Palm Sunday Procession

The gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke report that Jesus began his entry to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday at Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives. From here he went into the city of Jerusalem seated on a donkey and those who followed him threw olive branches before him, crying, “Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest.”

From the roof of the Passionist house in Bethany you can see the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives looming ahead; the road winds over the crest of the mount down the other side past the Garden of Gethsemani and into Jerusalem. We walked part of the road last week.

The area around  Bethany was probably sparsely populated at the time of Jesus and into the Christian era. During great feasts, the poorer pilgrims would stay in the area, probably pitching tents up in the olive groves, and walk to the city. Here are two pictures from the 1940‘s when the area was less populated, today it is Muslim.

After Constantine established the church in Jerusalem and built churches like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the 4th century, vast crowds came here on Palm Sunday to reenact the gospel. They probably began near here to go their way into the city to the empty tomb .

Fr. Roberto tells me the procession today for the Latin church goes through St. Stephen’s Gate and ends in the Church of St. Ann.

Our Palm Sunday celebration today in the Roman rite imitates the ancient practice of the Church of Jerusalem, as well as many other of its Holy Week rites as well. We follow our ancestors in faith in sign. Before our Palm Sunday procession we hear these words:

“Let us remember with devotion this entry which began his saving work and follow him with  lively faith. United with him in his suffering on the cross, may we share his resurrection and new life.”

Don’t forget, however, that the little procession we have in our churches today once stretched over some tough hills and went for a distance.

In the garden behind the Passionist house are some first century ruins of a few Jewish houses from the time of  Jesus. Outside one is  a mikvah for purifications. Not far away is the Franciscan church next to the traditional site of the tomb of Lazarus. Who knows? Could they have lived here? It looks like its part of the ancient village of Bethany.

In back of the site is the famous security wall which runs through the Passionist property. More about that later.

We Go to God Through Questions

I’ve been talking to a number of people lately who have questions about their faith. I emailed this to one of them today:

Here are some sources you might find interesting as you look again at the faith you learned long ago.

Just a few months ago a new Catholic bible was published called the New American Bible Recent Edition. NABRE. The last printing was 20 years ago, but since so much new archeological material and textual discoveries have become available since then, they thought a new edition was due. Part of what we are experiencing today is an explosion of new knowledge in these fields and in other fields of human knowledge. I’m going to pick up that new bible soon myself. It has wonderful notes and introductions to the books and it’s also the translation we read in church.

I was in a Barnes and Noble store yesterday and looked at the section of bibles, but I could hardly locate the New American Bible among the other editions. With the decline of Catholic book stores it’s hard to get the books we might be looking for. The media don’t help either with some of their sensational productions on religion.

The pope’s two new books, “Jesus of Nazareth”. are also good to read. I’ve been reading his last one about the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus, and I find it stimulating. He’s using much of the latest scholarly materials and offering some wonderful insights. and he’s not afraid to take on tough questions.  We are all doing the same thing: learning and learning again.

I like a recent catechism published by the American bishops: The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults. You can get it at Amazon.com. It approaches the different aspects of faith simply and offers a person, whether a canonized saint or not, who exemplifies that aspect and tells their story. Faith is better seen when it’s lived by people.

Since you were impressed by your recent visit to the Holy Land you may be interested in some entries I did for our pilgrimage from St. Mary’s from October 16 to November 20, 2010. You can find them on Victor’s Place, my blog, at https://vhoagland.wordpress.com/

I think I told you what one of my theology teachers told me long ago. “We go to God through questions. You find one answer and ten more questions are there waiting to be answered.”

Questions are part of our search for God.

St. Martha, Bethany

The Passionists have been in Bethany at St. Martha’s for over 100 years. French Passionists, thrown out of France in 1906 by the anti-clerical government in power at the time, came to Bethany and took over a foundation that was being built for the Sister Servants of the Sacred Heart. Eventually Italian Passionists took charge; now it is the responsibility of the Passionist General Government in Rome and an international community resides here: Frs. Pol, Roberto, Guglielmo and Marito.

