Sunrise on the Sea of Galilee

Today was a very exciting day. We began with a visit to one of my favorite biblical towns, the city of Capernaum. If there was any place that you could say that Jesus had as a home during his public ministry, this is it. This was also the home of St. Peter. The modern church that stands at the site today is built above the 1st century ruins of St. Peter’s house. There is a glass floor in the bottom of the church so you can look down and see the ruins. A church has stood in this location since the 4th century and these ruins are also visible. As we celebrated Mass here in this church I thought of the ruins below me and all the people who had celebrated Mass here over the centuries. I thought of the early beginnings of the Church at St. Peter’s house. What a special place.

Church Over St. Peter’s House
Ruins Are Visible Through Glass in the Center 

After Mass we toured the ruins of the city. The most famous site is the synagogue. The ruins visible today are from the 4th century, but this synagogue is built rite on top of the original 1st century synagogue. The foundations of this original building are still visible. I have been looking forward to visiting Capernaum for such a long time. It was here in this very synagogue where Jesus gave his famous Bread of Life discourse and taught about the Eucharist (John 6:59). This synagogue is also special because we have an account of the man who built it. When the slave of a Roman centurion from Capernaum is sick he sends the apostles to Jesus who tell him, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he built us our synagogue” (Luke 7:5-6). With many of these biblical sites you can’t really be sure you’re at the place where the event took place. However, I knew today that I was definitely standing in the location of the 1st century synagogue of Capernaum and I could imagine Jesus teaching here. I wanted to stay here all day and meditate, but had hardly any time at all before we had to move on. I will have to return here many times in my memory in the future.

Synagogue at Capernaum

From Capernaum we continued on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee to Tabgha, the traditional site of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes (Luke 9:12-17). Here there is the rock upon which Jesus is said to have placed the loaves and fishes, as well as a famous 4th century mosaic which you see everywhere around Israel. Just a couple hundred yards from this spot is a church dedicated to the primacy of Peter. This is the traditional spot where Jesus appeared to the disciples after his resurrection, standing on the shore. He had cooked breakfast for them. It is here that Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Jesus tells Peter to feed his sheep and places him in charge of his new flock of Christians. The rock in this church is labeled “Mensa Christi” or “Table of Christ” because Jesus and the disciples used this as their breakfast table on that day.

Rock Where Jesus Multiplied the Loaves and Fishes

I felt particularly close to Peter at this place. When I receive the Sacrament of Penance and the priest does not offer a scripture reading, I often use the reading from this encounter between Jesus and Peter, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” What beautiful words spoken by St. Peter. In the Greek, Peter is not quite able to respond to Jesus with the “Agape” love that he is asking, but only “Philos” love. He does not yet have the unconditional, perfect love that Jesus is requesting. The third time Jesus asks the question he asks only if Peter has this “Philos” love for him. He tells him that in the future he will find that he does have this unconditional Agape love for Jesus and will even lay down his life in love of Jesus. I find great consolation in this encounter because I too know that I do not yet love the Lord as I ought. Peter knew he was still weak and I can relate well to him. I trust that, like He did for St. Peter, Jesus will gradually perfect my love for him and I will one day be able to have this “Agape” love that will compel me to lay down my life for the Lord.

Church of the Primacy of Peter

Rock Where Jesus Cooked Breakfast and Asked Peter
“Do You Love Me?” 

We finished up our day with a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. It wasn’t too hard to imagine the apostles out in their little boat being tossed by a storm because the sea was particularly rough today. We were in a wooden boat that was going up and down quite a bit on this windy day. We took that same route towards the other shore that the apostles would have taken. As I mentioned earlier, some sties here are questionable, but Jesus and the apostles were definitely on the Sea of Galilee just as we were. Fortunately, we did not need the have either of our priests calm the sea as we were able to make it safely back to shore without any miracles. What a marvelous day this was. There is much to mediate on now.

