Update from Old City of Jerusalem

Ariel Schalit/AP

NPR: The coronavirus did not stop the tradition of the Holy Fire on Saturday, the centuries-old ceremony held annually at the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem the day before Easter on the Eastern Orthodox Christian calendar. But some adjustments were made.

Usually tens of thousands of pilgrims pack the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and surround the Edicule, the inner sanctum that houses the spot where tradition says Jesus was entombed and resurrected.

This year, no pilgrims attended. The church has been closed to visitors since last month, as all houses of worship in the Holy Land have shuttered their doors.

The ceremony was broadcast live to tens of thousands of Orthodox Christian believers around the world. Clergy from Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Coptic and Syriac churches were represented at the ceremony, with a few Israeli policemen standing guard.

Update from the Temple Mount

The Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa will continue to be closed during the month of Ramadan because of the coronavirus.  The mount has been closed since March 23.  Ramadan begins this year (2020) on Thursday April 23 and ends May 23.  The New Moon marks the beginning of the month in which Muslims are called to fast, pray, and faith.  Although the call to prayer will still be heard five times a day from the location, and workers will be allowed to undertake tasks, Muslim prayer will be prohibited, which sometimes draws 10,000s each day during Ramadan.  Muslims are encouraged to observe Ramadan in their homes.   

When I visited Jerusalem in May 2018, the Old City was often crowded with people.

There especially were a lot of young people.  I love taking pictures of faces.  I am not sure the person in the middle saw me taking this one, but she certainly looks a little surprised.  

Update on the Temple Mount

Although large groups of worshipers have not been allowed to gather at various holy sites in Jerusalem, because of the coronavirus, a few smaller events did take place: 1) a small gathering of Christians met at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Easter Day to pray; 2) another small group of Jewish worshippers prayed the Priestly Blessing at the Western Wall during the Passover; and 3) another group of Jewish worshipers performed the Omer wave offering from the barley harvest; they had hoped to celebrate the rite on the Temple Mount which was empty, but were prevented to do so; nonetheless, they are preparing and hoping to be able to perform an alternative Passover offering next month on the Temple Mount, and hope to offer two loaves of bread for the offering of firstfruits along with two lambs during Shavuot (Feast of Weeks/Pentecost). 

_________________________________________________________________________________

A small number of Jewish worshipers pray during the priestly blessing, a traditional prayer which usually attracts thousands of worshipers at the Western Wall on the holiday of Passover, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 12, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun.

Easter Reflection 2020

Fifty Days Forward (Easter to Pentecost)

“He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven.”  This saying from the Nicene Creed reflects 1 Corinthians 15:4.  In Genesis, God brought forth vegetation from the earth on day three (Gen 1:11-13).  Christ himself is the firstfruits that arose from the earth on the third day (1 Cor 15:20), yet this hope is also for a restored Israel who turns to God in the last days (Hos 6:2).  In Second Temple Judaism, the fifty days between the Jewish Feast of Passover and the Feast of Shavuot (Weeks) came to be known as Feast of Pentecost.  In Early Christianity, the time between Easter and Pentecost Sunday was also fifty days.  Pentecost was not an isolated feast day.  The fifty days from the resurrection of Christ, the firstfruits, to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the firstfruits (Rom 8:23) is Pentecost. 

On the 16th of Nisan, a lamb was offered along with the sheaf of the firstfruits of the harvest, which was taken from the land of Israel (Lev 23:9-14).  After counting 50 days, an offering of firstfruits (two loaves) was presented to the Lord on the Feast of Shavuot, Weeks, Pentecost (vv. 15-22).  

Update on the Temple Mount

Earlier this month, a group of Jewish Temple Mount activists sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asking him to allow them to offer the ritual Passover on the Temple Mount to end the coronavirus pandemic.  I have not seen any reports that the rite took place on the location.  However, more information is available concerning those individuals who were behind the request.  Several leaders, including Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, and Rabbi Menachem Makover all supported the endeavor.  Last year the Jewish Passover was celebrated in a variety of ways in Jerusalem, which included priests from the Jewish Temple Institute enacting a sacrifice of a lamb from an area overlooking the mount.  Those calling for the offering of the Passover lamb this year had argued that an altar could be placed on the mount and the Passover offering carried out.            

Saturday Lenten Reflection 2020

Today is Jesus’ Sabbath

Although in the ground His body lay,

Forever remember it will not stay,

Soon to arise like firstfruits,

We cherish this everlasting truth.

Friday Lenten Reflection 2020

On this day in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is handed over by Jewish priests and Pilate to be crucified.  He is mocked by soldiers and those who passed by: “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross.”  However, when Jesus cried aloud and breathed his last, the curtain of the temple was torn (σχίζω) in two from top to bottom.  There is a parallel with the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan by John the Baptist, where the heavens are torn apart (σχίζω) and a voice from heaven says, “This is my beloved Son.”  The irony, though, is at the cross the Roman centurion—and not the priests —confesses, “Truly this man was God’s Son.”  Jesus, bread and wine, the Eucharist, and the significance of the temple are moving westward.

Stone of Anointing in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher located west of the Temple Mount.  

This woman was doing something and walking right towards me.  She also walked right up to me.  

Faces in the Holy Sepulcher. 

More faces in the Holy Sepulcher. 

      

Here is a side chapel within the Church of Holy Sepulcher where I participated in the Eucharist.  Although I enjoyed my visit to the Old City and the Temple Mount, this chapel holds a special and unique sense of God's presence. 

