Weekly THIS AND THAT for December 14, 2008: Snapshots of Jesus and the Holy Land

This and That:
Snapshots of Jesus and the Holy Land


It has been a week since I have been home from studies in the Holy Land and this weekend I took the opportunity of inviting those attending weekend Masses to share some photos of the three months away. Just to spare you, I had reduced the 3,000 photos taken of the Holy Sites to a little more than 100!

The time away truly was “study” and every day, apart from days that we spent visiting Sacred Sites, was comprised of two classes in the morning and a reflection session each evening. The afternoons were free to visit a score of museums and the many places of interest in the Old City of Jerusalem, the New City of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and scores of other places available by bus. So mornings, afternoons and evenings were full.

The slide show for the most captured the tours we did as a group. I broke the presentation up into five sections:

I. Home Sweet Home – which was the place I lived in community with 12 other folks for the time there. The group consisted of 5 Catholic priests, 1 Anglican priest, 5 Catholic Sisters, and 1 AME (African Methodist Episcopal) seminarian

II. The Holy Land Before Jesus

III. The Coming of Jesus

IV. The Ministry of Jesus

V. The “Not-So-Holy” Holy Land.

The outline served two purposes, first to organize my thoughts and second, to put all the places and sites I’d visited into a context that revolved around Jesus and the chief events of his life, namely his Birth, Ministry, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension. Where the Jews are focused almost exclusively on the Torah (the first five Books of Moses), we Christians are able to see in Jesus someone who took the Old Law of the Torah and transformed it into a New Law, a New Covenant that went beyond the Jews to the Gentiles and to us. Oh, happy day for us!

After sharing the “digs” I found myself in at Tantur, I began with Abraham’s leaving the Land of Ur (present-day Iraq) and coming to the Land of Canaan in the Negev Desert (Southern Israel.) It was in this very area that Abraham’s son, Isaac, and his son Jacob also lived. We actually drank water from Jacob’s Well. This well was where Jesus was to transform the Samaritan Woman when he asked her for a drink. The area of the Negev Desert here is called Beer Sheba.

It’s a big jump from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to the Jews being lead by Moses through the Sinai Desert to the Jordan River, but the jump was made in the slides. God told Moses he would not take his People into the Promised Land, and the torch was passed to Joshua with Moses dying on Mt. Nebo. Franciscan Fathers now are custodians of the site. It’s quite a view of the entire Holy Land!

The Jews are now in Canaan where they learn to make olive oil for use in temple worship, cooking, and the lighting of lamps. We saw the actual presses they used. With wells like Jacob’s Well and development of the six sacred crops, the Jews were able, in the midst of a barren wasteland, to make “the desert bloom” and bloom it does!

We fast-forwarded on the photo tour to the places that King David and King Solomon inhabited and saw Mount Zion and the City of David and the very place that David is buried. Then I shared the secret of how Jerusalem, on the edge of the Judean Wilderness, was able to survive its enemies. The secret had to do with something called “Hezekiah’s Tunnel.” We actually descended into the tunnel and saw the Gihon Spring that gave the City its water.

And then we moved to the world preparing to receive a Savior in “the fullness of time.” We saw photos of the place Mary visited Elizabeth, where she drew water for her cousin, and where John the Baptist is buried. From there we set off to Shepherds’ Field outside of Bethlehem and saw where the Shepherds heard the greeting, “Behold I bring you good news of great joy…” There was a series of photos from Nazareth Village, a reproduction of the world into which Jesus was born. You met a local farmer tending his donkey, a shepherd acting as a “sheepgate” for his sheep, a carpenter at work in his shop, and a homemaker spinning thread to be woven into clothing and blankets.

The Basilica of the Annunciation is the beautiful church in Nazareth that is built over the home of Mary where the Angel Gabriel appeared to tell her she was to bear the Christ Child. The photos of her home are extraordinary. From Nazareth you have to travel several hours south to Bethlehem where Jesus was born. There were photos that marked the sight of his birth in the Church of the Nativity on Manger Square. Back to Nazareth we went, for photos of the synagogue where Jesus prayed each week on the Sabbath.