Sea of Galilee Waves

Time for a Boat Ride

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Port City of Akko

Early this morning we said goodbye to Nazareth and began our exciting journey to our new home on the Sea of Galilee. However, we had a few stops to make on our way. First on the list was the port city of Akko. Earlier in the pilgrimage we had seen the Mediterranean Sea from Haifa and Mt. Carmel. Akko is located on the northern end of the Bay of Haifa, so this was familiar territory. Akko has a long history, including a stop by St. Paul in the Acts of the Apostles. However, Akko is most known as being the stronghold of the Crusader kingdom for many years. Most of the ruins we saw were from this time frame. As recently as the 1950’s they were making some repairs to the floor of a hospital that was caving in and discovered that there was an open area underneath. This turned out to be the Crusader city of Akko. They are still excavating it, but the current ruins are very interesting. You can almost picture the 6000 knights that would have lived here. This wasn’t a particular biblical site, but I did learn that when the port of Caesarea which we visited previously became unusable, Akko replaced it as the major port in the Holy Land. My favorite part was just enjoying the beautiful Mediterranean Sea.

Knights Halls and Me on a Big Fish

From Akko we went on to a very biblical site, the ancient ruins of Chorazin. There are some ruins here from a 1st century synagogue that are very interesting. Perhaps you recall the words of Jesus, “Woe to you, Chorazin! woe to you, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes” (Luke 10:13). As I walked through the ruins I contemplated the mighty deeds Jesus would have worked here. What were they? We don’t know. We do know that most of the people of Chorazin failed to follow Jesus. Now all of history remembers these ruins only for this sad fact. Sometimes we think that it would have been easier to believe in Jesus if we had been physically with him in the first century. The ruins of Chorazin are a reminder that even those who saw the many miracles Jesus worked still struggled and most rejected him. We need to constantly be thankful for the gift of faith we have received through the Holy Spirit.

Synagogue of Chorazin

As we left Chorazin I got my first look at the Sea of Galilee. We rounded the northern edge and made our way to a city on the East bank called Kursi. This is the site where Jesus healed a man possessed by demons and cast the demons into a herd of pigs which than ran into the sea (Luke 8:26-33). The main feature at this site was the cliff where the biblical event was supposed to have taken place and also the ruins of a 4th century church. They only recently discovered the ruins of this church. I tried to picture Jesus and the crowed that would have followed him to this place. The Sea of Galilee is right at the base of the hills and I could almost see some pigs charging down into the sea.

Church at Kursi

Hill Where Jesus Healed the Demoniac and Sent the Pigs Flying

From Kursi we drove around the northern edge of the sea to our new home on the northwest side. This is a wonderful pilgrim house (more like a hotel in some respects) that is right on the sea. I could hear the waves crashing as we arrived. It was getting dark, so I have to wait for tomorrow. It’s nice and peaceful here and I think I will enjoy the next 4 days.

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This morning we headed north of Nazareth to the ancient town of Zippori, or Sepphoras. This was a large town developing just north of Nazareth at the time of Jesus. It is quite possible that St. Joseph would have come here to work in the building of this city. Although a Jewish town, it was a Roman center on a famous trade route and was designed in a Roman style. We walked through the huge waterworks and saw some very nice mosaics from the 1st century. To some extent, one set of ancient ruins is starting to look like the next, but this was a fairly interesting city.

Main Street, Water Tunnel, Ancient Mosaic

After Zippori, we went to Bet Sharim. This town was the home of a famous early rabbi named Judah Ha Nasi. The place where visitors go is actually an ancient cemetery. The most impressive site was a huge underground burial cave with many chambers and sarcophagi. We also saw the place where the famous rabbi is said to be buried.

Cave of the Coffins

After lunch we returned to Nazareth for a tour of the site there. Our first stop was at the Orthodox church that is built on the site of Mary’s well. The Orthodox believe that the angel Gabriel first appeared to Mary while she was getting water from the well, but she was scared and so he had to appear again back at her home. However, devotion at this place dates only to the 18th century. After this we went to visit the church of St. Joseph which is built on top of the 1st century carpenter shop of St. Joseph and thereby likely also the home of the Holy Family. We ended our official tour with a brief trip to a Melkite Catholic church and the Synagogue where Jesus taught, but the highlight of my tour was yet to come.