The Church and residence are probably built over parts of the ancient village of Bethany; the traditional tomb of Lazarus is a short walk away, although the Israeli security wall blocks normal access it now. You can see foundations of 1st century houses on the property and it’s not hard to imagine that a Visitor walked here and lived with friends during the Jewish feasts when he came from Galilee. It must have been a refuge for him. He was among friends.

It’s a place that stirs your imagination.

The Passionists here maintain their prayer life, serve as chaplains to about 4 communities of sisters in the neighborhood, help guide groups through the Holy Places and minister to the immigrant communities that live in Israel.

Just over the Mount of Olives are the great holy places where Jesus taught, was taken into custody, condemned to death, died, was buried and rose again. But this is a holy place too, where it’s good to be and think and pray.

A Church of the Hebrews?

Fr. Pol took me to the airport this morning early for the flight home. He celebrated Mass the evening before at Tel Aviv for about 700 Filipinos and other Catholics who work in that area as care-givers and domestics. There are over 80,000 Filipinos alone in Israel.

In the Gulf area there are about 2 million Catholics, many from the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Africa.

Pol was enthusiastic about the lively, ingenious faith of these immigrants, who send much of their earnings home, yet contribute so much to the efforts of their church here in Israel. They meet regularly at St. Peter’s Church in Joppa  and are planning another Christian center between Tel Aviv and Haifa. Some vital new movements are inspiring them.

The Israeli who hire them appreciate these workers for their ability to care for the sick and the elderly, and their honest values. Often they will arrange for them to get to Church on Sunday. Fr. Pol wonders if they will bring some of them to the faith.

Relations of immigrants to the government can be difficult, however. As in America, some are here illegally. Their children often are schooled in Hebrew and they want a more permanent relationship to the country but the political situation is not favorable now. Some are thinking that these immigrants may be the beginning of a new Christian presence, not just a pilgrim presence, in the Holy Land. One priest who is a Jewish convert is speaking of a Church of the Hebrews.

Fr. Pol and Fr. Marito and the Camboni Sisters next to them minister to this immigrant community regularly, driving all over Israel to wherever they can meet them.

Today is the Feast of Christ the King. Usually great things are done, according to Christian thinking, not by political or military or economic power, but by the power of the weak and the small. Weren’t lowly immigrants largely responsible for the original growth of the church?

Yesterday I missed an  opportunity for going with Fr. Pol to Tel Aviv because I wanted to get to Lazarus’ tomb and the Comboni Sisters offered to take me because they were going shopping. 17 Kilometers later we landed at the tomb and the sister said, “Look across the wall, that’s where we live, just a few yards away.”

The ugly security wall.

It didn’t stop a group of Russians from descending into the tomb. For about 15 minutes they sang glorious Russian chants and then came up into the sunlight. The tomb became radiant with their faith.

Where did it happen?

Any Christian visiting Jerusalem has to wonder where the events recalled in the gospels took place. Where was Jesus judged by Pilate? What was the way he went to Calvary? Where was he buried?

Reliable historians generally weigh in positively on the tomb of Jesus in the Church of the Holy Sepucher “Is this the place where Christ died and was buried?” Jerome Murphy-O’Connor asks in his solidly researched “The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide” (New York, 2008). “Yes, very probably,” he answers. (p 49)

Our traditional Stations of the Cross, which begin along Jerusalem’s “Via Dolorosa” at the place where the Fortress Antonia once stood are less historically reliable.  Murphy-O Connor says they are “defined by faith and not by history.” (pp 37-38)

Pilgrims, not archeologists, gave us this route. After the Christian church was established by Constantine in the 4th century, pilgrims  processing from the Mount of Olives on Holy Thursday would go through St. Stephen’s Gate and as they went up to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher would stop at certain places to recall incidents from the Passion story. Over time the places were different. Our present stations along the Via Dolorosa were fixed only in the 19th century. (cf. Murphy-O’Connor, p 37)

A look at the above map of Jerusalem from the time of Jesus at the Israel Museum–which we have simplified a little– suggests another possible picture. At the far right bottom is a luxurious  palace complex (only part is visible in the picture} built by Herod the Great. When Pontius Pilate came from Caesaria Maritima for the feast he stayed there. Herod Antipas stayed at another part.

