No matter how unlikely it seems given the present situation, Fr. Fahey demonstrates quite extensively, with reference to the Church Fathers etc., that the Jewish nation (which I take to mean the dominant majority of it) definitely will convert – but that the hour most likely will be late. How late we can’t say with certainty. More on that later. Let me here just refer to the opinion of many Church Fathers that it will be some time during the Antichrists reign (sometimes I have heard it said that it will likely be half way through his seven years). In accordance with this view, Fr. Fahey holds it as “probable“– n.b not for certain – that the “Jews will acclaim Antichrist as the Messiah and will help set up his kingdom”. Those who hold this opinion therefore often also say that it’s likely that the Antichrist will be Jewish: but this do not necessarily have to be so either.

Some might here wonder if there is any great point in praying for the Jews then, i.e. since it seems “predestined” to happen, and in the latter days? To this must be replied: Of course there is! Why otherwise would the Church ask us, in the traditional Good Friday liturgy, to pray for the “perfidious Jews” so that “Our Lord would withdraw the veil from their hearts”?

Fr. Fahey tells us that he for twenty years offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on the Feasts of the Resurrection, Corpus Christi, SS. Peter and Paul and the Assumption of Our Lady for the acceptance by the Jewish nation of the Divine plan for order. In his book he mentions a decree from the Holy Office from March 25th, 1928, in which the Church insists upon the fact that She “habitually prays for the Jewish people”. Hence, it is our duty to assist the Church in this: in an act surely most pleasing to Our Lord’s Heart. The fact is, we don’t know with certainty the precise time when the conversion of the Jews as a body will take place, even if we can reasonably speculate on the surrounding circumstances when it is most likely to happen. Our job is to pray and be missionary. God’s Holy will and wisdom decides how and when a prophesied event like this will come to pass. That’s His business. I also think it very important to stress, that even if praying fervently for the conversion of the Jews might not affect any major changes until the last days, it is still very safe to say – knowing the nature and power of prayer – that its good effects will also come in the form of little by little conversions of individual Jews to the Faith – people who can then play important parts for good in this world (like for instance did the very Talmudically formed Ven. Francis Libermann).

It gets even more interesting. Fr. Fahey reminds us that there is a tradition in the Church that the Jewish people will be converted when the nations have ceased to be Catholic by falling into apostasy. Fr. Fahey leans here in his turn on two Jewish converts to the Faith, the learned Lémann brothers, Frs Joseph and Augustin Lémann, who in their joint book La Question du Messie et la Concile du Vatican (1869) has treated the subject at some length.

They did this in the form of a comment on the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. There St. Paul warns the non-Jews not to be boastful lest a similar fate befalls them: “Be not high-minded, but fear. For if God hath not spared the natural branches, fear lest perhaps he also spare not thee”. A little further on: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery [---]. For as you also in times past did not believe God, but now have obtained mercy, through their unbelief; so these also now have not believed, for your mercy, that they also may obtain mercy.” Frs. Lémann quote with approval the statement of a learned commentator to the effect that it would have been quite natural for St. Paul to have added, after the last words cited, “when you shall have fallen into incredulity.” The tenderness of St. Paul for the Gentiles, however, prevented him from adding that phrase, but several Fathers of the Church have expressed the same thought in their commentaries.

Fr. Fahey continues with Origen. He says that “Israel’s failure to correspond” has “been the occasion of the calling of the Gentiles. We have taken their place and thus have become the true Kingdom of Juda. But our last times will resemble those of the Jews because of our sins; in fact they will be worse.”

“From the sin of the Jews,” writes St. Jerome, “has come the salvation of nations, and from the incredulity of the nations the knowledge of the Truth will again come to Israel. These two truths are in St. Paul.”

St. John Chrysostom says that the Gentiles have been called by God, but because they will show themselves unmindful of His favours, God will call the Jews a second time.