Windows in the Church of St. Joseph

I decided that I wanted to return to the church of St. Joseph to pray for a while. I went down into the grotto below the main church in order to be close to the home of the Holy Family which is still underneath this level. There are stairs that lead down to the original house and there is one place where you can look through the floor and see it, but it’s rather difficult. As I was praying, I met a worker who had access to the cave below and I persuaded him to let me go down there for a few moments. So, there I was, standing in the first century home of the Holy Family. What an amazing experience. Our guide told us that they wouldn’t have had enough money for Joseph to own a home and a carpenter’s shop, so the home doubled as both. This was the place where Jesus grew up and learned how to be a carpenter from his dad. Mary would have cooked there meals here. I wanted to stay here and pray longer, but the worker was waiting for me so I had to come back out.

Cave that was the Carpenter’s Shop of St. Joseph and
The Home of the Holy Family

After asking the worker some questions, I went back upstairs to pray for while. As the worker and I were leaving the church at the same time, he asked me if I had seen “the rest of the houses.” He then proceeded to show me where they are excavating the entire first century city of Nazareth. Believe it or not, that would have only included 25 families! I got to see several other first century homes as we made our way down the hill from St. Joseph’s house toward the Church of the Annunciation. Toward the end of the row of houses I saw one that had some nice plants in front and asked what it might be. He told me that this was Mary’s house. Then I was able to connect it all together. The remnants of Mary’s house that you see in the Church of the Annunciation would have been the underground chamber. There are stairs in the back that I thought led nowhere, but they actually lead outside to the original entrance where I found myself looking down those same stairs. The houses of Mary and Joseph are across town from each other, but as I said before, the town was small. They are only about 100 yards apart at the most. Mary’s house is very well preserved and there has been a place of Christian devotion at this site since the first century. Jesus spent 30 years living quietly in this town of 25 families and Mary and Joseph even longer. What a blessing to be present in this holy place.

The Street Level Entry to Mary’s House

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Goodbye to our House in Bethlehem

Today was basically devoted to traveling from Bethlehem to Nazareth. We went up the Jordan valley past where we had been previously in Jericho. It was very nice to arrive at the familiar place of the convent of the Sisters of Nazareth. I took the afternoon to relax and go to the Church of the Annunciation to pray. We’ve got a big day ahead of us tomorrow, so I didn’t feel like getting too adventurous.

Jordan Valley on our Way North to Galilee

Final Pictures of Bethlehem

Today is the Solemnity of the Holy Family. I must say that it is very easy to feel close to the Holy Family here in Bethlehem. Every time I see a family together with a little boy I imagine that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph probably looked a lot like that. There is also a great sense of the presence of the Holy Family in all the holy places here. To help make the feast day special today we had a day of prayer which included a walking pilgrimage along the very route that Mary and Joseph would have followed into Bethlehem on that first Christmas night. I wound my way down Star Street, in through the Old City gate and finally to the Church of the Nativity. There were many pilgrims crowding into the grotto on this busy Sunday morning, but I managed to sit and pray for a while at the manger. Today is our last day in Bethlehem, so I was conscious that this would be my last visit to the manger, at least in person. From there I went to the Milk Grotto church where the Holy Family stayed for a while in Bethlehem. It’s been such a blessing to spend this past month here and to be able to really pray and enter into to mystery of this place. I will surely come back here often in my thoughts and prayers.

It is fitting that as we say goodbye to the previous year we also move on in our pilgrimage and say goodbye to Bethlehem. It’s been amazing to spend Advent and the first part of Christmas here, but even greater things await us in Galilee and Jerusalem. As we finished our class on the Gospel of Luke this week, I found myself looking forward to seeing the holy places where Jesus spent his public ministry and eventually gave his life for us. From the cave of his birth here in Bethlehem we will now travel to the cave of his tomb where his body was laid and where the greatest event of history took place, the resurrection. I’m looking forward to our return to Galilee tomorrow and the Church of the Annunciation. I want to see Joseph’s carpenter shop and linger in prayer for a while at Mary’s house. The close of the year brings a close to the first part of our pilgrimage, but I’m excited for what still lies ahead.

My special intention in my prayers today was for all families. I was also very mindful of how thankful I am for my own family. If only we realized how important families are and how much God has trusted His plan for history to families. May the Holy Family watch over and protect you and your family now and throughout the coming year. Happy New Year!