The gateway to a public courtyard beyond the palace buildings would have been where Pilate received the crowd and passed judgment on Jesus. As the gospels say, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod who was nearby, since Jesus, a Galilean, was Herod’s subject. The houses surrounding the palace belonged to Jerusalem’s ruling class.

After sentencing Jesus to death, Pilate handed him over to a detachment of soldiers quartered somewhere in the great towers to the left of the palace, who scourged him and crowned him with thorns.

They then led him away to Calvary, probably parading him through part of the upper city as a warning to others. The small rock outcropping near to the wall on the left of our first picture is Calvary where he was crucified. He was buried in a tomb only a stone’s throw away, according to the gospels.

Today only some remains can be seen in the area called the Citadel which still dominates the western part of the Old City. From this high place,  Herod could look down on the city. Obviously, the Jews despised his pretentious display so close to the temple; in September 66 AD, Jewish revolutionaries attacked and burned down the place, setting off the war that ended with Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 AD.

Yesterday Fr. Pol and I were up on the southern ramparts of the city wall where Herod’s palace once stood. Nothing remains of Herod’s palace, but the towers are still there though rebuilt a number of times since then. The last major change was in the 14th century. If you look at the foundations, you can see some of Herod’s construction.

Murphy-O’Connor suggests a way they may have taken Jesus to Calvary from here. “If, as seems likely, Jesus was brought into the city on his way to execution, the approximate route would have been east on David Street, north on the Triple Suk, and then west to Golgotha.” (p.38)

Fr. Pol and I traveled that route yesterday, down David Street, to the Triple Suk and then west to Golgotha and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  My sense is Murphy-O’Connor is right, but I think we better not change the Via Dolorosa. One reason is that good piety, which gave us the Stations of the Cross, has a truth and beauty all its own. It should not be looked down on. Another reason is that  it would start a war in Jerusalem, and the city has enough grief now.

Living by the Wall

The tomb of Lazarus is only down the road from here, but unfortunately I’m blocked from getting there by the Israeli security wall at the end of our street. Instead of a few minutes walk, I can get there only by traveling a good distance around the Mount of Olives.

The security wall winds through our property and the property of the Camboni sisters, an Italian order who have a school and a hostel next to us. As they look out their back  window, it looms over them, about twenty feet away, and it goes on as far as the eye can see.

I have been celebrating morning Mass these days for the sisters–in Italian– and they told me the wall has stopped many children, all Muslim, from coming to their school.  Relations between Christians and Muslims in this neighborhood have always been good, thanks to the good works of these religious women.

If the Israelis want peace, it would be better to tear down the wall and sponsor some schools and clinics like those run by the sisters. A high barbed wire wall, patrolled by armed soldiers, blocking streets people have been using for centuries, running through the backyards of ordinary peoples’ homes, stopping the flow of business, doesn’t win you friends.

It makes enemies.

This afternoon Fr. Roberto drove me to the city where I made my way to the Via Dolorosa again, which was more crowded than ever with groups praying and groups shopping and gawking.

I did discover an Armenian church at the 4th Station that was an oasis in Babel. The church has some paintings of the 3rd and 4th stations. Jesus meets his mother at the 4th station. In the quiet courtyard before the church a mother was nursing her infant. In the church was a picture over the altar of Mary nursing her child.

The day ended at the Latin Patriarchate where Sir Patrick Allen, Knight of the Holy Sepulcher from  Union City, NJ, met Bishop Shomali, who was born in Bethlehem, to receive an award for bringing over 100 people to the Holy Land on pilgrimage. I was a photographer and guest, and the bishop even said some nice things about the Passionists.

