Friday
we woke up very early and were out the door by about 6, I believe. Why so early? We went to a 6:45 am mass in the Holy Sepulchre, up on Calvary, in the chapel right next to the site of the crucifixion. Definitely worth getting up early for. It was a beautiful mass--in Latin, and mostly sung. I think knowing a little bit of Italian has helped my Latin skills, because I could actually get the gist of the readings (well...at least the Gospel, as always). Continuing on my theme on the Eucharist from the other day, during mass I was reflecting on how the Eucharist contains the entirety of the Passion. It's a sacrifice, the re-presentation of Christ giving up His life on the cross (about 20 feet away), but it's also the Resurrection. It's our glorious, risen, triumphant Lord! All of that...all of that in that humble piece of bread.
After mass, we were going to go down into the tomb (because we didn't have time on Monday), so we went and got in line. Almost immediately, though, someone came through saying it was closing for a few hours so they could clean the floor. So we ended up with some extra waiting time, which actually fit quite well into our mini celebration of the Triduum that day. Can't skip out on the vigil of Holy Saturday--we literally got to keep watch by the tomb. And I'm really glad we did, it was a very fruitful time of prayer. We prayed a rosary and a Divine Mercy Chaplet together. The Divine Mercy Chaplet was especially good. One time I heard someone describe the DMC as an opportunity for us to call down God's mercy into the world, to cover all our failings and shortcomings. That phrase has always stuck with me, and I was reminded of it again especially during this time. Calling down God's mercy--we were soaking in it, at its source. The blood and water flow from the cross to the rest of the world. It was another powerful experience of being aware of the presence of grace.
So I started out thinking mostly about the cross, and sacrifice, but then sometime during those few hours my focus started shifting more towards the Resurrection. I read the Scripture accounts of it, thought about the women coming to the tomb, thought about Peter and John's footrace (I love how John's subtle competitiveness comes out), and Easter songs even started running through my head.
When they opened the line back up, we were very near the front, so didn't have to wait long at all before we got to go into the actual little room with the rock slab (it was cool to think that that's where the Shroud was, too, since I got to see that last April). We could only stay there a few moments...but as it should be, right? The apostles didn't stay long either, before the angel told them to get out of there and spread the good news. And that is my commission also, especially now that I have seen with my own eyes the empty tomb. He is risen indeed! Alleluia.
After that, let's see...we ate lunch (pita, hummus, falafel, etc), and then went to the church of St. Anne, which also includes the birthplace of Mary. I of course prayed for you there, Mom!
A statue of St. Anne and Mary that was in the church
Right outside that church are the healing pools where people would come and get in the water when it swirled up and all that. AND, that church is the start of the Via Dolorosa, aka the way of the cross. So we walked and prayed the stations of the cross. Those are one of the things that are less-than-historical...there's no record of them until the Crusades, and the route has changed a few times since then. But it was good to have a place to be reminded of the events, and they did happen in Jerusalem.
After that, we had a little free time to walk around. A few of us climbed up a tower at a Lutheran church, for another sweet view of the city.
Here's where Jesus played basketball.
Oh, and here's the Holy Sepulchre--the largest dome is built over the tomb.
We then went to Vespers at an Armenian Orthodox church. St. James is buried in that church. (Most of him. The rest is in Spain, at Santiago de Compostela, where the Pope was over the weekend! His head is in one place and his body is in the other, but I can't remember which is which).
The church also has cool secret passages built in. I'm definitely putting those in any churches I might design in the future.
Anyway, that made me think that St. James, and all the other apostles and saints who are venerated by both the Catholics and the Orthodox, are the best ones to ask for prayers for unification of the Churches--I'm sure they want it. And they know real Truth, so they'll help lead us to it. (Similarly, whenever I see a Protestant Church dedicated to St. Paul or some other saint, I first wonder how they feel about it, and then know that they're praying for that church to come to a fuller Truth, and it's kind of nice to know it's under such good care...anyway). An Armenian Orthodox man met with us after Vespers and told us a little bit about how much the Armenian Church suffered during 20th century persecutions, and how the number of Christians in general in the Holy Land is dwindling. He said they have hope, though...hope that the West will not abandon them, that Europe and the U.S. will come to their aid. That was quite convicting. I don't know enough about foreign policy to know what all we're doing about those things, but I bet it's not enough in the eyes of the people over there.
After a rather sobering end to the afternoon, we headed back for our last evening at Tantur. They cooked a special meal for us, which was delicious--especially the apple pie. A nice American touch, to ease the transition back, maybe? :-)
Saturday
We got to sleep in a little on Saturday morning, and then headed back to Bethlehem for lunch in a nice family owned restaurant. Home made fresh pita bread=the best we had on the whole trip, I think. A young Palenstinian lady came to talk with us while we were eating. She told us a little more about the political situation, and how hard it is for Palestinians to get permits to come to Israel (she doesn't have one). Also, fun fact: her family owns and runs a brewery in Palestine that accounts for 20% of the national economy.
After lunch, we headed back to Jerusalem one last time, to the church of the Holy Sepulchre yet again. This time we were meeting with Fr. Fergus, a Franciscan who's basically in charge of the Catholic part of the Holy Sepulchre (different religions have "custody" of different parts. The Greek Orthodox have the tomb, for instance, which is why the mass we went to on Friday wasn't there). Fr. Fergus was awesome. He showed us around to some parts of the church we normally wouldn't be able to go to, like a place where some of the rock is exposed that's part of the same hill the tomb is carved out of, and we actually got to touch it! He also kept emphasizing again and again that "it's the Resurrection"--don't get caught up in the politics of everything, remember why we really came. The Resurrection, the most important event is human history, happened here. He also said that in a way it's good that things are so crowded and crazy, that fires and earthquakes have damaged the structure of the tomb so it's not very pretty (true), because we're not supposed to want to stay there. We're supposed to leave, to go out and bring this all home with us. It was a perfect thing to hear on our last afternoon.
And then we did head out...our flight was later that night from Tel-Aviv. We flew back through Atlanta and finally arrived back in South Bend at about 11 am on Sunday.
I'm so thankful that I got to go on this trip--it was incredible and so grace-filled, in ways that I'm still realizing. Baruch Hashem! (Hebrew for, Praise His Name)!
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