The last 24 hours here in Bethlehem have been very interesting. Beginning yesterday afternoon, I noticed that there were lots of people in the streets and they had even blocked off traffic. I also noticed that there were many license plates from Israel and that was unusual. Today, Bethlehem looks like a ghost town. It turns out that today is a major Muslim holy day. Yesterday was a big shopping day to buy presents for a traditional gift exchange. It was also the day that all the Muslims needed to buy some sheep for a big dinner today. The store owner here said that sheep are cheaper in Bethlehem so that’s why all the cars from Jerusalem were in town. All I know is that the streets were way more packed yesterday night then they were on Christmas. It was kind of a carnival atmosphere. Today, everyone is home with their families and the shops are all closed. Fortunately, the restaurant where I go to access the Internet is a Christian store so they are open.

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve and we will be celebrating with the Christian Brothers at Bethlehem University. We can’t party too late because the next morning we get up and head to Galilee. I have spent many a New Year’s Eve playing Cribbage with my dad, so I am happy that we have a Cribbage board with us here. We’ve got quite a number of guys who play now, so this New Year’s tradition will continue. I don’t know if I’ll be able to update my blog tomorrow and I have no idea what to expect in Galilee. So, this may be the last post for a while. I write my entries each night before bed, so I will update you with all the details of Galilee just as soon as I have internet again. Happy New year!

As a little Christmas bonus, click below for a video tour of the cave where Jesus was born.

Tour of the Cave of the Nativity

It’s hard to believe, but our time in Bethlehem is coming to and end. We’re already starting to make plans for our departure. We’ve got a few parties planned before we leave on Monday, but things are winding down. We finished our first set of classes today. We will start two new classes when we get to Jerusalem. Before that we are going to spend a week back in Galilee. Our time here in Bethlehem has been really wonderful, but I do think that I’m ready to move on.

We had the Patriarch over to our house for Mass last night. He gave us a very nice reflection after Mass on the state of the Church here in the Holy Land. It is interesting to think that when we first came here a month ago we had the goal of not thinking too much of the politics of the situation here. Well, that proved nearly impossible. The Patriarch too wanted to talk about the present situation. He said that these last couple years the people ask him, “Do you think we should even celebrate Christmas this year?” He said he of course tells them yes, that we have to celebrate Christmas. However, the situation is very difficult here. It was interesting that he wanted to make very clear to us that the problems are not between Christians and Muslims; the two groups get along fine. I can also attest to this. The problem is with the Israeli occupation of Palestine. It is affecting both the Muslims and the Christians here and even tends to unite the two groups.

I found it interesting that when Christmas came and all the western media came to town the Israelis opened all the checkpoints and really tried to put on a good face for the world. The very next day all the checkpoints were closed again and Israeli fighter planes were buzzing all over Bethlehem (they haven’t done this before) apparently just to let people know who is in charge. I found out just the other day that one of the students at the university that I talked to just had his house blown up by the Israelis as a “Christmas present”. They decided they wanted to build their wall where his house was, so they blew it up. This was is in the town of Beit Jala which is right next to Bethlehem and is most obviously in the West Bank and not in Israel. I have learned while being here that Israel doesn’t really much care about building this wall in their own country. In fact, they have recently told the people of Bethlehem that they like the winery here so they are going to build their wall around it and make it part of Israel. There is just no enforcement of international law here at all. Israel has all the money and weapons and Palestine has none, so Israel does what it wants to and no one really cares. It’s very sad for the Palestinian people who live under this constant oppression.

The Patriarch made a good point to us last night that when people live under oppression they will always rise up and that the oppressor will always have cause to be afraid and to want to build walls. He said that when there is justice there will be no more cause to be afraid or to build walls. It’s clear that peace can only come here when the international community gets involved and forces Israel to respect the borders established by the United Nations and Palestine can be a truly independent state. Even that only gives the Palestinians 22% of what is historical Palestine, but that would be enough to have peace. I don’t understand why the U.S. is so attached to Israel, but it is also clear that we are one of the biggest roadblocks to peace in this region. All of the priests and speakers that I’ve talked to here agree that only the U.S. has the power to be able to tell Israel to obey the law and if we did then there would be peace tomorrow.

