In Defense of the Seder Meal for Catholics
We are not only allowed but encouraged to celebrate this devotion.
I’m writing this article because it seems as though every Lent this question comes up in certain corners of the Catholic online universe: is it permissible or acceptable for Catholics to celebrate the Passover Seder Meal along with Easter? Answers vary and pockets of controversy abound. In hopes to bring about some clarity on this issue, I began writing this article last year, but did not finish it until this one. Feel free to use it as a resource if you come across Catholics discussing this issue.
Our family has always done the Seder Meal during Holy Week. In fact, my children compose the third generation of Gentile Seder Meal participants. My parents began doing the Seder —that is, the Passover meal—when I was a small child—and I loved its solemn and joyful power. When I met my husband, he told me that his family also had a Seder meal tradition, which they picked up from Mary Ray Newland’s classic Catholic book of festivities The Year and Our Children—and he also had come to love the Seder. So we gladly began doing Seder with our children—and they look forward to it every year. None of us have a Jewish background. But the Passover has become a part of our lives, and hopefully our children and grandchildren’s as well.
It is out of love and respect and to honor the Jewish people that our parents began celebrating the Passover – in case that’s not obvious. In the 1970s, as the generations who experienced the horrors of the Holocaust began to die off, there seems to have been a resolution among many Catholics to take substantial and concrete steps to honor the Jewish people, as a way of making firm the promise of “never again!” and to inoculate Catholics against falling into the lies of anti-Semitism that had so grievously led Catholics of the past into colluding with Nazis and other enemies of the Jews. For us, the Seder meal is an annual reminder of our connection to the Jewish people and our spiritual debt to them, and it makes it very real for our children. If you have ever engaged in a Passover ceremony before, then I think you may understand what I mean. Moses and the Israelite flight from Egypt is no longer just a story in an old book—it becomes our story as well. Freedom from slavery to sin began on this night, “which is unlike any other night.”
Those who know me personally have heard me call myself a “raving philo-Semite” —the polar opposite of an anti-Semite. I have had a lifelong love for the Jewish people and a fascination with their story, and since I am a Gentile, I’m not quite sure where it came from. All I know is that as I grew closer to Christ, I fell in love with His background, and with the story of His people. The Jews, like the Church Christ founded, are still with us after thousands of years, and their presence is a mystery that continues to give the lie to the materialistic worldview. Additionally, their persistence in surviving seems to be as much of a nuisance to materialists as that of the Catholic Church, which similarly obstinately refuses to die. One Hebrew Catholic friend once quipped: “Every Jewish holiday can be summed up as ‘They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s drink wine!’”
What is the Passover Service?
God commanded the Jews to celebrate the Passover to commemorate their deliverance from Egyptian slavery and most Jews still do. The term “Seder” means “order” and refers to the home ceremony of the Jewish people celebrated in the home the first night or two nights of Passover, or Pesach, which is several days long. The Passover service was given to the people of Israel on the night when the Lord sent the tenth plague upon the Egyptians, redeeming the first-born of the people of Israel through the blood of a lamb painted with hyssop on their doorframes. The history of the actual ceremony is debated and I am no one to judge here as to which version is most accurate. As a Gentile wishing to honor the Jewish people, I use a version of the ceremony they currently use, of which more than one version exists. Here’s a simple Passover service for non-Hebrew speakers: of course there are also ones in Hebrew. Our family has always added readings from Christ’s celebration of the Passover in the Gospels (all four Gospels show the Passover, although John omits much of what the others have) as well as lines showing how Christ fulfilled the promises of the Seder meal.
