Location! Location!
Location! What’s true about the significance of place in terms of real estate
rings doubly so when it comes to the Holy Land, both in historical and
Scriptural terms. Our first stop today
was a visit to the storied Caesarea Maritima, the palatial showplace playground of King Herod built
in the first century AD. Positioned on the shores of the azure-blue
Mediterranean less than an hour north of present-day Tel Aviv, Caesarea Maritima
possesses an undeniable elegance even in its present, partially excavated condition.
After a too-early morning
(6:30 am) wake-up call and breakfast buffet, we piled our bags onto and
under the bus and headed toward our destination, less than an hour north
of Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest city. Today was Sunday, not a holiday, but a
workday here. I kept having to remind
myself of that fact as I noticed the roads choked with traffic—all of it heading
toward the center of this bustling city of 1.7 million inhabitants. Along our
way, we drove through thriving new neighborhoods with their upscale apartment
complexes lining the waterfront. As we
passed several bus stops, I could not help but notice clusters of armed and
uniformed Israeli young people doing their compulsory military service—a reminder that
security concerns are never far beneath the surface here, even in the midst of
evident prosperity.
As we drove northward along the coast, Amer, our guide,
recited the story of the encounter between Peter and Cornelius in the Acts of
the Apostles (chapter 10:1-31). Once we arrived at the
sprawling archeological site, it was not at all difficult to make the
connection between the Scriptural account
and the physical reality before us.
Even in their present condition,
the amphitheater, hippodrome, coliseum, and palace all testified both to the glory
of Rome and its hubris. A copy of a stone tablet bearing the name of Pontius
Pilate provided an astounding non-Scriptural corroboration to the actual historically verifiable existence of the Roman official who condemned Jesus to death. Further, our own route
from Joppa (Tel Aviv) to Caesear not only made the Scriptures come alive for
us, it also made them plausible on the physical plane. I found myself saying: “It all really happened. And it happened here.”
That sense of plausible presence became clear to us as well
as we approached the inland city of Nazareth in Galilee, the traditional
boyhood home of Jesus. En route, we
stopped at the shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the industrial port city
of Haifa. The shrine features a small
chapel built over a cave where the Old Testament prophet Elijah allegedly
lived. Here, by tradition, childless
couples have come for centuries to pray for help. Large stone tablets grace the walls of the
sanctuary in memory of Carmelite saints such as John of the Cross and Teresa of
Avila. And the throngs of visitors from
all over the world attest to the continuing appeal of Carmel to pilgrims. We passed groups from Indonesia, Brazil, and
Italy, but there were clutches of Arab
Christians and Muslims as well who had come here to pray.
Our lunch stop was at a family-owned buffet featuring
falafels (chick-pea ‘meatballs’) with an exotic array of condiments. Fr. Larry provided dessert in the form of delicious
boxes of Turkish Delight from Istanbul. Continuing
eastward along the inland route to Nazareth, we passed through the village of Cana
(yes, as in ‘The Marriage Feast of….” ) It
was uncanny to see road signs nonchalantly indicating the route toward this and
other biblical place names that have persistently endured in the Holy Land over
two full millennia.
Nazareth today, we were told, is a thriving hilltop city
with a population of 85,000, nearly 40% of whom are Christians of various
denominations. At its center, with its
signature lighthouse roof, stands the contemporary Basilica of the
Annunciation, a Franciscan church and our guide’s own parish. As we plugged in our headsets, we strolled
the basilica’s courtyard to look at mosaic representations of the titles and
apparitions attributed to the Virgin Mary around the world.
Inside the cavernous contemporary space (capacity 3500), we
literally descended into the grotto chapel where tradition holds that Mary was
visited by the Angel Gabriel and gave her definitive ‘yes” to God’s request
that she become the mother of Jesus. On
the top level of the church, we celebrated Eucharist with the readings of the
feast of the Annunciation, and hurried out the doors as families prepared the
sanctuary for the wedding to take place immediately afterwards.
After a brief visit to the church and shrine of the workshop
of St. Joseph (“He was a workman, more likely a stonemason, but not a carpenter!” our guide insisted,
pointing to the corruption of the Koine Greek term “tekton” which, for centuries, has led
artists in the West to depict Joseph sawing away at his workbench. “Jesus
worked hard alongside Joseph,” Amer continued. “ He was an
accomplished laborer and craftsman who needed his physical strength as well to
endure the rigors of His ministry.” That
made perfect sense to me.
After posing for a group photo, we boarded our bus toward our hotel at the seaside town of
Tiberius along the shores of Galilee, listening for a second time to the
reading from Luke (chapter 1: 26-38) recounting the Annunciation. Once again, connecting the
story with historical/ archaeological artifacts we had seen today, we as believers could say “It really happened
and it happened here.” Not unlike the words inscribed in the
Basilica of the Annunciation itself: “Here the Word was made Flesh.”//
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