6: Bethlehem – Joy and Pain

by Gunther Simmermacher · Published August 17, 2005 · Updated October 17, 2017

One makes many new friends on a pilgrimage. As one shares a profound spiritual journey with others, one becomes close to fellow pilgrims. One might also become good friends with the tourguide or driver, or with the spiritual director. The graces of a pilgrimage may even help one become a better friend to one’s self. Indeed, anyone who can help deepen the benefits of a pilgrimage is a likely friend. And so I have made a new friend in a man whom I’ve never met, and who, in fact, died three years ago.

Fr Bargil Pixner was a Benedictine monk based at Dormition Abbey on Mt Zion and at Tabgha. A German-speaking Italian, he moved to the Holy Land in 1969. In his work, he combined archaeology (the discovery of ancient Bethsaida, St Peter’s birthplace, was his accomplishment) and the social sciences with scriptural expertise. Not surprisingly, he was a sought-after tourguide. Among his pilgrims were former US President Jimmy Carter and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Fr Pixner is not with us any longer to guide pilgrims himself, but he has left us a beautiful legacy in the form of two fine books: With Jesus Through the Galilee and With Jesus in Jerusalem (both published by Corazin in Rosh Pina). The former is also known as the “Fifth Gospel” not because Fr Pixner had ideas above his station, but because he believed a pilgrimage through the Galilee, being in situ, constituted a Gospel of its own. He was right. One may, of course, disagree with Fr Pixner on some points but to do so, one must first become more intimate with the Gospel and its context. And this, I venture, was the priest’s mission in the first place.

Fr Pixner has proposed a simple solution to the vexed scholarly question of whether Jesus was really born in Bethlehem. The Gospel account in some respects does not correspond with what is historically known. For example, no census at the time certainly not that called by Quirinius required men to trek to the place of their origin (imagine the economic upheavel!). However, Fr Pixner makes a logical case for Bethlehem as Jesus’ birthplace. According to Isaiah’s prophecy, the Messiah would be born in David’s town: Bethlehem. Mary, who came from a family of deep faith and knowledge of the Word, knew that. She was also conscious of the destiny awaiting the child she was bearing. So Mary could well have decided to become an agent in the fulfilment of the prophecy, giving birth to the Son of God in the town of David. Fr Pixner also suggests that, far from there being “no room in the inn”, the cave of Jesus’ birth was carefully picked for warmth, tranquillity and safety.

Bethlehem has always been the Christian stronghold in the Holy Land. Until quite recently, Christians were in a clear majority in the town. Today, they make up less than half of Bethlehem’s 60,000 citizens. Many were involved in the tourism industry. But since the intifadah (or uprising) erupted in 2000, and even before it, Bethlehem was often sidestepped, especially by tour groups run by Israeli companies. One can understand this: Israeli tour operators may have reasonable reservations about committing a tourbus that is easily identified as Jewish-owned into what they see as a potential troublespot. And so avoiding Bethlehem has become a dismaying default position for many of these operators. As a consequence, the local tourism economy has suffered terribly, and many Christians have left. So it was appropriate that our tourguide, Iyad Qumri (a Christian Arab), should have taken us to an exquisite souvenir shop run by Christians in Bethlehem. The shop, the Bethlehem Souvenir Centre on Hebron Road, was opened especially for us. Our group showed that South Africans have no aversion to power-shopping.

We tend to associate Bethlehem with the great joy at the birth of our Saviour. Alas, Bethlehem is not a happy place, and the government of Israel seems to be doing its best to keep it that way. To enter and exit Bethlehem, one must produce ID documents (or, in our case, passports). Tourists come and go with ease. Not so the locals, whose movement in and out of the town is controlled by Israeli guards, who can and do decide randomly who may pass, and who may not. Under these conditions, it is not possible for the people of Bethlehem to sustain employment outside the town, which itself cannot offer enough jobs for everyone (a situation that is replicated throughout the West Bank).

Meanwhile, one end of Hebron Road, the town’s main thoroughfare, has been closed off by Israel. Without traffic, the shops there stand empty. Whole neighbourhoods have been dissected by Israel’s so-called “Security Wall”. In Bethlehem, its path has been designed to appropriate parts of Bethlehem into nearby Jerusalem for Israeli use.

Observing the desolate scene on Hebron Road, our spiritual director, Mgr Clifford Stokes, did not exaggerate when he said: “What is being done here is diabolical.”