The Holy Land

THE HOLY LAND Cecilia Manguerra Brainard First published in LA Pinoy (Feb/March, 2009) 

 

 Last year in April, my husband and I visited the Holy Land. Our families and friends warned us of the tense political situation between Israel and Palestine, but we had heard that Israel goes through great lengths to protect their tourists. Born and raised a Roman Catholic, I was very excited about visiting the very place that Jesus had walked on.

We stayed in the Jerusalem Hotel, which is right outside the ancient walled city of Jerusalem. It was Good Friday, and right after throwing our bags into our room, we hurried to the walled city of Jerusalem to find the Via Dolorosa, the path that Jesus had taken during His Passion to His Crucifixion. The winding streets were narrow and crowded that afternoon. A large part of the walled city is like a marketplace, and both sides of the streets had lively bazaars selling clothes, spices, food, souvenirs, and other things. In fact, the Via Dolorosa was such a busy street, crammed with vendors and pilgrims. One had to realize that Jerusalem has changed through the centuries; its walls for instance have moved, and so what had been outside the walled city are now inside it, which is what they say about the Via Dolorosa – it used to be outside the city walls during the time of Christ. 

 We did the Stations of the Cross, pausing at the various sites where Jesus had been flogged, crowned with thorns, and so on. There were markers along the way, although it was tricky to get to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where tradition says Christ’s crucifixion and burial sites are located. The number of people in the Church was horrendous, and while I managed to climb up the narrow stairs to the place of Crucifixion, I could not get inside Christ’s tomb. I tried two other times but the lines remained extremely long. I had to contend with praying alongside the tomb, pressing the rosaries I had bought on the walls surrounding His tomb. There is a site in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that is highly revered, and it is the Stone of Unction on which the body of Christ reportedly lay. There is liquid on this slab of stone, which people sop up with cloth – shawls, bandages, every bit of cloth that they have - people save this fluid to keep or give away as something holy and miraculous.

My other favorite place in Jerusalem is the Mount of Olives, which are rolling hills riddled with olive trees, just outside the walled city. We exited the Gate of St. Stephen (where St. Stephen had been stoned to death) to the Mount of Olives. Near the Church of All Nations is an ancient olive garden of Gethsemane, and some of these olive trees are said to have been witnesses of Christ’s Passion. Nearby is another church which has a cave wherein Jesus and His Disciples used to rest. Not far away is an ancient Roman cemetery. It is all so peaceful and calm; one can understand why Jesus liked to spend time in this place.

The Dome of the Rock, whose golden dome dominates pictures of Jerusalem, makes one reflect on the Jewish Temple, which had stood there, before the Romans tore it down. This was where the Child Jesus had gotten lost and was found discussing with the elders. Jerusalem is riddled with biblical places such as these, and in fact there are usually two or more churches or sites claiming to be the place where the Last Supper was held, or where Mary was born, or where Mary was buried. These contradictions did not bother me. It was not so important to be accurate about where some event took place; it was enough to know that indeed somewhere in this place this event did happen.

We also drove outside of Jerusalem, to the River Jordan, which was another peaceful and beautiful place. The river was green and clear and a church allowed baptized people to swim in the river. Clothed in white robes, they bobbed up and down the green waters of the Jordan. Now there are eucalyptus trees along the riverbanks, but during Jesus’ time there were no eucalyptus trees.

The town of Capernaum is now in ruins, but you can still see the ruins of the synagogue where Jesus had preached; and you can also see the foundations of Peter’s house, where Jesus had healed his mother. 

 There is a place along the Sea of Galilee where Christ was said to have given His Sermon of the Mount. And the huge Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth houses the Grotto of the Annunciation, where Mary said her simple and courageous, “Be it done to me according to thy word.” In Cana, two churches – one Catholic and one Orthodox – claim to be site where Jesus turned water into wine, His first miracle in response to His mother’s plea, “They have no wine.” 

