A Pilgrim in the Land of Jesus

Many years ago as a student in London I travelled to Rome by train. In the year 2000 my wife and I went on a pilgrimage to the headquarters of three churches as we were working with members of the Catholic, Anglican and Methodist Churches. We therefore visited Rome, Canterbury cathedral and the Wesley chapel in London.

The Southern Cross pilgrims, led by Archbishop William Slattery, renew their baptismal vows at Qasr el Yahud site on the Jordan River.

These visits were inspiring, but they did not have the impact that The Southern Cross’ pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Italy in May had on me.

There were 43 of us on this pilgrimage, with Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria as our spiritual director.

There are many sites in the Holy Land and Italy that left a lasting impression on me. In this article I will restrict myself to the following: the River Jordan where Jesus was baptised; Cana where Jesus performed his first miracle; the Sea of Galilee; the basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem; the Cenacle or Upper Room, the site of the Last Supper; the church of St Peter in Gallicantu, which marks the house of Caiaphas the High Priest; and the church of the Holy Sepulchre.

As a pilgrim, my primary interest in these churches and other places is not in the architectural beauty of these sites but in their spiritual significance for the followers of Christ. I will touch on a few of these in this first part of two articles.

The mere mention of the River Jordan has an emotional appeal to Christians of many denominations. You should then imagine what it felt like for me and my fellow pilgrims to wade in the waters of this famous river, and to be at the site where Jesus was baptised and a voice was heard saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17).

It was indeed appropriate that the Jordan was the first important site that we visited, for here Jesus was prepared for his public ministry, and here we were prepared for our pilgrim journey by renewing our baptismal vows.

Some of us renewed our wedding vows at Cana, near Nazareth, where Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding. My wife Teboho and I were one of the seven couples who renewed our marriage vows.

In Cana I realised how important the sacrament of matrimony was in Jesus’ teaching. Just as God instituted the sacrament at the very beginning of creation, the wedding at Cana took place at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry and there the Messiah performed his first miracle.

In my reading of the Bible story of the resurrection I have often wondered why the angel would tell Mary that Jesus was going ahead of his disciples to Galilee where they would see him. Why Galilee?

My visit to the Holy Land has helped me understand that Galilee was Jesus’ “headquarters”. It was here where he performed many of his miracles and articulated many of the key tenets of our faith.

Take the Sea of Galilee. This is where Peter was a fisherman, and this is where Jesus called his first disciples.

This, too, is the site where “the Jesus Boat” was discovered in 1985, a first-century fishing boat which could possibly be one of the boats that Jesus used.

As we pilgrims went on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, or Lake Gennesaret, with fishermen demonstrating the cast-net fishing method of Peter’s time, I felt that just as Jesus had said to Simon and Andrew, “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.” Jesus was calling us, the modern-day disciples, to follow him and be his witnesses in our own homes, workplaces, countries and indeed to the ends of the earth.

One of the other sites in Galilee that made a lasting impression on me was the church of the Beatitudes, which marks the place where Jesus delivered his famous Sermon on the Mount. As we left this fascinating “mount” to return to our hotel, the entire Sermon from Matthew, chapter 5 to the end of chapter 7, was read to us on the bus.

With this comprehensive rendition I then understood more clearly what Jesus did on the Mount of Beatitudes: He was calling for a revolution in our beliefs, our attitudes, our consciousness and our relationship with God and our fellow human beings. He was announcing new values and a completely new way of life.

His listeners understood this as they realised that “he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law” (Mt 7:28).

More on Prof Ngara’s reflection on the pilgrimage next month. To go with The Southern Cross and Archbishop Stephen Brislin to the Holy Land in 2016, please email