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.  

      

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

[2] Jubilees 8.19.

Update from Jerusalem

Because of the coronavirus, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher will close its doors for a week.  This comes after a meeting between Israeli police and church leaders following the Israeli government’s plan to help prevent the spread of the virus.  The church was built in the 4^th century during the rule of the Emperor Constantine the Great after he converted to Christianity.  The Armenian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, and Roman Catholic churches are custodians of the building.  In other developments this week, Jewish, Christian, and Moslem leaders gathered in Jerusalem to pray during the pandemic.  Franciscan Father Francesco Patton said,

We will be together to pray to the Almighty God that this pandemic may stop.... It is important...because we are all believers with the same roots; and thanks to this same root we can express with faith and...confidence our prayer to God the Almighty.

Door to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Visit to Israel 2018).  Notice what looks like three trees above the door.

One of the altars in the church.  This was located on a lower level (Visit to Israel 2018).

I saw this door that captured my attention (Israel Trip 2018).

Traces of Trinitas (Jerusalem 2018)