In Galilee: Walking in the Footsteps of the Anointed One, pt. 2

On Tuesday, we went to three sites: Mt. Tabor (the site of the Transfiguration of Jesus), Sepphoris (traditionally held to be the birthplace of Mary’s Parents), and the Horns of Hattin (site of the final battle between the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Muslim forces of Sal-a-adin).

I will tell you a little about Sepphoris and Hattin before spending most of this blogpost reflecting on my experiences at Mt. Tabor.

Sepporis is an active archaeological site and more and more is being uncovered all the time. While we were there, we saw a number of active dig sites. In relationship to the story of Jesus, Sepphoris is just a few miles northwest of Nazareth and is reputed to have been the original home of Sts. Joaquim and Anne, the parents of the blessed mother. From an architectural and artistic point of view, there are a number of significant features to this site, all of which have yielded beautiful mosaics. There are a number of female warrior figures (amazons) in mosaic in the house called the “Nile House.” That structure takes its name form the magnificent mosaic that depicts the Nile in a good year (agriculturally) and represents the Nile as a goddess. There is also a beautiful mosaic representation of Orpheus, which unfortunately was nearly covered over in the later construction of a Church. The real glory of Sepphoris is found in the Mosaics of a triclinium (dining room) of a mansion on the crest of the hill. The remarkable life-like detail of the 3rd Century mosaics in this structure far exceed anything we have seen (and especially offer a marked contrast to the naïve representations we saw at Bet Alpha yesterday. One image of a woman is so clear and so detailed, and so beautiful that it has been dubbed the “Mona Lisa of Sepphoris.” It is, by far, the most beautiful mosaic we have seen among the thousands that are on display around the country. A hilltop fortress, a 5000 seat Byzantine theatre and a the ruins of a mosaic paved Synagogue round out this magnificent site.

We went to the Horns of Hattin in the afternoon largely because of Fr. Steve’s interest in the Crusader history of the Holy Land. (The Crusades are for him, what the Madaba Map or Petra is for me J) The hill dubbed the Horns of Hattin is between Sepphoris and Tiberius and was the site of the July 1187 definitive battle between Christian Crusaders and Ommyyad Muslim Forces under the command of Sal-a-adin. The Christian losses in this battle effectively ended the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the effectiveness of the Crusades. Fr. Steve’s way to pay tribute to the troops lost in this battle was to climb to the top of the Horns of Hattin in the afternoon sun, which Frs. Carl and Gregory and I agreed to do “for fellowship’s sake.” It was quite a climb and we all felt that we had accomplished something (exercise if nothing else) by the climb.

Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this place! the real glory of the day was our time on Mt. Tabor. Mt. Tabor is the site of the Transfiguration of Jesus – when Jesus, in the company of his disciples, Peter, James, and Jon was transformed and manifested in his Glory conversing with Moses and Elijah. We had already encountered Elijah in our travels on Mt. Carmel and celebrated the votive Mass in his honor at that sacred site. The Gospel reading at that Mass was the Transfiguration, wherein we see the clearest connection of “St. Elias” to the Christian tradition. On Tuesday, we celebrated the votive Mass of the Transfiguration at Mt. Tabor, but this time, the focus was on the epiphany of Christ in this place. I was deeply moved by the Mass and had the most profound experience of the presence of Christ here that I have experienced anywhere in the Holy Land.

Fr. Carl celebrated the Mass and called us in his preaching to reflect on the Glory of God as we have experienced it limited ways in our lives. Like the disciples at Tabor, we have been given these glimpses into the Glory of God (all our little minds can handle) to “tide us over” until we experience it fully in Heaven :

Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him
as he is. -1 John 3:2

After Mass I took the time to take some pictures in the Church and then had about an hour to sit in prayer and reflection. I was having a profound sense of God’s presence throughout the Mass and my emotions were right under the surface through the entire morning. I abandoned myself in prayer what it was that God was doing in me at that wonderful place and time: What follows are the fruits of my contemplation:

I have encountered the Hebrew idea of Shekinah a number of times during my sojourn in the Holy Land. This was the word the ancient Hebrew people used to talk about God’s abiding presence with them. It was the Shekinah of God that Moses encountered in the burning bush. It was the Shekinah of God of the accompanied the Israelites into Battle. Shekinah rested on the Ark of the Covenant and, eventually, the Temple. It was Shekinah that inspired the prophets to prophesy and the Psalmists to wax poetic. Today in Israel, Jews pray and worship at the Western Wall because they believe that the Shekinah of God is resting on the Temple Mount for all time. Their desire is to be as close to the Holy of Holies of the second temple as they can get, there to be close to the Glorious presence of God. Shekinah is an Aramaic word that includes the words light and presence.

