CCC 674 The glorious Messiah’s coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by “all Israel”, for “a hardening has come upon part of Israel” in their “unbelief” toward Jesus.1 St. Peter says to the Jews of Jerusalem after Pentecost: “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.”2 St. Paul echoes him: “For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?”3 The “full inclusion” of the Jews in the Messiah’s salvation, in the wake of “the full number of the Gentiles”,4 will enable the People of God to achieve “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”, in which “God may be all in all”.5
CCC 755 “The Church is a cultivated field, the tillage of God. On that land the ancient olive tree grows whose holy roots were the prophets and in which the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles has been brought about and will be brought about again. That land, like a choice vineyard, has been planted by the heavenly cultivator. Yet the true vine is Christ who gives life and fruitfulness to the branches, that is, to us, who through the Church remain in Christ, without whom we can do nothing.”6
CCC 839 “Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to the People of God in various ways.”7
The relationship of the Church with the Jewish People. When she delves into her own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant, discovers her link with the Jewish People,8 “the first to hear the Word of God.”9 The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to God’s revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews “belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ”,10 “for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.”11
1 Rom I 1:20-26; cf. Mt 23:39.
2 Acts 3:19-21.
3 Rom 11:15.
4 Rom 11:12, 25; cf. Lk 21:24.
5 Eph 4:13; I Cor 15:28.
6 LG 6; cf. 1 Cor 39; Rom 11:13-26; Mt 21:32-43 and parallels; Isa 51-7; Jn 15:1-5.
7 LG 16.
8 Cf. NA 4.
9 Roman Missal, Good Friday 13:General Intercessions,VI.
10 Rom 9:4-5.
11 Rom 11:29.