The Second Tomb

Right down the street from where I’m staying these days–in Bethany–is the traditional tomb of Lazarus. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, you remember, and stories of that famous incident and other events from Bethany figure large in the New Testament.

I went over to the Franciscan bookstore near the Joppa Gate this morning and got a small book on Bethany which goes into the history of this tomb and what archeologists have found as they dig and dig. Actually, they have stopped digging–for the present.

Surely, like the tomb of Jesus, the tomb of Lazarus would be remembered. Egeria, the 4th century nun, who was to all these places, says that there were so many people at Lazarus’ tomb  when she was there that they packed the whole church and all the fields around. For Christian pilgrims Lazarus played a vital part in the story of Jesus.

Right now, the Franciscans, the Greek Orthodox and the Muslims (who venerate Lazarus, by the way) are all around his tomb together. It looks like the same war over turf that goes on at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Raising Lazarus from the dead was the final sign God gave before raising Jesus from the dead, John’s gospel says. It’s a miracle telling us we shall share in his resurrection.

Political reasons weren’t the only thing that brought Jesus to his death, it was his claim to be the way, the truth and life. The miracle brought people from Jerusalem to see a man who came from the dead and the one who raised him. The authorities reckoned that Lazarus would have to be taken care of too.

The believers were here in Bethany; not many in the temple, according to John’s gospel. Like Martha, carrying her pots and pans, they believed he was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, who  brings life to the whole world. That’s why Bethany, and Lazarus, are important.

 

I spent today at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, watching the crowds pile into the dark church and sat for some time in “Adam’s Cave” next to Calvary on a bench looking at the exposed rock where the crucifixion took place.  A stuffy guide came in with two Englishmen and said, “Look at that fellow over there, he’s sitting on the tomb of Baldwin 1, one of the first Crusader rulers of Jerusalem and does even know it.” I went back and looked up Jerome Murphy O’Connor who says the Greeks removed that tomb in 1809.

So much for experts.

 

Bethany, November 15

I arrived at the Passionist house of St Martha in Bethany, late this morning. Here’s where I am in gospel terms: “When they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find an ass tethered, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. And if anyone should say anything to you, reply, ‘ The master has need of them. Then he will send them at once.”

(Mark 21, 1-9)

The gospel continues that the disciples did this and a large crowd welcomed him, some spreading their cloaks on the road, others cutting branches to strew before him.

“The crowds preceding him and those following  kept crying out and saying: ‘Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

So here’s where Jesus started his Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem.  He knew this place well,  must have been a place where they  believed in him. In Bethany he was accepted, at least as “Son of David.”

As I traveled here, courtesy of Catholic Travel, the streets to Bethphage were crowded with Muslims getting ready for their major feast of Eid-Ul_Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, celebrated for the next several days at the conclusion of the Hajj. The sacrifice celebrated is the Sacrifice by Abraham of his first born son Ishmael. It’s a joyful feast that calls Muslims to a spiritual awakening. Cf. http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_feast.htm

We know too little about Muslims and their spirituality. The website cited above quotes an western newspaper account some years ago warning of terrorist attacks at the conclusion of this feast. It’s like predicting Christian terror attacks after our easter celebrations. The feast actually calls for forgiveness of enemies and peace with your neighbor. Presents given out and food for everyone, especially the poor.

You could hear a special call to celebration in the muzzim’s  call this evening to this Muslim neighborhood.

Our visitors from St. Marys all got off safe from the hotel early this morning; now they are winging their way home.

At The Tomb Of Jesus: November 14

Early this morning,  Sunday,  like the women in the gospel we went to the tomb of Jesus at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, entering the Old City by way of Herod’s Gate. Hardly any shops were open on the narrow streets before the Via Dolorosa except the bakeries where they were making fresh bread.

We walked the quiet dark street, the Via Dolorosa, the Street of Sorrow, up to the church and prayed the Way of the Cross marked out on different stations along the way.