The service begins with the mother lighting candles (as is done weekly on the Jewish Sabbath), then the first of four cups of wine is poured, blessed, and drunk. The father ritually washes his hands (at this point, John the Evangelist has Christ washing the feet of His disciples). Bitter herbs, usually parsley are dipped in salt water and eaten. Our family uses three large home-baked matzo: the first is now broken and the third is hidden (to be stolen by the children, according to long custom). The children then ask questions of their elders (this is explicitly an intergenerational ceremony, whose very purpose is to pass on the service to the next generation): “Why is this night different from all other nights? Why on this night do we eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs? Why on this night to we eat the Passover meal?” And the father responds by telling or reading the story of the Passover from the Bible and answering with a resounding, “This is why we make this night different from all other nights: each of us should see ourselves as coming out of Egypt, because God rescued our Hebrew forefathers in the faith in order to rescue us.” Both Jew and Catholic can say this with heartfelt resonance.
Then comes the Dayenu, one of our favorite prayers of thanksgiving, a series of ascending remembrances and gratitude: “If God had brought us out of Egypt but had not brought us through the Red Sea…” and the response “It would have been enough!” The remembrances continue and build: “Had He brought us through the Red Sea but not preserved us in the desert….Had He preserved us in the desert but not fed us with manna … Had He fed us with manna but not brought forth water from the rock …” On and on the wondrous deeds of the Lord are recalled, each ending with the resounding “It would have been enough!” And our family continues to go on through the Old Testament into the New Covenant: “Had He sent us the prophets but not sent us His Son, the Messiah… Had He sent us His Son but not given us His Mother … Had He given us His Mother but not founded His Church…” Until finally concluding with “How much MORE grateful are we to be to the LORD Who has done all these great things for us?”
Then a Psalm of praise is sung or chanted, the first matzo is passed and eaten, the second cup of wine is blessed and drunk, and the Passover meal is served. Afterwards the second matzo and the third cup are blessed, and we recall that it was at this moment that Christ instituted the Holy Eucharist. Then dessert is served, and the meal ends with more psalms and the fourth cup of wine, the cup some Catholic commentators say Christ deferred drinking until “the kingdom had come.” His drinking of the sour wine upon the Cross finished His Passover and accomplished our salvation. These are profound thoughts to meditate upon during Passion Week.
Since we don’t want to compete with the services of Holy Thursday, our family always holds the Seder Meal on the Wednesday of Holy Week and begins the fast of the Triduum. For the adults, it usually the last meat we eat until Easter Sunday.
I am summarizing here only: if you are interested, here is our family’s Seder meal service. But every detail of the Passover meal, from abstaining from any foods containing yeast or baking soda to the arrangement of the table to the traditions of Elijah’s cup and the uneaten third matzo is significant. It is said the first two matzos represent the part of the faith that parents can give to their children: we can give them Scripture and tradition. But the third part of the faith is the part that cannot be given—it must be sought by yourself if you are to have it. The third matzo, the Afikomen, (dessert) is the hidden part of God, analogous to His Spirit. The children are thus invited to “steal the afikomen” and to taste the sweetness of God for themselves. I don’t know how they do it, but each year, the children always manage to successfully steal the matzo right out from under the nose of their father! (And they usually share it with us.)
Objections to the Seder Meal
Periodically, certain Catholics object to the Seder Meal tradition among Catholics. The objection I heard growing up is that it is disrespectful to the Jewish people, but most Jews who hear that we Gentiles celebrate the Passover have been touched and honored, and it seems logical to them that we would add our Christian reflections. Although honestly, I would understand if they objected: it is a testimony to the great charity and tolerance of the Jews I have met that they don’t.
But the objections I hear about once a year is that it is wrong or sinful for Catholics to celebrate the Passover, and here the accusation is that to do so is a denial of the sacraments. Claimants usually buttress their arguments with quotes from the Middle Ages that most Catholics have never heard of, which on the face of it, sound convincing. This is the objection I’d like to deal with in this article, and here I freely admit my debt to Brother Gilbert Bloomer, a Hebrew Catholic who is a consecrated brother living in a religious community in Australia. Brother Gilbert has researched this question extensively, and you can read my summary of his arguments below, or you can just read the original article here.
