Today was a little different as we spent much of our day working our way North towards Tiberius. We stopped in the morning in the oldest continually habitable city on earth: Jericho. We find Jericho in both the Old and New Testaments. It is an area controlled by the Palastinian Authority. The entire region is marketly more poor with many empty buildings and homes. The Bedouin are more prevalent and can be seen even along the highways, travling with children and camels. This is sort of the Florida and Cali of this area so the fruits are wonderful. I bought an entire carton of strawberries today and shared them with the bus. It was just $2. The highlight of our time spent in Jericho was definitely attending Sunday Mass with a local parish who welcomed us with open arms and gladly accepted all of the schools supplies we brought for their school. I’ve now assisted at Mass in French, Creole, Italian, Spanish, Latin, and now in Arabic!!! I got a little flustered at the point when I was supposed to dismiss the people and rather than sending them off in English or Arabic, I did it in Latin, “Ite missa est.” Luckily Fr. Charlie and the presiding priest for Jordan saw the humor in this. Yep, Fr. Chris, I can even screw up the liturgy when it’s in Arabic... Anyways, we spent a good time visiting with the people and then many of them joined us for a wonderful lunch of lamb, chicken, cole slaw, and pomme frittes at a great outdoor restaurant. As we made conversation, the mosque in the background began to broadcast prayers in Arabic through their huge array of loudspeakers... it was sort of surreal.
After lunch, we boarded the bus again and drove further North, along the West side of the Sea of Galilee to the Mount Tabor, where Christ is believed to have been transfigured along with Moses and Elijah. There is a sweet Franciscan church on the top of Mount Tabor that is built on the ruins of a much older Byzantine Church (same story, different day). I found some time to spend alone in prayer while looking down into the valley far below, asking God to aid in my own transfiguration someday. My prayer is more peaceful in these places but I think that has much to do with the fact that my iPhone doesn’t work here and that I’m able to just concentrate on the simple plan of thanksgiving for this gift or being present in the Holy Land.
We are now staying at a retreat center for pilgrims on the Sea of Galilee. Words can’t describe how absolutely beautiful it is here. A constant breeze, mid-60’s, bright sun all day long, blue skies, and still the arid climate.
Each evening before I go to bed I listen to Matt Maher’s Overflow CD which he must have made after his own trip to the Holy Land. The last thing I listen to each night is the cut, “The Rivers of Babylon.” Usually about four times does it. I know that this song will always bring be back to Jerusalem in my own anamnesis. Songs do that for me. here is a taste of the lyrics of my current favorite:
“By the rivers of Babylon, I sat and wept as I remembered Zion,
And all the things that rule my heart, I said sing a song for us now,
How could I sing for anyone but You?
By the rivers of the street, I could almost feel the spirit grown in me,
I was deaf, dumb and blind, choking on the dreams of humankind,
How could I dream of anything but You?
So, for glory’s sake, do not forget me, I still believe in the midst of my frailty,
I still believe that I’m dying to my humanity.
By the rivers of the world, we all got drunk on ourselves
in the morning the Son will rise and despite all our sin, save our lives,
How could You die for anyone but you?”
- Matt Maher, “Overflow”
No comments:
Post a Comment