Dominican Classmates in Jerusalem

There have been a lot of photos taken in the last 7 days of this little trio. This is my favorite of them. It was taken today in the Cistern Caves beneath the Herodion, Herod the Great's fortress palace near Bethlehem.

The other two friars from the Western Dominican Province who are participating in this intensive Gospel study in Jerusalem happen to be classmates of mine. That means that the three of us entered the Dominican Order on the same day, and completed the novitiate and most of our priestly formation together. We have been reliving some of those experiences and memories as we study and travel together here in the Holy Land. There is a shared ethos among people who have shared a common intense experience (like religious formation - or prison). We speak a common language and laugh at things other people would not find funny. So the accident of our being here to share in this common experience is a real blessing.

Fr. Carl Schlichte (sitting) is Associate Pastor at Stanford Newman Center. Fr. Steve Maekawa, standing on my left in the picture, is the Vocations Director of our Province. Both are gifted priests and men for whom I have a great deal of affection and admiration. This photo, taken on an intense, but wonderful day, really captures the great time we are having with each other. We still have more than 6 weeks together and I am grateful to be sharing this experience with them...

An Audience with His Beatitude-iness, Dude.

Tuesday, we had an Audience with His Beatitude, Patriarch Fouad Twal, the Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem. More than simply the Archbishop of Jerusalem, he is the Pope's man-on-the-scene in the Middle East, serving as the Metropolitan Archbishop for all the Catholics in Syria, Jordan, Israel, Cyprus, and the Palestinian Territories. This photos was taken after the audience. We are Br. Ambrose Sigman, Fr. Carl Schlichte, Br. Matthew Augustine Miller, His Beatitude, Fr. Gregory Tatum, Me, and Fr. Steve Maekawa. The Dominicans are all of the USA Western Dominican Province.

During the Audience, the Patriarch enlightened us to the state of the Church in the Holy Land. Christians make up less than 5% of the population of the areas for which he has responsibility. But we have been here for a long time and are continuing to do great work. He spoke of the difficulties created by the political realities of this region. He explained that the Wall (fence?) erected by Israel and the tight noose that Israel keeps around the Palestinians create a feeling of hopelessness, especially for young people. He is using his bully pulpit to encourage Israel to hand the situation differently. When asked what we could do to help, he said their were 3 P's - Prayer for all the people of this region. Encourage Pilgrimages as many of the people of the region depend on the money spent by pilgrims for their livelihood. And finally Projects - encourage people in our parishes to adopt particular projects supported by the Church in Israel to support with our finances and support.

Tuning up the ol' Tool Belt

Today (Monday) has been a class day - class all morning and into the afternoon. Today we focused on the Exorcism Stories in the Gospels. We are comparing the texts of the four Gospels to gain insight into how each Evangelist answers the question: Who is Jesus? It is intense and textual and our Teacher, Fr. Gregory Tatum, OP, is a genius! The discussions that arise as a result of the textual analysis is enlightening. Just as the Gospels show us something about the faith of the writers, our discussion reveals a lot about the faith of the discussers. We are all growing as a result of the experience. As the letter to the Hebrews says: "The Word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart" (Heb 4:12)

The Word is also a major tool of my trade. I'm here getting my tools tuned up. The implications for preaching will be profound. I'll be preaching here every four or five days, but I can't wait to take the tools fora test spin back in the Parish when this experience has concluded!

Corpus Christi in Jerusalem

The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ has long been one of my favorite solemnities in the Church. I think it probably has to do with my feeling that I was deprived of the Eucharist in a Christian Tradition that so emphasized the Word, that by the time I became Catholic, I was starved for it. This is a theological feast and I love the theology it represents a lot. Because it is a feast day that represents a theology and not an event or a place, it is not celebrated in any grand way by the Christian Communites here in the Holy Land (and by that, I mean it is not given extraordinary attention by the Franciscans who are in charge of the Holy Land shrines.) There was no special Eucharistic procession or extended adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The Franciscans are really good at celebrating events and places - think Creches and Stations of the Cross - but with theological positions, not so much!