I’m looking forward to going to Jerusalem to hear “the other side of the story”. No doubt there will be talk of suicide bombers. That’s all I ever remembering hearing on the news back home. Still, I have to say that I agree with what the Patriarch told us last night. If you understand what Israel is doing to Palestine then you can see how some people would think there is no hope and resort to desperate measures. Of course this doesn’t make bombings right and all the people I talk to here agree and condemn the violence. But, when people are willing to go blow themselves up, you have to at least ask what would drive them to such desperate measures. Having been in Palestine for a month now, I can say that I’m starting to see some of the reasons. The shopkeepers here just want to be able to have a job and raise a family, but most have never known peace.

As the Patriarch spoke to us last night and as I have talked with the local people here over the last month I can see one thing that gives them hope. I think that us being here and seeing what is going on gives them hope. They hope we will return to the U.S. and tell people the real story that you don’t see on the news. There is a sort of desperation here that truly believes “If only people knew…” So, maybe with my little post today I am doing my part. If you read this and at least had to think twice about what you thought you knew about the conflict in this region, them maybe there is some cause for hope here. Pray for the peace of the Holy Land…now I can say that and really mean it.

His Beatitude, Michel Sabbah, Patriarch of Jerusalem
Explains to us the political situation in the Holy Land

Well, the snow has melted. It did kind of make it feel more like Christmas briefly, but now it just feels cold. I’m ready for the sunny 60 degree weather again. I couldn’t even come update my blog yesterday because the whole city shut down because of a little dusting of snow. Anyway, I have to make this quick today because His Beatitude the Patriarch of Jerusalem is coming for Mass with us this evening. I will try to have some better pictures than just the ones of his car from the parade.

Even the cat is cold

Have you ever wondered how we came up with December 25th as the date of Jesus’ birthday? As I mentioned earlier, the Orthodox follow a different calendar and Christmas isn’t until January 7th for them. The Armenians don’t celebrate Christmas until the end of January. I’ll let you look up all the details, but it is in fact true that we don’t really know what time of year Jesus was born. However, the purpose of this entry today is to thoroughly dispel one myth regarding Christmas. I have often been told that it doesn’t make sense to think of snow with Christmas since, even if Jesus was born in December, it does not snow in Bethlehem in December or any other time. This I can now attest is incorrect. Beginning Tuesday night the rain started coming with a vengeance. It then got colder and colder until today it began snowing. A man who had come from the higher country just a few miles away said that there were 2 inches on the ground in Hebron. We did in fact even have some accumulation here in Bethlehem as well. So, call me the Christmas myth buster. It can and does snow in Bethlehem at Christmas (but only about once every 20 years I’m told by the locals).

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The Manger, Now with Baby Jesus Lying There

Today is the feast of Stephen. I chose this great saint and first martyr of the Church to be my patron at my Confirmation. So, that makes it my feast day as well. This morning I went down to the Church of the Nativity to see if maybe things would be a little quieter and I could pray. As I walked down to the Church I could tell that all the people of the last few days were gone and things were already back to normal. I was able to go down in the grotto of the church and sit next to the manger for a few hours and pray. They have placed a statue of the infant Jesus lying in a crib in the manger now. There were a few groups of pilgrims that came through while I was there it is often moving to see the great faith of the people that come. I was particularly taken by a couple groups of families from Korea. The father gathered all the children together with his wife and they all prayed together at the manger. There were also many more small children coming today and it was neat when the little kids would climb up into the manger to see the Baby Jesus.

 
Baby Jesus in the Manger

As I prayed this morning, my thoughts again returned to the shepherds, the first visitors to the manger. After receiving the message of the angel they had to go search and find the Christ child. What joy they would have experienced when they finally arrived at the cave and found the Holy Family. I was reminded of my own search and desire to find Jesus. For a while this morning I was able to share in the joy of the shepherds as I sat there and contemplated the miraculous things that took place here. The shepherds left the cave full of joy and wanted to go and tell everyone what they had seen. Their message has gone to the ends of the world now. This morning, following in the footsteps of those first humble shepherds, I and many others came to see the place where the Child was laid. Praise God for the wonderful Christmas gift of His Son.

St. Catherine’s Church Decorated for Christmas

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