This year in Jerusalem

Last night while I slept
I dreamed that I was standing in front of the temple
in the old city of Jerusalem
There I heard the voices of children
who seemed to me like angels from heaven singing
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, lift up your gates and sing
Hosanna in the highest, Hosanna to your King.

Music from Stephen Adams; Lyrics from Frederick E. Weatherly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85WZUMDk8E8

Just as Christmas ceased to be, for many, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, to be the feast of Santa Claus and the physical and affective warmth of family intimacy that contrasts with the cold and snow outside the house; In the same way, Easter has ceased to be the commemoration of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, but the feast of the egg and the bunny, which symbolize the rebirth of nature in spring after the long lethargy of winter.

We do not know for sure when Jesus of Nazareth was born or when he died. The placement of his birth on the winter solstice and his death and resurrection on the spring equinox was intentional; But the intention was not, as many think, to Christianize the pagan celebrations of these astronomical events and climate change.

The intention was clearly theological: Jesus was born as the days begin to grow, at the end and beginning of a new solar year, for He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all that exists. Just as our planet derives its life by revolving around the sun, so Jesus is for us the sun around which we revolve in order to obtain life.

On the other hand, Jesus died and rose again when the earth is reborn from the apparent death of winter; If autumn reminds us of old age and winter of death, spring, which, as the song says, always comes and goes, reminds us of the eternity we have conquered with the rebirth of Christ.

The prehistory of our Easter
The Passover Supper is a ritual meal, which every Jewish family celebrates, to commemorate the liberation of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. As the Book of Exodus (23:8) commands, during the meal the story of the people's departure from captivity must be recounted. At the end of this supper the diners declare in a joyful tone, "Next year in Jerusalem."  

Jerusalem has always been the object of the longing of the Jews of the Diaspora, expelled from their own homeland; their lament in the Babylonian captivity is well known: if I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be withered! Let my tongue be caught in my taste, if I do not remember you, if I do not make Jerusalem my supreme joy! (Psalm 137:5-6)

This phrase with which the Passover meal ends is seen by many as anachronistic; Israel being a modern state today, occupying more or less the same land it occupied in the time of King David; living today comfortably both the Jews of Israel and those of the Diaspora, it makes no sense to repeat this phrase.  and much less for the Jews who live in Jerusalem permanently, unless the phrase has a more eschatological meaning.

In this sense, for traditional Jews, it refers to the coming of the Messiah and the rebuilding of the temple; For liberal Jews who do not accept the idea of the Messiah, nor of a temple-based Judaism, the phrase can have numerous interpretations that have more to do with an ideal, utopian and even heavenly Jerusalem that is to come than with the Jerusalem where I now find myself.

Christ's Last Supper
Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and handed it to them. They all drank from it. And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for all. Assuredly, I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine again until the day I drink it new in the kingdom of God." After the singing of the psalms, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Mark 14:24-25

Some say that Christ's Last Supper was modeled on the traditional Passover meal of the Jews, others opine that it is something new. As the Passover meal of the Jews commemorates the deliverance from slavery in Egypt, while that of Christ marks the moment of a greater deliverance, that of the whole human race, whatever the conclusion of the discussion may serve, serves our purpose.

Just as the Jews of all times say at the end of the Passover supper, "next year in Jerusalem" meaning the hope of a better world, as well as in the continuation of life in the heavenly Jerusalem, Jesus at the Last Supper with his disciples says:  "I will not drink of the fruit of the vine again until the day I drink it."  In the Kingdom of God, he affirms that this future is about to come and is fulfilled in himself.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem...
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you! How many times have I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Now your house will be desolate. I tell you, you will not see me until the day comes when you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' Luke 13:34-35

Until that utopian future arrives, the old city continues to be the scene of violence between Palestinians and Israelis. At this moment, as I write these, lines in the monastery of St. Anne where I am staying doing a Bible course for three months, near the lions' gate about 400 meters from here a Palestinian woman tries to stab an Israeli soldier, who seeing her life in danger shot her killing her.

