The living stones

More than at any other time in the liturgical year, except perhaps Christmas, on our Lenten journey we turn our minds to the Holy Land.

When we follow the Stations of the Cross in our parish churches (or, with the advent of modern technology, on our cellphones), we do so in place of actually following the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem.

Indeed, the practice of following the Stations of the Cross in Catholic churches was introduced in the 17th century for the benefit of the great majority of faithful who would never travel to the Holy Land.

The Church encourages Catholics to make pilgrimages to the Holy Land, because these journeys, perhaps more than any other, produce great spiritual growth and a profound deepening of our relationship with the word of God.

On a secondary level, Church leaders also urge Catholics to make pilgrimages to the Holy Land as a concrete sign of solidarity with the region’s fast diminishing indigenous Christian minority, virtually all of whom are Palestinians.

Young Christian Palestinians in particular are leaving the region, especially the occupied West Bank, in large numbers. The reasons for that go deeper than the pursuit of greater economic opportunity. The treatment of Palestinians by the state of Israel, with the systematic restriction on free movement and other forms of daily humiliations, propels the exodus of young Arab Christians. Although relations between Christian and Muslim Palestinians are traditionally very good, increasing Islamic fundamentalism, especially in Gaza, is another cause for concern.

Where Bethlehem once had a great Christian majority, Muslims now predominate in the city of Christ’s birth. And why should young Christians stay in a city that has been encircled by Israel’s “security barrier” (which in some places is twice as high as the Berlin wall) and where employment prospects are limited when a better life is possible elsewhere?

It would be a tragedy if the living and unbroken presence of Christians in the Holy Land would come to and end. Only 160000 Christians live in Israel and the West Bank now—that is just 1,4% of the combined population—and of those, 20% are immigrants or missionaries. A century ago, Christians constituted 20% of the Holy Land’s population.

The international congress of Franciscan custodians that took place in Jerusalem this year put it like this: “In the Holy Land one meets the living stones, the Christian communities, with their human, social and religious problems…We wish to continue to show the beauty and the strength of the Christian tradition of this Land.”

Many Christians in the Holy Land, the “living stones”, say they feel forgotten, even by their fellow Christians—especially when the conflict between Israel and Palestinians is portrayed in religious terms, between Jews and Muslims.

Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem, the leader of the Holy Land’s Palestinian Catholics, often says that the region’s Christians are feeling “left alone and isolated”, and yearn for signs of solidarity from the Christian family worldwide.

Projects such as the International Day of Intercession for Peace in the Holy Land, an initiative started by international Catholic youth associations (which this year took place on January 29), serve as a concrete expression of solidarity, and should be richly encouraged.

For pilgrims to the Holy Land, there is an opportunity to include in an itinerary not only the customary series of shrines and ruins—important though these are—but also to seek interaction with local Christians. Church leaders such as Archbishop Vincent Nichol of Westminster, England, and Fr Peter-John Pearson, vicar-general of the archdiocese of Cape Town, have strongly advocated such interaction. This could take the form of personal contact as well as communal participation in prayer and liturgy.

The obligation to help keep alive these living stones rests with Christians all over the world. Those who can afford it can help by going on Holy Land pilgrimages (preferably those that employ Palestinian Christian guides and ground operators). And all the faithful can help by prayer and advocacy for justice.