A story came up that students of a Catholic school chanted “You Killed Jesus” to their Jewish Rivals in a playoff basketball game…really??
First off, we all killed Jesus. Did he not die for all of our sins? Second, the Catholic Church does not teach that “the Jews” killed Jesus. From the Catechism:
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Jews are not collectively responsible for Jesus’ death
The historical complexity of Jesus’ trial is apparent in the Gospel accounts. The personal sin of the participants (Judas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate) is known to God alone. Hence we cannot lay responsibility for the trial on the Jews in Jerusalem as a whole, despite the outcry of a manipulated crowd and the global reproaches contained in the apostles’ calls to conversion after Pentecost. Jesus himself, in forgiving them on the cross, and Peter in following suit, both accept “the ignorance” of the Jews of Jerusalem and even of their leaders. Still less can we extend responsibility to other Jews of different times and places, based merely on the crowd’s cry: “His blood be on us and on our children!”, a formula for ratifying a judicial sentence. As the Church declared at the Second Vatican Council:
. . . [N]either all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his Passion. . . [T]he Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from holy Scripture.
All sinners were the authors of Christ’s Passion.
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Not cool Catholic School students in Boston, not cool.
What was cool was the fact that the students all apologized and shook the principal’s hand after the game, and that the school apologized while condemning the action.
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“They were very apologetic. They said they would address the incident with their students on Monday,” Fleishman said.
On Saturday afternoon, Catholic Memorial School released a statement on the incident, saying: “Catholic Memorial School is deeply disturbed by the behavior of a group of student spectators who made an unacceptable chant Friday night while playing Newton North High School.”
In addition to Catholic Memorial’s statement about the incident, the Archdiocese of Boston also reacted, calling the situation “unacceptable.”
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Hopefully, they learned their lesson and will read up on the Catholic Church’s teaching. Don’t forget one of Jesus’s commandment’s to us: “love your neighbor as yourself.”
What can we learn from this? There are good and bad decisions that can be made by everyone regardless of religion. Did the Jews kill Jesus? No, we all did. The cool thing is we can all ask for His forgiveness and should also ask it of each other. Should the school be forgiven? Absolutely! …”Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us..”
God allows us to repent and will forgive us when we ask Him to. So when we fall, we can get back up, just like Jesus….and just like Batman.