The Holy Land can form future leaders

My previous column ended with the words: A pilgrimage to the Holy Land makes the Gospel more alive and the historical Jesus more real. This final part of my three reflections on my Holy Land pilgrimage in May, with The Southern Cross and Archbishop William Slattery, elaborates on this theme and explains how pilgrimages can be linked to the training of young Christian leaders.

A Christian may go into a Hindu or Buddhist temple, be fascinated by the statues and images in the temple, and go away not only spiritually unchanged but even unimpressed. Similarly, an ordinary tourist may visit the Holy Land and be fascinated by the architecture and the history associated with some of the places, but return completely unchanged spiritually.

But when one visits the Holy Land as a pilgrim, with a receptive mind and eager to discover the roots of one’s faith, then it truly becomes holy ground from which one can hear the words of the Bible coming to one with a new freshness and a force that makes the Gospel stories truly real and convincing.

This is the feeling I had at the River Jordan, at the Sea of Galilee, the church of St Peter in Gallicantu and the church of the Holy Sepulchre, among other places.

At the Sea of Galilee, for example, I felt that Jesus was continuing with his mission of calling disciples to be fishers of people in a world that is plagued by secularism and other anti-Christian philosophies, tendencies and beliefs. In the church of St Peter in Gallicantu, the place of Jesus’ trial by the Sanhedrin, I had something of a real appreciation of how humiliated and despised Jesus was when he was forced to spend a night in a dungeon.

I can now understand why for nearly 2000 years Christians have kept on flocking to the cradle of their faith. As pilgrims they get inspired and they can hear a fresh voice delivering the message of the gospels and of the Old Testament.

They can more realistically visualise Abraham raising his hand with intention to slay his own son at the command of his God. They can more concretely see the Roman soldiers violently and mercilessly driving nails into Jesus’ feet and hands. They will have a sense of what Jesus felt when he was being scourged at the pillar and when he carried his cross to Calvary.

For this reason, the Holy Land is correctly referred to as the Fifth Gospel. It is the physical and visual Gospel that makes Bible narratives more immediate, more real and spiritually very uplifting.

I have included my Holy Land reflections as part of my series on developing the leaders of the Church of tomorrow. I am convinced that visits to the Holy Land are one of the methods we can use to build strong leaders of the Church, especially lay leaders.

If young Christian leaders are taken on a guided pilgrimage in the Holy Land, they should return to their countries more strengthened in their faith.

World Youth Day is an excellent initiative started by Pope St John Paul II. Young people really look forward to this world gathering, and it encourages them to be more actively involved in the life of the Church.

Similarly, pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to Rome, and other sacred places, can be a life-changing experience for our young Christian leaders.

A good time to send them is when they are preparing for Confirmation. They are then old enough to have a mature understanding of the Bible and to make a good connection between history and the message of the Bible.

Of course, it would be very expensive to try and send everybody in a confirmation class to the Holy Land from places like Southern Africa, South America, Australia and the Far East. But a few representatives could be sent regularly with some funds coming from fundraising activities.

Those who are afforded the opportunity to go on such pilgrimages would then be required to have the responsibility of giving talks, assisted by visual aids such as DVDs, photographs and maps. This could become part of training young lay preachers and religious instructors.

Let us use the Fifth Gospel of the Holy Land to strengthen the faith of our future leaders.