To be in Bethlehem and Jerusalem

Last month I reflected on my impressions as a pilgrim in Galilee, which I visited as part of The Southern Cross’ pilgrimage with Archbishop William Slattery. This month my focus is on Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

The exterior of the Catholic church at Shepherds’ Fields. (Photo: G Simmermacher)

It can be argued that these two cities constitute the heart of the roots of Christianity. Bethlehem is the birthplace of the Saviour, while Jerusalem is the place of Jesus’ crucifixion, death and resurrection.

In Bethlehem God became a human, reconciling heaven and earth; in Jerusalem Jesus won salvation for all humanity by dying on the cross and also rose from the dead. Thus, in Jerusalem he destroyed our death and restored our life.

The question that comes to mind as I reflect on these sites and others is whether we can say with certainty that all these are the actual places where the events associated with Christ’s life and death occurred.

I answer myself by arguing that the fact that the majority of Christians for the past two thousand years have believed the sites to be authentic is in itself a vindication of the veracity of what we and our ancestors have believed to be true.

So we begin with Bethlehem. My comments are limited to two sites: the basilica of the Nativity and Shepherds’ Field.

The ancient basilica is the birthplace of Jesus, and there you see with your own eyes and touch with your own fingers the place where Mary gave birth to the Son of God, and you also see the place where Baby Jesus lay in a manger.

And when you see the place you realise that the Son of God was born in a cave — a much worse and humbler place than the picture you get when you read the gospel narrative!

At Shepherds’ Field, which is the village of Beit Sahour, just outside Bethlehem, you learn that there was historically a place where shepherds used to look after their sheep at night. This is where the angels announced the birth of the Messiah to the shepherds.

Your eyes are opened to the fact that the gospel narrative of the shepherds and the angels is not a fairytale, but a true story that took place on Mother Earth.

My brief comment on Jerusalem starts with a visit to the Mount of Olives.

Archbishop William Slattery celebrates Mass in the church of All Nations in Jerusalem during The Southern Cross’ pilgrimage in May. The Rock of the Agony of Gethsemane is in front of the altar.

At the foot of the mount is the Garden of Gethsemane. There you enter the magnificent church of All Nations, a Catholic church also called the church of the Agony, where we had Mass.

Inside is the spot where Jesus knelt and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Lk 22:42). You can touch and feel the rock on which he knelt and have a sense of the agony he went through between the Last Supper and his arrest.

The next place we shall visit is the church of St Peter in Gallicantu, on Mount Zion, which stands where the house of Caiaphas, the high priest, stood.

Deep down below the church is a dark and eerie place. This is where Jesus was imprisoned that terrible night. You then get to know that Jesus was kept prisoner in a dark dungeon.

This too is the place where Peter denied Jesus three times. The name Gallicantu means “cock crow”, and at the top of the church is a symbol of the cock, to remind us of this sad and shameful event.

In our churches we follow the Stations of the Cross, especially during Lent. In Jerusalem pilgrims follow the Stations along the Via Dolorosa, “the Way of Sorrows”, along which Jesus dragged his cross to Calvary. Pilgrims stop at the places where Jesus fell, where Veronica wiped his face and so on.

The stations conclude at the church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was first built in the 4th century and rebuilt in the early 1100s.

Inside this church is Calvary. You have the privilege of touching the place where the Cross of Jesus stood; you can touch the spot where his body was prepared for burial, and you can enter the tomb from which he rose from the dead.

I will defer the conclusion to my pilgrimage account to next month’s column. What I can say here is this: A pilgrimage to the Holy Land makes the Gospel more alive and the historical Jesus more real.

Go with Archbishop Stephen Brislin on the next Southern Cross Pilgrimage “Pilgrimage of the Peacemakers” 13-26 February, 2016!