Were I at home, I would celebrate Mass and preach about our doctrinal understanding of the Eucharist. I might provide an opportunity for Adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Today I concelebrated a French Mass with the Dominican Community here at S. Etienne. But during Lunch I had a sense that that was not enough. I'm in Jerusalem - the place where it all started, I should be able to celebrate Corpus Christi in some extraordinary way. Then it occurred to me - I'M IN JERUSALEM, WHERE IT ALL STARTED. Yes, Corpus Christi is a doctrine, but it IS connected to an event and a place - HOLY THURSDAY in the "UPPER ROOM." I should go spend some time in the Upper Room. So I put on my Indiana Jones hat and went in search of the room in which Jesus celebrated that first Eucharist with his disciples.

The problem with playing Indiana Jones around here is that so many people have beaten you to the punch. I did not have to turn a single spade of dirt or dodge a single rolling boulder to find that are two places here in Jerusalem with competing claims to be the rightful owners of the sign "Jesus Christ and his disciples ate their last supper here..." (Or if we were in a country town in the South, a sign that read "First Christian Church" and I mean the really first.) Such competing claims are not that unusual here - Protestants have a lovely garden tomb to compete with the Catholic/Orthodox claim that Jesus was actually buried where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher sits (I'll write more about that ridiculousness later). It all has to do with the selling of souvenirs and bragging rights and is one of the seedier sides of this place. One of the upper room claimants is the Armenian Church of St. Mark in the Armenian section of the Old City. The other is outside the wall on Mt. Zion. Neither is the upper room. Both claim to be on the site of the Upper Room. I am still making peace with the idea that it is okay that there are two places. The at peace side of me says "This is about devotion and it is okay have more than one locus for that devotion." This part of me would try to convince my head that Holy Water in the font at my Church is just as good as Lourdes Water or that Stations of the Cross at my home parish in Tucson, AZ are just a good as Stations of the Cross ON the Via Dolorosa IN Jerusalem. But there is this stubborn, Dominican, distinction seeking, deeply Catholic part of me that says if I am going to have extraordinary devotions on the Feast of Corpus Christi in Jerusalem, I need to know which of these places has the better claim to being the real thing. So I did what every good Dominican would do: I read. First I read articles from four books that I have been using in preparation for my trip and since I arrived here. All dismiss the St. Mark's claim as a johnny-come-lately and point to a much older tradition of the Cenacle ("Upper Room") being located on Mt. Zion. I then read two articles on line (http://www.centuryone.org/apostles.html) and (http://www.christusrex.org/www2/liberation/III-4.html) that helped my skeptical little brain to belive that the Shrine called the Coenaculum (Cenacle or "Upper Room") is on (or at least near) the site of the upper room that we read about in the Gospels:

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the
Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go and
prepare for you to eat the Passover?" He sent two of his disciples and
said to them, "Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of
water. Follow him. Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, 'The
Teacher says, "Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my
disciples?" ' Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.
Make the preparations for us there." The disciples then went off, entered
the city, and found it just as he had told them; and they prepared the
Passover. --------Mark 14:12-16 (NAB)

So what is this Upper Room in our tradition? It is thought that the same upper room mentioned in Mark's Gospel as a gathering place for Jesus' last Passover was also the place to which the disciple's repaired after crucifixion fear drove them into hiding. It is thought to be the room whose locked door the resurrected Jesus penetrated in the resurrection appearances in John's Gospel. Therefore it was the place where Thomas made his famous profession of faith. It is thought to be the place where the disciples, still in hiding, gathered to celebrate Pentecost 50 days after Passover and wherein God breathed his Holy Breath on the nascent Church. In tradition, it became the locus for the disciples' activity. Mary took up residence and died nearby (commemorated by the Abbey Church of the Dormition on Zion's hill). In ancient pilgrim witness, it became the site of first a Christian Synagogue and then the Church of Hagia Sion (Holy Zion), sometimes called the "Apostle Church" in reverence of the traditions mentioned above. The Church building that occupied this site was destroyed late in the byzantine or early in the Muslim era. Crusaders discovered the sacred site and reconstructed a building on this site to commemorate the Earliest gathering place of the body of Christ. It is the Crusader era building which survives with the moniker "Coenaculum" and it was there that I was determined to spend my devotional time on Corpus Christi afteroon.

