Semitic statements can also be made unintentionally.

Polak: Yes, the question is, for example, how to express justified criticism of the Netanyahu government’s policies. Stereotypes often lead to Israel being delegitimized or demonized, or to double standards being applied. This is also referred to as the “3 Ds” of anti-Semitism. Criticism of government decisions in Israel – as in other countries—should address human rights, international law, or political issues, but not question the right of the State of Israel to exist.

Back to Austria once again: As the new president of the Coordinating Committee for Christian-Jewish Cooperation, what are your priorities?

Polak: I don’t set the priorities alone. The Coordination Committee is a living network. Vice President Margit Leuthold is Protestant; Vice-President Willy Weisz is Jewish. Managing Director Yuval Katz-Wilfing is also Jewish. We are concerned with the renewal of the churches in the spirit of Christian-Jewish dialogue. This applies to all areas, including sermons, schools, and religious education… Our tasks also include promoting factual knowledge of Judaism, addressing Christian hostility towards Jews throughout history, keeping the memory of the Shoah alive, and combating hostility towards Jews, anti-Semitism, and all forms of racism.

What are the challenges today?

Polak: Our migrant society is also changing something in the culture of remembrance. I would like to see a growing awareness in Austria that history is not over. Not for the Jewish families whose families were exterminated. And also not for those families who have not dealt sufficiently with the role their ancestors played during the Nazi era.
Incidentally, the Coordination Committee will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2027, which will be an important milestone. Our work offers many opportunities to learn more about and deepen not only Judaism but also our own Christian faith through dialogue. It is very easy to find out more about us or become a member. Members receive regular event information and access to documents and can also use our excellent library.

The threshold for this is high because many people are worried about saying something wrong and then being labelled anti-Semitic …

Polak: I’ve seen this in my classes too. Many people are afraid of saying the wrong thing. If you want to change that, you have to jump in and say something wrong once in a while. Yes, you will make mistakes, but not because you are a bad person, but because anti-Jewish motives are so deeply ingrained in the collective memory. I, too, have put my foot in it many times and know how ashamed you feel afterwards. It is okay to make mistakes when you are learning something new. This creates a space in which you can discover many new and exciting things.

No person can justify himself if he darkens his conscience with sin and personal guilt. We cannot stand before the mirror of the soul and say to ourselves, “I forgive myself.” This strategy does not work. And even if someone wants to cleanse his inner self in this way—and there are methods of such cleansing even today—he is deceiving himself. Conscience cannot be deceived. It can be dulled by lies, self-justification, and excuses for external conditions, which force us to act. However, we cannot fool ourselves. Even if we partially succeed, conscience will rise at the worst time and manifest as various fears, anxieties, concerns, and physical and mental issues.

Jesus understands that the soul’s disease, which is our separation from the source of life—God—is far worse than any physical illness or pain. Therefore, with love, from the depths of his merciful will, he first says to the person with paralysis, ‘Your sins are forgiven you’. This real intervention in the conscience of man contains a compelling justification. It is, in fact, a decision of the authority that shapes our conscience and to which we are accountable. This forgiveness of Christ is healing and creates light at the core of our existence when the source of our being is healed. And this light then illuminates all the spaces, levels, and spheres of human existence. God’s forgiveness in the sacrament of reconciliation is the proper foundation of our physical and psychological healing, even if emotional deposits remain within us that can sometimes prevent us from experiencing the perfect joy of Jesus’ mercy.

Lord Jesus, eternal Mercy of the Father, come with your grace, give us the gift of overcoming all unnecessary fears of confessing our sins in the sacrament of reconciliation. In this sacrament, you want to touch us and heal us with the power of your love, which was revealed on the cross. Come, Lord, and make your home in us. Be the guardian of the purity of our conscience. Amen.

Love cannot be neutral or impartial.

“‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.'” Jesus had compassion for him. He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be clean’ (cf. Mk 1:40-41). Jesus’ compassion! This “fellow feeling” drew Jesus close to every suffering person. Jesus does not hesitate; instead, he allows himself to be captivated by the pain and needs of people because he knows how to “feel for others” and has a heart unashamed of “fellow feeling.” “Jesus could no longer openly enter a city but stayed outside in deserted places” (Mk 1:45). This means that in addition to healing the leper, Jesus also took upon himself the marginalization imposed by the Mosaic Law (cf. Lv 13:1-2, 45-46). Jesus accepts others’ suffering, even at the cost of his own (cf. Is 53:4).