St. Cyril of Alexandria ponders on how Our Lord’s “former persecutor Israel” will be reconciled with Him in a total astonishment at the treasure it has now found. St. Peter Damian talks in a similar way about “this obstinately unbelieving people” finding grace before the end.

On the same matter, Fr Fahey also goes on to cite St. Thomas Aquinas, Fr. Francisco Suárez, St. Augustine and others. But let me now go to the words of the great French orator, Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bousset: “Have we not reason to tremble on seeing how severely God has punished the Jews for so many centuries, since St. Paul warns us on the part of God that our ingratitude will bring upon us a similar punishment?”

God’s aim, however, is not punishment but mercy. When He will have called back the Jews, He will also recall the non-Jewish nations, utilizing the missionary zeal of the repentant Jews for that purpose. “For God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God” (Romans, XI:32-33). Seeing that the apostasy of the nations from Christ the King has been very largely their own work, and that of their satellite agents, e.g. the Freemasons, the Jews will be heartbroken, and will put their splendid natural qualities at the service of Divine Love, in order to undo the evil of the past, and to draw the whole word into the unity of the Mystical Body of Christ.

In order that the repentant Jewish nation may work for the conversion of the peoples of the Orient and the return of the apostate nations of the West to Christ the King, there must be a certain interval between the conversion of the Jewish nation and the end of the world. Some interpret the words of St. Paul : “what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?” in the sense that the General Resurrection and the Last Judgment will follow the conversion of the Jews immediately. “As the reprobation of the Jews,” writes Père Lagrange, O.P., “was the occasion of the reconciliation of the world, their conversion will be as it were, the signal for the consummation of the world and the advent of a new one. It must, however, be admitted that the expressions employed are not very precise and that one could not establish a definite relation of time between the Conversion of the Jews and the General Resurrection from the dead; in other words, affirm that the last judgment will follow closely on the conversion of the Jews.”

When the Frs. Lémann were petitioning the Bishops assembled in Rome for the Vatican Council for their signatures on their prepared document Postulatum pro Hebraeis, many of their Lordships smilingly put the objection that “to work for the conversion of the Jews was to bring on the end of the world.” The two Fathers gave several answers to this objection, and their arguments seem to go far in pointing out that there will be a considerable lapse of time between the conversion of the Jewish nation and the Last Judgment.

Fr. Fahey concludes that at least two things are certain: “The first is that, however short the time, the newly-converted Jews will not remain idle. The second is that if the Jews as a body sincerely accepted the true Messiah and put all that restless energy and unshakeable tenacity into the furtherance of the Kingship of Christ, which they now display against His rule, the conversion of the world would be rapidly advanced. Just picture for a moment Jewish influence in the Press of the world directed towards featuring the truth about Lourdes and Fatima and the horror of the rejection of God and Our Divine Lord in Russia! Just think of Jewish influence on the Cinema, instead of being directed towards elimination of the Supernatural life by production of irksomeness with all moral restraints, being canalized into showing the solution of human unrest by the loving acceptance of membership of Jesus!”

What a picture Fr. Fahey paints! No matter if it will come to pass quite in that dramatic fashion – whether or not Jews snatch away the infrastructure of mass media etc. from under the Antichrist’s nose - the description of the zeal of converted Jews should certainly give us a holy inspiration to pay heed to an appeal like Fr. Mawdsley’s. Of course, Christian charity always obliges us to pray for those who err. We should need no further explanations of reasons. But we see so clearly in the outline above how all of human history - indeed, humanity itself - is connected, and how God’s wisdom draws it all together like a well-structured and very logical stage-play. Firstly (due to the Old Testament): The Gentiles don’t have the Faith, the Jews do. Secondly (due to Jewish apostacy and the New Testament): The Gentiles have the Faith, the Jews don’t. Thirdly (due to “The great apostasy” we are living through now): the Gentiles lose the Faith (not The Remnant!), the Jews regain it. And then the glorious fourth step: Gentiles are helped back to the Faith by the repentant Jewish nation!