I made my way across the Old City, entering in the Muslim Quarter at the Damascus Gate. I entered the Jewish Quarter via the Cardo and exited to the South via the Zion Gate and came out onto the Plaza on Mt. Zion, just outside the Abbey Church of the Dormition of Mary. I followed the directions I had been given (it’s kind hard to find and not well marked) and made my way up the stairs above the small synagogue called he Tomb of David (archaeologist discount this erroneous claim as coming from the early Christian miscalculation of the location of David’s necropolis – which we now know to be East of Mt Zion across the Tyropeoan Valley in what is rightfully identified as “The City of David.”) Up the stairs and across a small foyer and roof path, I was standing in the Upper Room.

First impression: definitely not first century, but I already had read enough to know that. It is clearly a 13th or 14th Century Gothic room with three bays. This delighted me; I love Gothic architecture. And this room could have been the refectory or chapter room of any French monastery. It has been beautifully maintained (or renovated?). I am not surprised; it was used as a Turkish mosque for nearly 500 years. In fact, if you look at the picture of me in the room, I am standing in the mihrab – the structure in a Mosque that indicates the East for praying Muslims. It is a beautiful space. When I arrived, there was a polish tour guide with a small group of pilgrims on one end of the room. I took up residence on a bench on the other side of the room and began to unpack my Bible. My intention was to spend my time here in quiet reflection on the four Scriptural accounts of the institution of the Eucharist (1 Corinthians 11 and the three Synoptic Gospel), the Bread of Life discourse in John 6 and the account of the Washing of the Disciples' feet in John's Passion. On the whole, this, combined with Mass in the morning and some time before the exposed Blessed Sacrament later in the day would be a fitting observance of Corpus Christi in Jerusalem.

What I had not counted on was the popularity of this spot for pilgrims and tourists. So my first experience was not one of quiet reflection. Only moments after I parked myself on my little bench to be quiet, hundreds of pilgrims poured through the doors of the Cenacle speaking every conceivable language! My quiet reflection of Corpus Christi turned into an experience of Pentecost! I ended up spending more than two hours in the Cenacle. In between pilgrim groups and their guides, I got some long periods of silence and opportunity to complete my reflections. It was glorious!

My new Scripture insight today came from the end of the Bread of Life discourse. In that Discourse, Jesus insists that his flesh is real food and his blood is real drink. Our Sacramental understanding of the Eucharist is rooted more in this text than anywhere else. If we eat his body and drink his blood, we have eternal life. If we do not, we "have no life in us." The saying was hard for some of Jesus' disciples and we are told that they returned to their former way of life because of this teaching. In his discussion with his disciples afterwards, Jesus asks them if they too are tempted to leave, and Peter responds famously: "Lord, to whom else would we go, you have the words of everlasting life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the holy one of God." The insight is this. Jesus has just been giving the most concrete explanation of our Sacramental faith that we have in his recorded teachings. But when the disciples are asked about it, Peter responds with a statement about WORD! As with the Emmaus story in Luke's Gospel, this points to the importance of rooting sacrament in word and vice versa. Our faith is formed by both realities: we must celebrate the sacraments with deep devotion to all they teach us about our history and the life of the Lord. But we must also be rooted deeply in his Word (in HIM as THE Word!). Such rootedness in both Word and Sacrament will lead us to the same profession of faith Peter gives: "Lord, we have come to believe and are convinced the you are the Holy One of God!"

This insight points even more to the importance of the study I am undertaking here in Jerusalem. I love the Word, but study leads us deeper and deeper into that Word, which points to the beauty and necessity of the Sacraments. Today, I worship the Body of Christ in Word and Sacrament!

After two hours in the Cenacle, I took some photos and headed out. I decided to stop in and see if the Abbey Church of the Dormition was open. It was and I was so happy that I went in. It is a modern, round Church (built in 1900). In both the upper Church and the crypt of the Church, there are beautiful artworks dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and her Dormition. There are exquisite mosaic works throughout. I have included a couple of photos (top: Mary's Resting Place, and bottom: Our Lady of Guadalupe (yes, she is even here!) here, but you can see all the myriad of photos I took at Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/FrBart/Jerusalem2009.

I only spent a short time here praying and then headed back across the City for my second stop at the Wailing Wall and some time before the Blessed Sacrament at the Church of Our Lady of the Spasm (sometime, I am going to find out what that name refers to!), where they have perpetual adoration.

My Corpus Christi in Jerusalem was wonderful! My studies of the archaeological evidence, lead me to a great devotional space and understanding. My reflections on Scripture gave me a new insight into the connection between Sacrament and Word.

