Spiritual Reflection, September 2022
Houses with Holes
I will never forget the conversation I had years ago with the wife of a prominent Jewish-Catholic theologian. The dinner started with her bluntly stating that she could not see the point of an organization such as Yachad BeYeshua. She claimed that her Jewish identity was totally fulfilled by living as a practicing Catholic.
I found myself in the position of a salesman trying to convince a clever housewife to buy an utterly superfluous vacuum cleaner. I fell back on a purely ad hominem argument: "Can you honestly tell me that the fact that your husband is Jewish did not play any role in your decision to marry him?" I did not dispute the fact that she found her ideal home in the Catholic Church. I just hinted that she could not have survived in this Catholic home without a Jewish husband.
This was not a mere psychological observation. It was about a spiritual need that is, inseparably, a divine calling. Jews in the historical Churches, such as this woman, her husband, and myself, are wont to build our own small but religiously comfortable environments, picking up what we like from our Church traditions and dealing with our Jewish identity the best way we can. Sometimes there is simply no place for the latter, but even when there is, the frustration remains. Something is missing. Our comfortable houses have holes, and if these holes are not visible, it is because they are hidden in the depth of our hearts. We look at our Messianic Jewish brothers and sisters, and we cannot help wondering whether their houses are more comfortable than ours, with less Christian tradition and more explicitly Jewish elements.
Guess what? I am convinced that, for all Jewish disciples of Yeshua, the most comfortable house has big holes. Indeed, the calling of Jewish disciples of Yeshua is not about building comfortable houses. Our existence is devoid of meaning if it does not proclaim its highly unsettling message to the wider Jewish world as well as to the whole Christian world. "The Teacher is here, and is calling for you" (John 11:28)—it is time to respond. It is time to relinquish the small, comfortable houses we have built.
We have a long journey ahead of us. But we will walk together. We will be together. On our way we will live in small uncomfortable houses called sukkot. They also have holes in them. The difference is that, through these holes, we will be able to glimpse the sky and its shining stars.
Antoine Levy