 The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem awakens such a feeling of awe as you stare at the spot where Christ was said to have been born. Bethlehem, located in the Palestinian side, was clearly depressed, and I found myself wondering why the Palestinian souvenir stores in Bethlehem were closed, why the Palestinians were treated like second-hand citizens, why Palestinians born in Israel, did not hold Israeli passports. These are political questions; but then, even during Jesus’ time, political questions were asked. There is a mental phenomenon called the Jerusalem Syndrome, where some Jerusalem-visitors exhibit strange behavior, such as thinking they are Mary Magdalene, or feeling compelled to shout verses or psalms from the bible. I could see how that could happen to someone overwhelmed by all the history and palpable energy in these biblical sites. There is something powerful in the Holy Land. How humbling and awesome to see where Our Lord was born, where He grew up, where He had worshipped, where He had walked, where He had died. How enriching to look at the terrain of Galilee and note that it was greener than Judea which is an arid desert. Or to look at the vastness of the Sea of Galilee and imagine Jesus and His Apostles on fishing boats on that same sea.

 

This was what the visit to the Holy Land did to me: it made the bible come to life. I can now imagine Jesus preaching, healing, walking with his disciples from place to place. I now have an inkling of the distance from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, or Nazareth to Jerusalem. I now have an idea of the multicultural society that had existed during the time of Christ, and which continues to this day in Jerusalem – Jews, Christians, and Muslims, live side by side, not always in harmony, but the three venerate many of the same sites in the Holy Land, and all worship the God of Abraham.

Tags: #holyland #Catholicsites #Jerusalem 

JERUSALEM - #4 - The Bethlehem Incident

The Bethlehem incident happened this way.

Lauren and I arranged a half-day tour of Bethlehem with Alternative Tours, a Palistinian outfit. Alternative Tours is relatively cheap; they basically provide transportation, no tour guide to speak of. This was fine with us. One could easily take a taxi or bus to the Bethlehem border, but we'd been warned that once you got into the West Bank side, the hawkers and taxi drivers were very aggressive as to be threatening. My friend Marichi warned that taxi drivers will take your money, then abandon you when you are in church; or they will jack up prices even if previously negotiated. We didn't want to deal with this hassle and therefore arranged for the tour. Alternative Tours could accompany you to Bethlehem and back to Jerusalem.


Anton picked us up at the Jerusalem hotel. There were four young Americans in the group - one man, three women, one of them a Muslim-American wearing a veil. The young man was from Utah, the Muslim-American was from Florida, and I forget where the other two came from. They were graduates from Harvard, Brown, and the University of Miami, now studying Middle East Policies in the University of Cairo. They all spoke Arabic. They had taken a bus from Cairo through the Sinai, via Taba, a 15 hour trip.

In the van, we small-talked about Egypt and Israel and looked forward to seeing Bethlehem. The tour included a visit to the Church of the Nativity, the Milk Grotto, and the Bazaar.

Bethlehem is not far from Jerusalem and in around 30 minutes we were at the border. We thought it'd be cursory check. We handed our passports to the border guard, a young woman in her early 20s who peered into the van window. She took the passports, scrutinized the pictures on the passports, matching these with our faces. Then she riffled through the passport pages, studying each and every stamp. Then, there was a problem. She spoke in Hebrew to the driver who answered, and I caught something like "Americain," explaining that we were all Americans. There was still a problem, and she continued talking. The driver answered her. Then the border guard returned to her kiosk and called someone. We asked Anton what the problem was, and he said one passport did not have an entry stamp - it was Sahara's the Muslim American woman from Miami.

We waited, remaining unruffled. After all, we held American passports. Sahara, who was born and raised in Miami of Bangladesh background, was very calm, sweet, and composed. While waiting, we looked at the wall separating Bethlehem from Israel - tall, gray, looking like concrete slabs.

Two military men with uzis showed up, peered into the van to study all of us, their eyes zeroing in on Sahara's little sweet face covered with the veil. More Hebrew between them and the driver. They asked why Sahara did not have an entry stamp. The students explained that they had traveled by bus, and they had a separate piece of paper that had the entry stamp. The military police said he had the three documents, but where was Sahara's? She said someone took it away from her. Back and forth this went, and just when I was feeling they would pull her out of the van, one of the military police shoved his head into the window and said, "Where are your visas?" In unison, we said, "We don't need visas!" Our driver said something like, "They are Americans. They do not need visas here." The police had an embarrassed look, and he straightened himself and waved us off.