And now Jesus, the man, begins his ministry. The first stop was the Jordan River. One of our group was actually baptized at the place. Jesus after his own baptism goes into the Judean Desert to be tempted by the Devil. You joined me for our experience of that same Desert. What a lonely, yet lovely place to be alone and with God! Out of the desert Jesus performs his first miracle in Cana of Galilee. We saw the Wedding Church that marks the spot of that most famous of weddings. From Cana, Jesus moves on to Capharnaum and the Sea of Galilee where he will center his ministry. There we saw Peter’s House – where Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law – and the ruins of the synagogue of Capharnaum.

Clustered around the See of Galilee are many of the places describing Jesus’ ministry. The Church of the Beatitudes just off the Sea is spectacular. It was on this very ground that the Lord preached and fed his disciples so long ago. For lunch at the shore we ate St. Peter’s fish caught that day in the Sea. Pass the tartar sauce! And then there was the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves where Jesus fed 5,000 from two loaves and three fish. The final site at this part of the Sea was the Church of Peter’s Primacy where he gave Peter the Keys and the power to be first among equals. That day ended with photos of the boat trip on the Sea where we even cast nets as the Apostles did. Like them we initially caught nothing. We saw an actual boat that was very much like one the Disciples would have used. For 2,000 years it lay in the mud beneath the Sea. Caesarea Philippi and the Temple of the pagan god Pan was where Jesus told Peter that he was to be the “rock.” There was one more site in Galilee that touched Jesus’ life. On Mount Tabor is the Church of the Transfiguration. It’s the highest point in Galilee and is where Jesus took Peter, James and John and was transfigured before them.

After the Transfiguration, Jesus left Galilee and made his way “up” (it’s really south) to Jerusalem to suffer, die, rise, and ascend to the Father. On his way up to Jerusalem Jesus passed through Samaria (the present day West Bank) and we saw photos of actual Samaritans living on Mt. Gerizim. Just outside of Jerusalem, the photo of the Pater Noster Church on the Mount of Olives is where he taught his disciples the Lord’s Prayer and of course there also is the Garden of Gethsamane. We saw olive trees that are over 1,000 years old and show clearly the surroundings in which Jesus found himself on that fearful night. Before entering Jerusalem the final time, Jesus wept in the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church commemorating that is even called “Dominus Flevit,” Latin for “the Lord wept.” The church itself is in the form of a teardrop. The Franciscan Church of All Nations nearby commemorates where Jesus experienced his “Agony in the Garden.”

A stone’s throw from Mt. of Olives is Bethpage. The town should have an ominous ring to it. It’s where Jesus began his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday in order to celebrate the Passover Meal. He would have used the Golden Gate of the City, but it was sealed “not to be opened until the coming of the Messiah,” say the Jews.

In photos we wandered down the narrow cobblestone streets of Old Jerusalem to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. This place is held as most sacred to Orthodox Jews and it’s where I prayed for the people of Our Lady of Grace several times. On the southern end of the Temple Mount are the “Southern Steps” of the Temple. We saw the very steps Jesus would have walked up the three times he visited the Temple. In the vicinity of the Temple was the Church of the Last Supper with a sculpture behind the altar portraying Jesus eating with the Apostles.

Things moved quickly that night for Jesus. The Anatonia Fortress was where he was brought after being arrested and there he condemned. We saw photos of the very pavement where that happened. This site became the “1st Station of the Cross” and the Via Dolorosa throughout the Old City traces his steps to Golgotha and you can see them all. The last of the Stations are actually inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where we celebrated Mass, a very moving experience! On the main floor of the Holy Sepulcher is the very tomb of Jesus.

Jesus has now died and risen from the dead and he appears to two disciples on the Road to Emmaus. Yes we had photos of the site as well. The site of Jesus’ Ascension on the Mount of Olives is actually a site owned by the Muslims. Remember they hold Jesus to be a prophet, though not the Son of God so it is a holy site for them as well as for us.

The slide show ended with my idea of how the Holy Land might be referred to as, “The Not-So-Holy Holy Land” and shared photos of the Wall, the Settlements, and the Refugee Camps, as well as the sources of hope for both Israelis and Palestinians for peace.

Fondly,
Father Nicholas