Lex orandi, lex credendi! A lot of the truths that we have now touched upon can be seen as mystically signified in the liturgy of the Solemn High Mass. Here just a few things I recall from a sermon (it would be wonderful if a liturgist could better expound these things for the readers some time!). The priest represent Christ, the deacon represents the Catholic Church and the Gentile nations, and the subdeacon the Jewish Church and nation. When the sub deacon sings the Epistle, The Priest and laity sit down, the priest also putting on his biretta. The subdeacon’s reading of the Epistle mystically symbolizes the Jewish response of indifference and rejection – while Priest and laity remain seated and unmoved. We stand (and the priest takes off his biretta) during the deacon’s chanting of the Gospel, signifying the eagerness of the Gentiles to hear and act upon God’s truth. The head is uncovered to show how the mysteries of redemption have now been revealed to the Gentiles. When the three ministers line up in front of the Altar, the subdeacon is in the lowest place, and the deacon one step higher, to show that the Gentiles have stepped up to take the place of the Jews. During the whole Canon the subdeacon holds the humeral veil in front of his eyes, signifying the current blindness of the Jews to the Divine mysteries; while afterwards, during the Pater Noster, the veil is removed. This symbolizes the conversion of the Jews in the end times. The sub deacon then assists the deacon and the priest in the distribution of Holy Communion. He also receives the final blessing from the Priest on exactly the same level as the deacon, and finally holds up the Altar card during the last Gospel (I for my part, see in this last action, a picture of Jewish assistance with the Re-Evangelization of Gentile apostates in the end times).

One can further note that the Altar is always facing “liturgically east” towards the rising sun (“the sun of justice”, Mal. IV:2), in expectation of the second coming of Our Lord “as lightning cometh out of the east, and appeareth, even unto the west” (Matt. XXIV:27). Therefore the Epistle side is south (Israel) and the Gospel side, north (the Gentiles). Hence, we understand the symbolism when the Missal during Mass is taken from the Jews and given to the Gentiles, but at the end, given back to the Jews.

This is all so beautiful and makes us marvel at the amazing structure that is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! One wonders however if this solid symbolism is yet another explanation of why the traditional liturgy is so hated in some camps?

(One can in this context add Fr. Fahey’s striking reflection in The Mystical Body of Christ and the Reorganization of Society (1945), in the section “The Ultimate Aim of Revolution”. What is it? Nothing less than the utter destruction of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the real renewal of the Sacrifice of the Calvary Cross; its re-enactment anywhere in the world.)

We have good reasons to believe that Enoch and Elijah will be very instrumental in the conversion of the Jews, but Fr. Fahey is also convinced that Our Lord, the King of Israel, will let the Lily of Israel – who together with Himself have been so horribly treated in the Talmud – play a key role in the conversion of the Jewish people. It will be a “a glorious triumph for the Immaculate Heart of Mary”. It will be a special source of exultation for her, when her own people at last acclaim her Divine Son King and welcomes as their queen her who is their sister according to the flesh, and so ardently desires to be their mother according to the Divine Life of Grace.

It is not for us to know exactly how the rest of salvation history will play out, but we have – as we have seen –  good reason to believe it will be more or less in the broad strokes penned out above, with Jews reconverting the nations as a final chapter. An expectation of our future history in those terms can only bring about good fruits. It teaches us Catholics not to be boastful as St. Paul says, but urges us onward in a spirit of charity and humility. In times like ours when we have the strongest possible reasons to be agitated against the massive destruction and death wrought by Jewish naturalism in our world, we would do well to keep all that has been said clear in our minds; it will surely keep us firmly on the balanced, charitable path that has always been the way of the Church. In other words, it would be an antidote against hatred of the Jews, and at the same time truly inspire us to fight on, nay to intensify our fight, for the rights of Christ the King no matter who, how many or how powerful his enemies at present may be.