Compassion leads Jesus to concrete action: to reintegrate those who are marginalized. These are the three key concepts that the Church presents in today’s Liturgy of the Word: Jesus’ compassion for marginalization and his efforts to integrate. Marginalization: Moses, who approached the question of lepers in a legal way, asked that they be separated and marginalized as long as they were affected by their disease, declaring them “unclean” (cf. Lev 13:1-2, 45-46).

Imagine how much suffering and shame the leper must have experienced: physically, socially, psychologically, and spiritually! He is not only a victim of the disease but also feels guilty about it, punished for his sins! He is a living corpse, “like one whose father has spit in his face” (cf. Num 12:14). Furthermore, the leper experiences fear, contempt, and disgust and is therefore abandoned by his own relatives, shunned by others, and pushed to the margins of society, and even society itself expels him and forces him to live in places far from the healthy, excluding him. The situation is to the point that if a healthy person approaches a leper, he is severely affected and is often treated in the same way as a leper.

It is true that these regulations were designed to save the healthy and protect the righteous. Their protection against every risk consisted in delaying the “danger” by treating the infected person mercilessly. This is why the high priest Caiaphas declared, “It is better for you that one man should die for the people than that the whole nation should perish” (John 11:50).

Integration: Jesus overturns that mentality closed in fear and limited by prejudice and shakes it powerfully. However, he does not abolish the Law of Moses but rather fulfills it (cf. Mt 5:17) when, for example, he proclaims the counterproductive effectiveness of the law of an eye for an eye and asserts that God does not want the observance of the Sabbath to be at the expense of man and to be rejected, or when he does not condemn the sinner but saves her from the blind zeal of those who were ready to stone her without mercy, considering it an application of the Law of Moses. Jesus also turns consciences with the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Mt 5), when he opens new horizons to humanity and reveals the fullness of God’s logic. The logic of love, which is not based on fear but on freedom, love, healthy zeal, and God’s desire for salvation: “God our Savior wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:3-4). “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Mt 12:7; Hos 6:6).

Jesus, the new Moses, wanted to heal the leper; he wanted to touch him, and he wanted to reintegrate him into the community without having to limit himself with prejudices, adapt to the prevailing mentality of the people, or worry about contagion. Jesus responds to the leper’s request without hesitation and without the usual delays to study the situation and all the possible consequences! For Jesus, what is important above all is the salvation of those who are far away, the healing of the wounds of the sick, and the reintegration of everyone into the family of God. This offends some!

Jesus is not afraid of this type of offense! He is thinking of open people who embrace healing and welcome any openness, any step that fits into their mental and spiritual patterns, and any caress or tenderness that corresponds to their habits of thought and their ritual purity. He wanted to integrate the marginalized, to save those who are separated (cf. Jn 10).

There are two logics of thought and faith: the fear of losing the saved and the desire to save the lost. Today too, these two logics sometimes intersect: that of the teachers of the Law, namely, to marginalize risks and to distance the infected person; and the logic of God, who, with his mercy, embraces and accepts, integrates and transforms evil into good, condemnation into salvation, and exclusion into proclamation.

These two logics permeate the entire history of the Church: marginalization and reintegration. St. Paul, fulfilling the Lord’s commandment to carry the message of the Gospel to the ends of the earth (cf. Mt 28:19), causes scandal and encounters strong resistance and severe hostility, especially from those who demanded unconditional observance of the Mosaic Law even from converted pagans. Also, St. Peter is harshly criticized by the community when he enters the house of the centurion Cornelius (cf. Acts 10).

The Church’s journey from the Council of Jerusalem to the present day has been, without interruption, Jesus’ path of mercy and integration. This does not mean underestimating the dangers or allowing wolves to approach the flock, but rather welcoming the repentant prodigal son, resolutely and courageously healing the wounds of sin, rolling up one’s sleeves, and not remaining passively looking at the suffering of the world. The Church’s journey is not to condemn anyone forever, but to spread the mercy of God to all people who desire it with a sincere heart. The Church’s journey consists precisely in going outside the fold, in seeking out those who are distant on the essential “peripheries” of life, and in fully accepting God’s logic, in following the Master who said, “Those who are healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Lk 5:31-32).

By healing the leper, Jesus does not harm the healthy, but rather frees them from fear; he does not expose them to danger, but provides them a brother; he does not despise the Law, but values ​​the person for whom God inspired the Law. Jesus truly frees the healthy from the temptation of the “elder brother” (cf. Lk 15:11-32) and from the burden of envy and the grumbling of the “laborers who bore the burden of the day and the heat” (cf. Mt 20:1-16).