I am becoming more comfortable getting my way around the maze of streets in the Old City, and the Blessings just keep on coming!

The Sun Shall Not Harm you by Day?

The 15 Psalms from 120-134 are collectively called the "Psalms of Ascent" They are called this because they were typically read by pilgrims to Jerusalem during their "ascent" of Mt. Zion. They express love for Jerusalem and longing to be there. These have been the focus of my prayer over the last few months as I have prepared to make this trip to the Holy Land. This morning I woke up early and re-read all of the Psalms of Ascent in preparation for what I knew was going to be an intense day. Scheduled today was a continuation of our "orientation tour" of the Old City.

We began the morning by visiting "the Citadel", a fortress in the City Walls that has been a necessary defensive structure since King David's Time. The Particular location of this fortress is necessary because it is on the lowest approach to the City. (right next to the Jaffa Gate). So it is basically a castle. And since it was reconstructed in the late Muslim period, it is like a medieval European Castle. Today it houses a museum of the History of Jerusalem. It also provides some of the best Panoramic views of Jerusalem and the surrounding area.

After a couple of hours at the Museum, we cut across the Armenian Quarter directly into the Jewish Quarter. This was our first time in the Jewish Quarter and our objective was the Western (Wailing Wall), but we got a quick tour of many highlights of this section of the City. Among my first impressions was how quiet it was. It is the Sabbath and most Jews are at home or at Synagogue (Jews in the Old City are largely Orthodox and very observant). None of the shops in the Jewish Quarter were open. I was also impressed with how incredibly clean, open, and new it was compared to the rest of the Old City. The new is because of the large amount of destruction that was done during the Arab-Israeli Wars that necessitated the razing of old structures and the building of new. This is a sad reality, but it gave a "recently completed" feel to the whole area.

As we approached the Western Wall, I was impressed with the order and organization. On the Sabbath there are fewer pilgrims than other days, but still, large numbers gathered to pray at this sacred place. I was very moved by my first experience of the Wailing Wall. This section of the Wall is venerated because it is all that remains of the Temple precinct from the 2nd (post-Exile) Temple that was desecrated and destroyed by the Romans late in the 1st Century. The Jews say that because it is the closest thing to the Holy of Holies, that the Glory of the Lord rests there. I was struck by a sense of God's presence there today. I was one of a few men praying outside. As I approached to touch the wall, I was overwhelmed by a sense of God's presence and I was even more overwhelmed by how this place represents the peace that has evaded the Jewish people throughout so much of their history. I was moved to pray for the Peace of Jerusalem. I leaned my head against the Wall and wept for a few moments. I was reminded of Jesus' weeping for his beloved city:

In Luke's Gospel we read:

As [Jesus] drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If this day you
only knew what makes for peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes. For
the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against
you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to
the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon
another within you because you did not recognize the time of your
visitation."(Luke 19:41-44)

Matthew records this as Jesus' Lament over Jerusalem

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to
you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers
her young under her wings, but you were unwilling! Behold, your house will
be abandoned, desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you
say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' " (Matt 23:37-39)

In a flash of seconds at the Wall, I was drawn to the Prophet Jeremiah's Lamentation over Jerusalem:

Let my eyes stream with tears day and night, without rest, Over the great
destruction which overwhelms the virgin daughter of my people, over her
incurable wound. If I walk out into the field, look! those slain by the sword;
If I enter the city, look! those consumed by hunger. Even the prophet and the
priest forage in a land they know not. Have you cast Judah off completely? Is
Zion loathsome to you? Why have you struck us a blow that cannot be healed? We
wait for peace, to no avail; for a time of healing, but terror comes instead.
(Jeremiah 14:17-20)

How much destruction, violence, and hatred can one city, one people stand? My sadness and tears were only momentary, but they were profound. The Wall invoked them in me and tried to sit with them for a few moments before rejoining my companions. I will go back to this sacred place and when I do, it will be to reflect more deeply on these impressions that came today.

