Southbridge parish communities explore Jewish roots

By Tanya Connor  
The Catholic Free Press

SOUTHBRIDGE – Priests drew on Catholicism’s Jewish roots to talk about the Eucharist Saturday at St. John Paul II Parish. One did it through a Seder meal, another spoke at a regular meal.
Father Kenneth R. Cardinale, pastor, led the parish’s traditional Seder, a Jewish Passover prayer service with symbolic foods. Parishioners and former parishioners prepared a meal to go with it.
Simultaneously, in another of the parish’s buildings, Father Carlos F. Ardila, associate pastor, gave a reflection, in Spanish, according to Sister Rosa Maria Campos, pastoral assistant, of the Sisters Oblates to Divine Love. She said Father Ardila’s reflection was called “The Greatest Miracle of the World: A Brief Explanation about the Origin and Symbols of the Eucharistic Celebration.” About 80 people attended the dinner and talk.
Southbridge Catholics have been celebrating Seders, in English and Spanish, for 20 or more years, said Antonia Martinez, youth ministry administrator.
“We started with St. Mary’s” when Father Peter Joyce was pastor there, she said. “And then we continued when we belonged to St. John Paul II Parish” after St. Mary’s and other parishes were merged.
Traditionally, a Jewish person has led the English-language Seder and a priest has led the Spanish one, Father Cardinale said.
This year Father Cardinale was unable to get a Jewish person to lead the Seder. So, he and Father Ardila decided to try something new. In line with the National Eucharistic Revival, they would each talk about the Old Testament roots of the Eucharist.
But then Edward Delage, chef of the Seder meal, said one of his helpers, a Jewish man named Howard Dorman, who had led the Seder at the parish years ago, could lead it this year.
Unfortunately, shortly before the Seder, Father Cardinale learned the Mr. Dorman had a family emergency and could not come. So, Father Cardinale ended up leading the Seder.
Approximately two dozen people attended this year’s English-language celebration and Father Cardinale asked them what Seder means.
 “Order,” a participant responded, and Father Cardinale said the Seder is the ritual order we get from our Jewish brothers and sisters.
The first Passover was 3,000 years ago, he said. With help from participants and a Scripture reading, he recounted what they were commemorating.
“The celebration at home is a reenactment of the Exodus experience,” says “The Passover Celebration,” the booklet the parish used.
The Seder recalls how God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Following God’s command, the people slaughtered an unblemished lamb, put its blood on their door posts and ate its flesh. When the Lord came to kill the first-born children of their Egyptian oppressors, who would not let them go, he passed over the houses marked with the blood. Then the Israelites passed over from slavery to freedom. (Exodus 11 and 12)
Father Cardinale told parishioners, “I want you to be thinking about … ‘What is our passover meal?’” He said the Old Testament foreshadows the New Testament, and the New Testament fulfills the Old Testament.
Later he asked whether Catholics have something that parallels the blood on the doorposts, and hinted, “It will be coming back soon.” He was referring to the announcement that, at Easter Masses, parishes in the Diocese of Worcester may again start permitting the congregation to receive Christ’s blood from the chalice, a practice halted because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Father Cardinale asked where Jesus’ blood is displayed and gave another hint by taking a sip of wine or grape juice that is part of the Seder meal.
“The blood of the Lamb is at the entranceway where my soul dwells,” he said, referring to how Christ’s blood is on one’s lips after receiving from the chalice at Mass.
“Jesus is the unblemished Lamb,” Father Cardinale said. The only sacrifice that can take away sin is his blood. We do not have to sacrifice animals like the Israelites did.  
He said that Jesus, when celebrating the Passover, added, “This is my body, which will be given up for you. … This is my blood, which will be given up for you.”
Some of this year’s participants were familiar with Jewish Seder celebrations.
David Krasnov said that when he was growing up he attended Seders at his grandparents’ house with his father, a lifelong Jew who married a Catholic. Now Mr. Krasnov attends Seders at John Paul II Parish.
Bonnie Baird said that in her early married life she attended Seders with her Jewish husband. But this year was the first time she’d come to one at a Catholic Church.
“I saw it in the bulletin,” she said. She brought her granddaughters Viviana Da Silva, 8, and Ava Simon, 16, who have Jewish blood.
“I wanted them to know some of the terminologies,” she explained.
“It was interesting,” said Ava, adding that this was her first time attending a Seder.
Viviana got to read aloud during the celebration and help other excited children look for the afikomen (matzo, or unleavened bread) that Father Cardinale hid.
“I used to come and bring my children,” now grown, said Deacon Juan J. Guzman, who serves at the parish. “We always hear about Jesus having the Passover meal. This is the only way we can experience it.”