Consequently, love cannot be neutral, aseptic, indifferent, lukewarm, or impartial! Love is contagious; it excites and threatens to captivate! True love is always undeserved, unconditional, and selfless! (cf. 1 Cor 13). Love is creative in finding the right vocabulary to share with all those who are considered incurable and untouchable. We need to acquire the right vocabulary. Contact is the truly communicative vocabulary, the same emotional vocabulary that gave health to the leper. How many healings can we accomplish and bring about if we learn this vocabulary of contact! The leper became a herald of God’s love. The Gospel says, “He went away and began to proclaim it zealously and to spread the news” (Mk 1:45).

This is the logic of Jesus; this is the path of the Church: not only to welcome and integrate with evangelical courage those who knock on our door, but to go without prejudice and fear to seek out those who are far away and to show them freely what we ourselves have received . “He who claims to remain in Christ ought himself to walk just as he walked” (1 Jn 2:6). Total availability in the service of others is our distinguishing mark, our only title of honor!

(…) I invite you to serve the crucified Jesus in every person who is marginalized for whatever reason and to see the Lord in every excluded person who is hungry, thirsty, and unclothed; to see the Lord also present in those who have lost faith, have distanced themselves from the life of their faith, or have declared themselves atheists; the Lord who is in prison, sick, unemployed, and persecuted; the Lord who is in the leper in body and soul and in the discriminated against! We will discover the Lord if we truly welcome the marginalized! Let us always remember Saint Francis, who was not afraid to welcome the leper and those who suffer from any kind of marginalization. Dear brothers, the gospel of the marginalized, in fact, reveals our credibility!

Don Bosco was visiting a wealthy family in Turin. They showed him their home and then their three sons. The mother pointed with pride to each of them, saying: ‘This one is studying medicine—he’ll be a doctor.’ This one has technical talent. He will undoubtedly become an engineer.’ When the youngest child stopped speaking, Don Bosco said that he would undoubtedly become a priest. The mother was shocked and replied, ‘He would rather die.’ Don Bosco was saddened. Some time later, the boy died. His death was not a punishment from God, but a warning that we do not control our fate; it is God who directs everything.

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up. He entered the synagogue, opened the book, and read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” All eyes focused on him. Jesus’ final words were, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled.” The time has been fulfilled. Since the birth of Jesus divided history into the time before and after him, he has been here among us continuously in the Holy Church. Have we ever considered what we should leave behind and what we should adopt so that we, too, can say of ourselves that the Spirit of the Lord is upon us? He chooses men for this proclamation who will announce the gospel and call people to repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He is the one who keeps calling; he wants the basic proclamation of the coming of the Kingdom of God to be spread.

Indira Gandhi (1917-1984), the Indian Prime Minister, sent her children to study at Oxford University in England. Journalists reproached her, saying that even in India, there were already schools on par with English ones, that she was not patriotic enough, and that she was not serving the interests of India. She replied, “I want our people to understand the English mentality well so they can bring new ideas to raise India’s level.” Those who live in their environment will better assimilate its elements and transfer them to other cultures. Christ comes from the life of God, from the love of the Father for this world, and brings a new culture, a different life. Through Christ, we can be in the love of the Father. He will help us identify our mission among people, so we can say, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” and help those with whom we live feel it too.

 If someone were to ask you what you found fascinating about today’s reading, it probably wouldn’t be this sentence. You could emphasize how Jesus rescued the apostles by appearing on the water and calming the storm. After all, he magnificently demonstrated his power and certainly dispelled the apostles’ doubts. Miracles naturally attract our attention. But at least as important is the fact that Jesus prayed. This means that although he had a divine nature, he consciously submitted to his Father. Mark writes that Jesus got up early in the morning and prayed in a “deserted place” (Mark 1:35). He always carefully followed his Father’s will and his plan for our salvation. 

And what about us? But Jesus needed to pray; how much more do we need to be in contact with God! If we don’t pray at all, the first problem we encounter will derail us. If we rarely pray, we will give up too easily and fail to listen to the Lord. But if we follow Jesus’ example, regularly withdrawing into silence and seeking God’s presence, we will likely achieve results similar to his. Even if we don’t witness miracles and our problems persist, we can find peace in knowing that Jesus is alongside us, calming the turmoil in our hearts and fortifying our faith. 

Occasionally, God’s glory is revealed in times of crisis or urgency; other times, we encounter the Lord when life is going smoothly, and everything is as calm as the still surface of a lake. Both of these experiences are precious and rewarding, but wisdom teaches us not to put off seeking the Lord until an emergency. It is best to seek him every day. God wants you to become a proclaimer of his truth and love. You don’t have to walk on water to help someone else accept Christ into their life, but you definitely have to pray!