A few hours later, near the Damascus gate, a Palestinian shot another soldier, wounding him; his colleagues chased the Palestinian, so he shot again and wounded another; Finally, the soldiers shot him, killing him. Also on the same day, two Palestinian youths fired on an Israeli bus; As they fled, they were stopped by traffic and even there in public, the soldiers fired at the car with bursts of machine gun fire, killing its occupants and injuring some people who happened to be there.

Heavily armed with machine guns, wearing a bulletproof vest, carrying backpacks full of ammunition, Israeli soldiers do not wear handcuffs as they never take prisoners; They always shoot and kill every Palestinian who makes an attempt on the life of a Jew, then they destroy his house and deport the whole family.

Jerusalem is divided into 4 blocks: the Muslim, the Jewish, the Armenian Christian and the Arab or Palestinian Christian, because the three religions of the book have it as a holy city. For Judaism it is holy because it is built around the Temple, the center of the Jewish faith. For Christians, because Jesus visited her many times as the good Jew that he was, he died in her and rose again.

For Muslims, it is holy because they claim that the Prophet Mohammed travelled from Mecca to Medina and from Medina to Jerusalem in one night, from where he ascended to heaven, more precisely in the Temple in the Holy of Holies, where the Mosque of the Rock stands today; consequently, for Muslims Jerusalem is the third holy city after Mecca and Medina, for this reason it was invaded shortly after the death of the prophet.

Against the ascension to heaven of Mohammed in the image and likeness of Jesus, the historical fact of Muhammad's death, probably by poisoning, and his tomb in the green mosque of Medina speaks. To give more strength to the legend of the prophet's ascension to heaven, Saudi Arabia, against the advice of many Muslims, currently wants to destroy the mosque and the tomb, exhuming the body of the prophet, burying it in an anonymous grave.

Unfortunately, for those who today demand total control over Jerusalem, this visit can only have been a dream, as much as it pains them to admit that there is no evidence or proof that Muhammad traveled in the flesh to Jerusalem, as there were no supersonic planes at that time.

What the Muslims claim as historical fact, the prophet himself claims to have been a dream whose historical context was to convince the most skeptical that he belonged to the lineage of the prophets of Judaism, Abraham, Moses, Jesus. Still in relation to this visit to Jerusalem, Aicha Mahammad, Muhammad's favorite wife, later insisted that it was never a real trip, but a spiritual experience.

The connection of the Muslim faith to the city of Jerusalem is extremely tenuous when compared to that of Judaism and Christianity. The real reason why Muslims claim Jerusalem as a holy city for them is because Judaism and Christianity, which they have always wanted to supplant at all costs, declare it holy before.

Throughout the year in the streets of Jerusalem we observe Jewish and Christian pilgrims from all over the world; the only Muslims we see are those who live here; In fact, the city is formatted for this type of pilgrims, everywhere you can see Jewish and Christian souvenir shops and none for Muslims; the lack of Muslim pilgrims alone is overwhelming proof that this city is not important to them, and many of them do not even believe that Muhammad was ever here.

Since the Muslim religion is a mixture of Judaism and Christianity, adapted to the Bedouin culture, from Mohammed to the present day they look at these religions with a certain envy and grow up with the mentality of "us too", if the others are we are too, if the others have we also have it. The invasion of Jerusalem is no different from the invasion and extermination of Christianity throughout North Africa and Turkey; and in Europe from the Iberian Peninsula to Posters, in France, where it was stopped.

Already possessing two holy cities, by declaring Jerusalem the third, settling on the hill of the temple, the heart of the Jewish faith, they left the Jews without a holy place, with only the western wall of the temple, in front of which they still pray and lament wounded in their faith and nationalism as one who has a thorn buried in the flesh.

Today a forbidden place for Jews, the Temple Esplanade, is occupied by two mosques: the Al Aksa Mosque or the Silver Dome Mosque, and the Rock Mosque or the Golden Dome Mosque, built on the Holy of Holies of Solomon's Temple, the rock being the place where Abraham was going to sacrifice his son Isaac. The golden dome can be seen from any angle of the city and its surroundings for what is today, anachronistically, the ex libris of Jerusalem.