Israel and the West Bank look the same - the same hills, the same olive trees, the same sheep gnawing on the grass; it's just the wall and man's minds that have separated the two places.

In any case, when we got to the Church of the Nativity, Anton turned us over to a West Bank Palistinian tour guide. He led us into the church where Christ was born. Bypassing the long line of tourists, he led us to the Exit side, and instructed us to slip in two by two into the lower area where the Nativity site was. He had made arrangements with the church to do this, otherwise we'd have to stand in line for 2 hours. I was still nervous from that border experience, and add to that having to sneak into the Exit door where another Tour Guide shouted, "This is exit only!" and an Orthodox priest saying the same - I was somewhat fuzzy when I first saw the Nativity site. Fortunately I was able to visit it a second time. Click here for a site about the Church of the Nativity.The actual site where Jesus was born is marked by a silver star, which visitors kiss. Above this is a recess containing an altar, and hanging oil lamps. There are the Manger Chapel and Altar of the Three Kings in the area, which in my haste, failed to visit.


The rest of the tour included a visit to the adjoining St. Catherine's church with St. Jerome's relics and the Milk Grotto Chapel. We did a bit of shopping - Bethlehem makes olive wood products, rosaries, Crosses, statues. We walked down the Bazaar and through Manger Squre. It was very clear that the economy in Bethlehem was in bad shape. Numerous souvenir shops were closed. Children were begging. People seemed more hardup than in Jerusalem. In the bazaar area, we saw a poster of a recent Hamas martyr. Our guide said many Christians have left Bethlehem.

Returning to Jerusalem, I worried that we'd have the same problems as we did earlier, but fortunately nothing eventful happened. But what lingered was the feeling of fear. I thought to myself that if this kind of interrogation and intimidation could happen to US citizens, how much worse could it be to Palistinians. I had the feeling that someone like Sahara could have been whisked off somewhere and possibly never seen again. That was how I felt.

JERUSALEM - #2

The places we visited in Jerusalem included: the Via Dolorosa, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Ethiopian Church, the Tomb of David, the Last Supper Room (Coenaculum), the Wailing (Western Wall), the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock, house where Mary was born, Mary's tomb, Mount of Olives, the Grotto of Gethsemane, and the Garden Tomb. We also walked around part of the ramparts.


There was much to see and do in the Old City. Each corner seemed to have a church or structure that had some biblical or historical importance. I talked about the number of people worshipping in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Wailing Wall on Passover was just as crowded. At first I didn't understand why a wall could be the holiest place for Jews but I later understood that it was the retaining wall of the temple wherein the holy of holies had stood. The wall butts up against the Temple Mount. The first and second Jewish temples had stood on the Temple Mount where the Dome of the rock now stands, and which is under Muslim control. Jews are forbidden, according to their Torah, to go to the Temple Mount because of its sanctity. It is believed that Abraham was prepared to sacrifice Isaac on the Temple Mount. The second temple on the mount was where Christ walked, preached, and performed miracles. The Dome of the Rock had been built by Muslims to commemorate Mohammad's ascension into heaven. In short, the Temple Mount is holy to all three religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

One of the places we particularly enjoyed was the Mount of Olives which is a huge stretch of hilly land dotted with olive trees. It was more peaceful there, and I could understand why Christ liked resting here. There is a grotto near an ancient Roman cemetery, and this was where Christ and his apostles liked to stay. It was here where Christ experienced His "agony in the garden." A nearby church has a courtyard with ancient olive trees, some of which were witnesses to Christ's agony.

We also enjoyed visiting the Garden Tomb which has a lovely garden and a tomb site. A British had suggested that this was the actual site where Jesus was buried, but archeologists have disputed this. In any case the place is serene and it has many sections tucked away in the garden where people could meditate or have Mass.