Thursday Lenten Reflection 2020

On this day in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus and the disciples celebrate the Jewish Passover.  While they were eating Jesus instituted what we now call the Lord’s Supper.  Jesus took bread and wine blessed and gave thanks (εὐχαριστήσας, eucharistesis), whose root is the same for the word Eucharist.  Bread and wine are not only associated with Passover, but also with the Feast of First Fruits, which is the Jewish feast associated with the covenant.  Afterwards, Jesus and his disciples went out to the Mount of Olives.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, he prays, and is betrayed, arrested, and falsely accused: “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’ ”  The Eucharist will become the capstone of Jesus’ sayings and actions regarding the Second Jewish Temple.

Mount of Olives: the building in the center is the Church of All Nations.  Slightly to the left is a garden and olive grove.  The picture was taken during summer 2017 trip to Israel (LFL).

Church of All Nations: picture from BeinHarim Tourism website.  

These are two ancient olive trees in the garden next to the Church of All Nations.  They reminded me of the two witnesses.  The trees are around 900 years old.  There are olive trees around the Mediterranean that are nearly 2000 years old and some are said to still bear fruity olives (LFL). 

More trees slightly north of the Mount of Olives (LFL)

This is a closeup of one of the two ancient olive trees.  The center reminded me of the unity of the two hearts.  

Tuesday Lenten Reflection 2020

On this day in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus talks about the end.  He and his disciples head toward Jerusalem.  They see the withered fig tree and Jesus uses the opportunity to teach about the importance of prayer, faith, and forgiveness.  “If you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and cast into the sea,” and do not doubt in your heart, it will be done for you.”  In the court of the Jerusalem Temple, he teaches on the importance of loving God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving one’s neighbor as oneself.  In the afternoon, they come out of the temple.  One of his disciples commented on the stones and buildings of the temple.  They learn that in their lifetime, the end of the temple would come to pass.  And it happened for only the artificial temple mount still stands today. 

The Western Wall is only a portion of the entire  wall of  the Temple Mount.  Herod the Great built walls around the high point of what is considered Mount Moriah.  The area inside the walls was filled in and leveled so that Herod could build his massive temple courts and the temple itself .  LFL (Summer 2018).  

LFL (Summer 2018)

LFL (Summer 2018)

Monday Reflection 2020

When I was in Gaming, Austria, I heard a story that the Cistercian monks in the village would say to one another on occasions, Frater memento mori!  “Brother, remember to die” or “Brother, remember your death.”  I was told that this was not a morbid or mundane saying, but a reminder to look forward to the hour of death.  The end will come; however, it is a pivotal time.  Like the door hinge, one of its ends actually swings open in another dimension.  During this time of Lent, let us turn our minds from things that will pass.  Let us at least consider the possibility there is more to life than living in this material world with its material prosperity and simply dying.  On this day, Jesus enters the Second Jewish Temple and stresses the more important things (Mk 11:15-17).      

Palm Sunday 2020

I have been reflecting on my visits to Israel in the summer of 2017 and 2018.  The experience was awe-inspiring and even to this day, I continue to learn from the encounters with people, places, dates, and faces.  One of the sites that capture my attention is the eastern gate in the old city walls.  It is not certain that the existing gate is the one that existed during the time of the Second Temple and the time of Jesus.  A curious think about it, though, is that it is closed.  There are various stories about why this happened.  One account says it is shut until the coming of the Messiah.  Another tale explains that it remains closed to prevent the coming of the Anti-Christ.  Its shape reminds me of the tablets that Moses brings down the mountain in the movie “The Ten Commandments.”

Eastern Gate in the Western Wall, Jerusalem (Summer 2017) LFL

Western Wall (Summer 2017) LFL

Jerusalem taken from Mount of Olives (Summer 2017) LFL 

Update on the Temple Mount

There were three important developments on the Temple Mount this past week.  It has been a time of relative peace (or absence of struggle) on the mount since its closure last week because of the coronavirus.  For the first time in 17 years, the area has been closed to Moslems, Jews, and Christian visitors and worshipers.  The Temple Mount, the Western Wall, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher have been closed.  Nonetheless, there have been a couple of other interesting developments on the mount.  The closure of the mount has not prevented the Waqf from working and digging on the mount.  Another story is a group of Temple Mount activists, citing the example of King David, sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requesting that they might be allowed to offer the ritual Passover on the mount to end the pandemic.    

 (Photo: Flash 90)

Photo Credit: دائرة الاوقاف الاسلامية في القدس on Facebook

Jerusalem as the Navel of the World

Jerusalem as the Navel of the Earth 

Borrowing from a saying from James Joyce, the navel of us all leads us back from whence we came.  In the ancient world, locations such as Delphi[1] and Zion[2] were sometimes called the “navel of the earth.”  It is not too surprising to see an ancient map that looks a little different than the ones seen today.  To my surprise, I took the above picture on a map I saw in Jerusalem.  Its center can easily be identified and the trifold symmetry is evident.  Its simplicity is remarkable, especially in light of the complexity of the maps today that represent the many nations, tongues, tribes, and kingdoms.  Perhaps we have come to a bottleneck and we will soon return and rediscover where all of us have come from.  

      

---

[1] Pausanias, Gr. Descr. 10.16.2; Strabo, Geography 9.3.6. 

[2] Jubilees 8.19.