We entered the church through a side door to a small chapel where an Ethiopian liturgy was going on shrouded with clouds of incense and celebrated with ancient chanting.  They are here with the Armenians, the Copts from Egypt, the Greek Orthodox, and Roman Catholics– all with their Sunday liturgies in progress in different parts of the church.

Since the lines were not yet long going into the tomb of Jesus, we got in line and entered the tomb in small groups of three or four.

Then we had Mass in the Roman Catholic Chapel, where we read the Easter gospel from Mark that tells of the women coming to the empty tomb on Easter morning.

From the church we went to the Jaffa Gate, boarded the bus, and headed for our hotel for breakfast.

Tomorrow most of us go home. I stay for a few days with the Passionists at Bethany.

 

 

Exploring Jerusalem: November 13

We went early this morning at 7:30 to the Western Wall, where many Jews were devoutly praying on the Sabbath. The Presence of God dwells beyond the wall, according to the Jews. Women and men pray separately at the wall. No pictures were allowed today.

The Temple Mount was closed today so we couldn’t visit it.

We walked then through the narrow streets of the Old City as the Muslim and Christian shops were opening. Joseph gave us some freshly baked Jerusalem bread to eat. By the time we reached the Via Dolorosa, the traditional path that Jesus took to his death, the streets were crowded with pilgrims, from Brazil, Russia, Korea, Singapore and Eastern Europe, as well as natives of Jerusalem.

I met a bishop from Brazil who knew the Passionists there.

We walked the Via Dolorosa to the Convent of the Sisters of Sion, an order of nuns founded by a Jewish priest-convert, whose purpose is to work for better relations between Christians and Jews.  Their convent is built on the site of the Fortress Antonia, where Roman soldiers were garrisoned at the time of Jesus. While excavating for the convent years ago, an early street and part of the soldiers’ barracks were uncovered.

In this place early pilgrims, entering the city from the Mount of Olives, commemorated the trial of Jesus by Pilate, his scourging and mockery by the soldiers–the beginning of his way to Calvary carrying his cross, as Joseph explained.

Afterwards, we entered the area of Bethesda, where Jesus cured the paralyzed man who had been waiting for 38 years to be cured but no one would help him into the healing pool when it bubbled up. (John 5,1-19) The ruins of the pool from the time of Jesus have been excavated, along with an ancient Byzantine church built over the ruins, but you have to follow the ground plan carefully to sort them out, because centuries overlay centuries.

The Crusaders’ church of St. Ann, built in the 12^th century, is one of the most beautiful churches in Jerusalem.  When we were there it was filled with the songs of the different pilgrim groups taking advantage of its wonderful acoustics.

We went from there by bus to the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu on the eastern slopes of Mount Sion where we celebrated Mass.  Some believe it was here that Jesus was brought before Caiaphas, the High Priest, and accused of blasphemy. In the area luxurious homes from the time of Jesus have been found, so it is likely that prominent Jewish leaders lived here.

Next to the church is a steep path down from Mount Sion to the Kidron Valley below, which dates to the time of Jesus, and it could have been the path he took after the Last Supper and the path those who seized him in the garden took to bring him to Caiaphas.

The Gallicantu church recalls the condemnation of Jesus by the Jewish leaders and also the denial of Peter. The weathervane of the rooster over the church is a reminder that a cock crowed after Peter denied Jesus three times.

The afternoon was devoted to plundering the local stores.

In the evening we went to a Church of the Gethsemani for a holy hour. In the dark church–we were the only ones there–we read the gospel accounts of Jesus in the Garden from Matthew, Luke and John as we sat around the open rock before the altar. Each of the evangelists tell the same story but draws a different lesson. In Matthew’s account Jesus relies on his Father for everything, and so leads his followers to go to the Father for life. In Luke’s account, Jesus is strengthened from heaven for what he must do, and so are we when we pray. In John’s account, Jesus is already glorified, even in the midst of his sufferings. God’s sovereign power never fails, even in the midst of suffering.