JERUSALEM - #1

Last year we saw a movie about the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187 a.d. The Kingdom of Heaven was criticized for inaccuracies, but I found it exotic and romantic. It gave me an understanding of how the Europeans fought hard to keep the Arabs from over-running Europe. It was the same thing in Spain, when Ferdinand and Isabela fought the Moors - it was a battle of boundaries.

Jerusalem to me hearkened Christianity and Crusaders and the bible and Jesus Christ and his apostles, the temple, ancient gates, pool of Bethesda, Mount of Olives and Golgotha - places that I'd made pictures of in my head from scraps of information gathered throughout the years. Same thing with Nazareth, Bethlehem and the River Jordan - I had my own images of these places. Because of this, I was afraid of being disappointed in seeing the Holy Land. This had happened before when I saw a place and become disappointed because it didn't match my fantasy.

So it was with a bit of nervousness that I went to Israel. Well, you do get nervous because El Al, the Israeli flagship plane checks every thing you are carrying. An El Al representative (or Israeli representative) interviews you making sure you alone packed your bags, and then each bag is opened and the person runs a wand through everything. Even our boxed breakfast (sent by the Fairmont Heliopolis, demoted to a three-star hotel in my mind) was whisked away for thorough inspection. God knows how much radiation the orange juice and croissants had by the time we got them back. The small lamp I picked up in Cairo caused a slight delay because the wires had to be checked to make sure I didn't have a bomb. It's just as well, really, because we wanted to have a safe bomb-free plane ride from Cairo to Tel Aviv.

The plane ride was less than 2 hours; they're that close. There was no problem when we arrived Tel Aviv. Outside the airport terminal, we took Nesser shuttle service, recommended to us by our hotel. For 45 sheckels each, the shuttle brought us to Jerusalem Hotel which is near the Damascus Gate. (Exchange rate was around 3.5 sheckles to a dollar.)

We had found the Jerusalem Hotel in the internet. There's a site I google that gives me ratings made by customers, and Jerusalem Hotel had excellent reviews. It's a restored 19th century mansion built in the Spanish-Moorish style, with few rooms. The best part about the hotel is that it's walking distance to the Old City. A nice breakfast is included, and the restaurant's food is quite good so we had most of our dinners there. My husband swears their beer is excellent, and he looked forward to his cold glass of beer in the early evening after our touring.

When we arrived Jerusalem at around 7:30, our room wasn't ready and so we left our luggage and walked a few blocks to catch the bus that goes all around the Old City. It was great orientation although having had little sleep I dozed on and off.


Later that afternoon, after we'd checked in and rested, we went to the Old City to walk the Via Dolorosa. It was Friday and I'd read that the Franciscans have a procession every Friday afternoon. It was in fact better than an ordinary Friday because it was Good Friday, per Orthodox figuring. Add to that the fact that it was Passover. The Old City was crawling with Christians doing the Via Dolorosa and Jews heading for the Wailing Wall. It was great! I had never seen such a variety of people, all focused on their religion in such a small space. Listen: there were Muslims; there were assorted Christians - Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Coptic Christians, Ethiopian Coptics, Armenian Coptics, and Protestants I'm sure - and there were various types of Jews, Hasidic one of them. And they were all so intent in worshipping their God - the Christians venerating the site where Jesus was reportedly crucified and where He was entombed; the Jews bowing their heads in prayer in front of the Wailing Wall, and the Muslims in their mosques. And the wonder of it all was that the God these three religions prayed to was the same God of Abraham.


The configuration and boundaries of Jerusalem have changed through the years. The Old City now is not what the City had been during the time of Christ. This explanation is used when people puzzle over why the Via Dolorosa - the road Christ took as He headed toward Golgotha for His crucifixion - is right smack in the middle of a busy bazaar. In fact, others question if this Via Dolorosa that is marked in the Old City really is the genuine Via Dolorosa. It's like that in Jerusalem: there are two places that claim to be where the Last Supper was held; there are two places that claim that Christ was buried there, and so on.