In Christianity, especially following the Gospel writers, we believe that the Shekinah of God manifested itself in the person of Jesus of Nazareth in a number of Epiphanies that are recorded in the Christian Scriptures: The Annunciation to Mary, the Star of Bethlehem, the message of he angels to the shepherds, the voice of God and manifestation of the Spirit at Jesus’ baptism, in the miracles and teachings of Jesus, in the giving of the Eucharist, and, most completely, in the Passion of Jesus – in which we might focus on any single event as revealing of God’s Glory in Jesus, but which we usually find in the Cross and the Resurrection. Many of these epiphanies are depicted in the beautiful mosaics of the Sanctuary of the Church of the Transfiguration - this one represents the Resurrection.

The event commemorated here at Mt. Tabor gave the disciples a foretaste of the Glory that they would see in Jesus when he was “lifted up.” They had to understand that Jesus’ suffering would reveal the Glory of God:

Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God
ascending and descending on the Son of Man."[ - John 1:51

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. - John
3:14-15

When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him." - John 8:28-29

In all three of the Synoptic Gospels, the story of the Transfiguration (Mt 17, Mk 9, Lk 9) is both preceded and followed by a prediction of the Passion – Jesus is preparing his followers for a new understanding of Shekinah. And in doing so, he gives Peter, James, and John a glimpse of Shekinah. They get to see the Glory of God manifested in this person. This epiphany would strengthen these disciples for what lay ahead – the arrest and Passion of Jesus, the fear of the authorities, the denial and betrayal…

It would also prepare them for the Reality that the Shekinah of God would come to rest in them: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.” - 1 Cor 6:19-20

And this is where my own reflections got personal. After a time of prayer, I was writing in my journal about the Glory I was experiencing at Mt. Tabor. Without any real consciousness of it, my journaling was no longer in the first person, it was in the third person and was directed to me:

I have equipped you to be my Glory for other people. You often don’t even
recognize it. And when you do, you sit on it… You must use it for
others. You must be my transfigured self to strengthen others to live in
the Kingdom. I must be transfigured in you. Bart, get out of the way
and let my glory shine in you. Let my love shine in you…

There’s more, but this is the essence. There’s nothing surprising or theologically profound there. God calls every Christian to let his glory shine in them (You must let your light shine before others so that they can see your good works and glorify your heavenly Father.” – Matt 5: 16

Our understanding of priesthood is that the priest is called to allow his life to be at the service of others so that the Spirit of Christ is at work in him so that others benefit. (this is also true of every Christian in one degree or another.) What was profound for me not the content, it was the manner in which I received it. There at Tabor I was enveloped by God’s glory for a few minutes (I’m not making any exalted claim – we are always enveloped in God’s glory – at that time I was keenly aware of it. When I was finished writing, I had to go back and read what I had written. And I was in complete silence and profound peace. It only lasted for a moment, but the last thing I wrote (and I thank God for this recognition and this experience at Mt. Tabor: “I have caught glimpses of the Glory of God (Shekinah) in other places in Israel, but here, it is soooooo present, sooooo good, sooooo blessing…

The Shekinah of God cannot be contained in a geographic location or any one memorial. If we learn nothing from Jesus, the Shekinah of God is mobile ( I remember preaching one time that God did not want David to build him a temple because he was a ‘God on the go.') The Shekinah of God is manifested most perfectly in Jesus Christ. But in his sending of the Holy Spirit, he allows that Shekinah to rest on every member of his body. We are called to be the Shekinah of God. I have experienced it marvelously I this place. Like the disciples, I wanted to stay for a while (“Lord, it is good to be here…” that’s what it says in Latin in the arch over my head in this picture.) I suppose in some way, I might say the same thing about Galilee, or Israel, or the Holy Land as a whole. But the Shekinah of God is not intended for any real estate. It has come to rest in his body, the new temple, the CHURCH and he calls us to manifest it in the world.