Jeremiah's prayer of lamentation is followed by a confession that brings hope to the readers that he has lead to despair by his Lament:

We recognize, O LORD, our wickedness, the guilt of our fathers; that we
have sinned against you. For your name's sake spurn us not, disgrace not the
throne of your glory; remember your covenant with us, and break it not. Among
the nations' idols is there any that gives rain? Or can the mere heavens send
showers? Is it not you alone, O LORD, our God, to whom we look? You alone have
done all these things. (Jeremiah 14:21-22)

The Peace that has alluded Israel for so long, robbed from Jerusalem by every passerby, will be the work of The LORD, our God and him alone.

After Our time of prayer and a wonderful lunch in the Muslim Quarter, we headed across to the Mount of Olives to visit some of the Christian Holy Sites there. We visited the Tomb of the Blessed Virgin on the Mount of Olives, from which she is said to have been assumed body and soul into heaven. We visited the Garden of Gethsemani and the Church of All Nations which commemorates the Agony in the Garden. [This Church is called the "Church of All Nations" because donations from Catholics in 12 countries, including the United States, funded its construction. There are 12 domes in the church commemorating those nations. On the inside of each dome is a symbol recognizing the nation - the US's dome bears the Eagle Coat of Arms of he United States of America).]

From there we walked along the Kidron Valley - Fr. Gregory pointed out other holy sites we would want to visit in our free time. We stopped by the excavation site at the "City of David" where King David's Palace is being excavated now. By this time, the afternoon had worn into evening and we made our way through the Dung Gate and back across the Old City headed for home. We stopped at a rooftop restaurant in the Muristan Market for a quick beer and a little rest.

Psalm 121, a Psalm of Ascent speaks of the LORD as the Guardian of his people, especially those on pilgrimage: "The LORD will guard your life, the LORD will guard your goings and your comings..." Verses 5 and 6 say "The Lord is your shade...With Him beside you at your right hand, the sun shall not harm you by day nor the moon by night..."

Good promise for pilgrims in these sun-intense months. But I must be doing something wrong, because the Lord did not protect me form the harm of the sun. I did not reapply sun screen quickly enough in the afternoon and ended up with a little sunburn. Oy vey! The sun will not harm you by day, if you do not forget to reapply your SPF 50 sunscreen occasionally. :)

Be sure to check out the additional pictures I uploaded today at Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/FrBart/Jerusalem2009

1st Day of Class

Today we had our first day of classroom work engaging the text of the Gospels. The course is set up seminar style so there is a free-flowing discussion based on the work that each of us has done with the texts prior to class. So it moves pretty fast and ranges all over the place. A text about John the Baptist may lead to a discussion about St. Paul or it may lead to a discussion about 1st Century Jewish Customs. We had long discussions today about geography (tribes, Samaritans, exiles, Galillee, Judea). By the end of three hours, my head was spinning. But it is sooooo exciting to be engaging the texts at this level!

I went for two walks today, one right after lunch through the markets around our house. We live in a Muslim district so many of hte shops were closed today for the Muslim sabbath, but that just occasions the setting up of impromptu flea markets on every street. One of my first impressions of Jerusalem is that evey street is a souk (market).

I spent much of the afternoon reading. Then in the late afternoon I took another walk - this time into the old city where Jews were making final preparations for the sabbath. (A funny story: we had been told to pay close attention if we hear hte sound of loud sirens. At about sundown today, a loud siren went off and sqealed for about 2 minutes. The whole time I was wondering if soemthing bad had happened. Well no - it's the way Jews mark the official beginning of the Sabbath). It was a good walk. Afterwards, I came back to S. Etienne and took a lot of photos in the Basilica, which I have uploaded to Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/FrBart/Jerusalem2009.

First Jerusalem Photos

This beautiful white dove greeted us today, our first day in the Old City of Jerusalem. He was perched on the stones of the Damascus Gate, the Old City Gate closest to St. Etienne, the monastery whre I am living in old East Jerusalem. While I tend not to think this way, I thought his presence there was an "auspicious sign." I posted a large number of photos today from my first day in Jerusalem. We tried to take Psalm 48 seriously. It says:

Go about Zion, walk all around it,

note the number of its towers.

Consider the ramparts, examine its citadels,

that you may tell future generations:

"Yes, so mighty is God,

our God who leads us always!"

--------------------------------Psalms 48:12-14

Jerusalem Photos can be seen at: http://picasaweb.google.com/FrBart/Jerusalem2009

And a reminder that I have posted the last of my pictures from Rome. They can all be seen at http://picasaweb.google.com/FrBart/Rome2009.