Somehow we missed the Franciscan-led procession and so we walked the Via Dolorosa, searching for the Stations of the Cross markings in the busy souk (bazaar) until we finally made it to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (the holiest Christian site in the world), where the last four Stations are. Before getting there, we stumbled upon a joyous celebration of Ethiopians in their church, which is right next to the Holy Sepulchre. It's like a maze in the Old City, with buildings connected to one another. The custody of the Holy Sepulchre is shared by the Franciscans, the Greek Orthodox and the Armenian Apostolics, with a Muslim family holding the door keys.

There were so many people in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, you were wedged into a group and moved along with the wave of humanity up the stairs to Golgotha where Christ was crucified. I thought I'd fall off the narrow stairs because of all the shoving and pushing. Upstairs I took out some money for my donation, and when there was a surge of people, promptly lost the money. In any case, I did get to kiss the spot where Christ is believed to have been crucified. And we managed to visit other areas in the Holy Sepulchre; but I did not get into the tomb itself because of the crowd. By the way, during our visit to Jerusalem, I returned two other times to try and visit the Sepulchre or tomb and still couldn't get in. I had to content myself by praying and touching the outside walls.

It was Helena, mother of Constantine, who is credited for discovering the religious sites relating to Christ's passion. To be honest, I wondered how the sites where Christ was imprisoned, Crucified and entombed would all be within a few meters apart. There is a Protestant group that suggests the Crucifixion was on a former quarry, now a parking lot, and that the tomb of Christ was elsewhere. These inconsistencies did not diminish my faith; what was important to me was to look at Jerusalem and the Holy Land as a whole - in a long shot, so to speak, as opposed to a closeup. Christ, Mary, Joseph went to the Temple in Jerusalem during Passover; the Temple was destroyed by the Romans, but the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) remains. The Pool of Bethesda where Jesus performed a miracle exists. Stephen's Gate near where St. Stephen was stoned stands. The Mount of Olives and the grotto exist, and some ancient olives are said to have witnessed Christ's passion. Later, when we visited Bethlehem, Nazareth, Cana, Galilee, Capernaum, the River Jordan, I didn't concern myself with the exact spot where Jesus did this or that, but just took in the bigger picture of where Our Lord walked, worked, ate, preached, lived, died, and resurrected.

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS IN SAN DIEGO

My friend Elizabeth Allen and I went to the San Diego Natural History Museum to see the exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls are 2,000 year old texts found in caves near the Dead Sea in Israel. In 1947, a Bedouin goatherder who was near a cave threw a rock into the cave. He heard clay shatter. He threw another rock and heard the same thing. When he investigated, he discovered the scrolls in clay jars with lids. He contacted an antique dealer in Bethlehem, who was able to contact some religious people, then later academic people. The Israeli government eventually bought back the scrolls that had been sold and now have possession of most of them.

Most of the scrolls are made of leather with writing on them that depict biblical text, songs, hymns, even a legal document. There are scrolls in parchment and in copper. The copper scroll lists an inventory of some 200 tons of gold, silver, and religious garments hidden in areas around Judea. The parchment scroll is a lease agreement.

The caves where the scrolls were found are near a place called Qumram, where a religious group the Essenes, had once lived, worked and worshipped. The Essenes copied the scrolls and when the Romans invaded Qumran in 68 CE or AD, they hid them in the caves where they lay for 2,000 years.

I could go on and on about what we saw, and there was a lot. The exhibit was rich. There were huge photos of Jerusalem, olive orchards, Dead Sea, and other sites in Israel. There was a 30-minute movie presentation about Qumran. There was a section that showed pictures and artifacts of how the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered and brought to light to the world.

A friend of Elizabeth had seen this same Dead Sea Scroll exhibit in Jerusalem, but she said the exhibit in San Diego is better.

I loved the antiquity! I find it interesting to consider that 2,000 years ago people were writing, reading, praying to a One God. Sometimes we think that we, in the here and now, are more superior than ancient people and it boggles our mind when we see proof of how learned, how sophisticated they had been. It makes me realize what a tiny speck we are in the entire history of mankind. It makes me realize that there are more similarities than differences in the life style of man throughout the ages.