Br. Gilbert first answers the objection (usually given by anti-Semites) that the modern Jewish Seder has no connection whatsoever to the Passover celebrated in the Old Testament by Christ, since the Jewish religion changed with the Fall of the Temple. He notes the logical inconsistency of this argument and then argues that on the contrary, both the old and the new Passover are “intrinsically connected and spiritually and mystically linked to each other and to the sacrifice of the Messiah on the Cross.” The celebration of the Passover by the Jews, which they do in obedience to the command given to them by God, keeps their hearts prepared in some way we cannot now understand, for the revelation of Jesus Christ, which the Church believes will happen before the return of Christ.
Next, he clarifies why Hebrew Catholics like himself continue to celebrate the Seder:
“I think all Jews in the Church would accept the principle that keeping the ceremonies and rituals of the Old Covenant as necessary for salvation or as if the Messiah had not been born, is wrong. We do not keep the Passover Seder as if the Messiah had not been born nor do we keep it as a means to salvation. In fact it gives us a greater feeling of anticipation for the Second Coming of the Messiah.”
He then points out that yes, Mother Church has examined the question of whether or not Catholics are allowed to celebrate the Seder. In 1756, Pope Benedict XIV (the fourteenth) specifically addressed this question and decided that yes, Gentile Catholics can celebrate Old Covenant feasts and rituals if they are given a New Covenant purpose or meaning. (And if you think about it, the Church has been utilizing Jewish ceremonies and rituals from her very beginnings, since she arose from the Jewish people — everything from priestly vestments to fasting to unleavened bread to over 75% of our Scripture comes from the Jews.) The Pope even commented in that same letter that he could as Pope impose kosher laws on all Catholics as a discipline if he was inclined to do so for a spiritual purpose, so he had no problem with Catholics of Hebrew or Gentile origin who wished to keep kosher as a private or community discipline, as some religious orders do.
Brother Gilbert observes:
A Jew who has come to faith in the Messiah Jesus and his Church now sees the Passover Seder with new eyes that perceives Jesus and Mary hidden in the Passover ritual whether one celebrates it as it is or with Christian additions. It is impossible for a Catholic Jew to celebrate Passover as if the Messiah had not come, as everything in the celebration speaks of his Presence and brings one to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the transformed Passover Seder that is the Eucharist. A Catholic Jew who observes the Passover Seder always observes it in the light of the New Covenant which gives it a new meaning and purpose in the interior life of the Catholic Jew. In fact most Jews who enter the church today have found that the Passover means so much more to them now than before they entered the Church.
And back to the first objection, that Catholics should not Christianize the Seder meal, Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict the Sixteenth, begs to disagree:
"...it seems to me, this Passover celebration which has come down to us from the nomads, via Israel and through Christ, also has (in the deepest sense) an eminently political significance. We as a nation, we in Europe, need to go back to our spiritual roots, lest we become lost in self-destruction. This feast needs to become a family celebration once again, for it is the family that is the real bastion of creation and humanity. Passover is a summons, urgently reminding us that the family is the living home in which humanity is nurtured, which banishes chaos and futility, and which must be protected as such. But we must add that the family can only be this sphere of humanity, this bastion of creation, if it is under the banner of the Lamb, if it is protected by the power of faith which comes from the love of Jesus Christ..."
I’ll let Br. Gilbert explain:
Here we see Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) calling for all Catholics to celebrate with their families the Passover Seder for deep theological and spiritual reasons connected with preserving the faith in the family. Many modern Catholics seem to have lost the customs of making God part of the ordinary life of the family and they could learn much from the Orthodox Jewish families who bring God in a natural and spiritual way into the daily rhythm of family life. So those priests and bishops who encourage and participate with the laity in Passover Seders all over the Catholic world are the ones who are in tune with the thinking of our recent Popes.
Thus, I will joyfully celebrate the Passover with my family and friends this coming week because of our love for the Jewish people, out of gratitude for our Messiah, and out of obedience to the wishes of our Church leaders. It’s a wonderful tool for Culture Recovery, and I hope that if you don’t currently celebrate the Seder during Holy Week, that you will consider taking up the practice.
Blessed Lent and Triduum!