The conflict between Israel and Palestine is fundamentally a political rather than a religious conflict; religion, however, is invoked and instrumentalized by both parties as an excuse to avoid making concessions, because what is sent by God is not discussed or questioned or abdicated.

A bridge is not built in the middle, but by the banks it intends to join. On Israel's side, it is essential that they recognize the right of Palestine to a homeland, as they had and the world gave them. On the Muslim side, it is important that you recognize that much of your behavior is governed by myths, legends, and beliefs that defy reason, so it is important that you purify your faith of everything that is in direct collision with science and even common sense.

This year in Jerusalem
On this mountain, (referring to Mount Zion Jerusalem) the Lord of the worlds will prepare for all peoples a banquet of succulent delicacies, a banquet of delicious wines. (…) he will take away the veil that covered all peoples, the cloth that shrouded all nations; He will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and will wipe out the reproach that weighs on his people from the whole earth. Isaiah 25:6-8

As a missionary, over 30 years of ministry, I have celebrated Easter in different countries and locations. Inspired by the traditional phrase of rejoicing, which the Jews exclaim at the end of every Passover meal, I feel like saying with equal joy and with the same hope: This year in Jerusalem! This is the fourth time that I have come here, and I hope that it will not be the last time that I will set foot on the land that the Redeemer trod, but it is the first time that I celebrate the Lord's Passover where it took place 2000 years ago.

Jerusalem means a city of peace, and yet, anachronistically, today divided into four antagonistic peoples who continually fight each other, it is difficult to find a place that has been the scene of so many wars. Let us pray that one day Jerusalem will live up to its name and fulfill Isaiah's prophecy of a banquet of delicious delicacies and rich wines. 

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Lost & Found - One Sheep and one Coin

“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” (Lk. 15:4-6)

The lost sheep
Jackals, hyenas and wolves are the sworn enemies of sheep. For the most part animals kill out of necessity, but wolves, however, are not content to just kill a sheep and eat it in peace. On the contrary, their aim is to slaughter the entire flock and not relent as long as there is a sheep still left standing; it seems that they take great pleasure in killing.

When I was a child and a shepherd, I used to take my small flock far away from the village to the mountains; there, in unchartered territory, to prove how indispensable I was to the sheep, I used to play a sort of hide and seek game with them -- I would hide from the sheep and watch their reaction. So long as I was in their sight the sheep would eat in peace keeping one eye on the grass and the other on the shepherd, but once they lost sight of the shepherd, the bell around their neck would immediately go silent as they would stop eating. Then, after raising their heads and looking in all directions and not seeing the shepherd, they would disband and break into a mad dash towards the direction of home. I would then come out from my hiding place, give a loud whistle and they would return and graze again in peace.

Keeping this in mind, if a shepherd was taking care of a flock by himself, it is truly inconceivable that he would leave the flock, placing the 99 sheep in danger, to look for the one lost. He would at the very least first ensure the safety of the 99 and only then go look for the lost one.

This shepherd is special, however, for he uses an unusual type of mathematics: for him, 99 is equivalent to 1, and 1 is equal to 99. God does not have the same priorities that we humans have; the 99 were left behind for the single one. When a mother of nine who lost one of her children was told as a way of consolation that she should not cry as she still had eight left, she promptly responded, “I know I still have eight left, but I do not have the one I’ve just lost”.

The place where we occupy in God’s heart cannot be occupied by anyone else and in this fact that we are all unique to God resides the dignity of the human person. Therefore when someone is lost, God awaits patiently for his return and eventually when he does come back, as we see in the parable of the prodigal son, he is given the very same status that he had before he went away. Upon his return, he once again occupies the place in the Father’s heart that belongs to him alone which had been left empty since he went astray.

According to our ways of thinking, however, the 99 have every reason to be resentful, and we see this very sort of resentment being acted out by the older son in the prodigal son’s parable. One can only imagine that if the 99 sheep had a say, they would voice out their resentment towards the lost sheep by saying that no one had thrown him out of the flock but he had chosen of his own accord to leave the sheepfold and therefore must now suffer the consequences of his actions.

To top it off, when the shepherd finally finds the lost sheep, he does not drag it home kicking and screaming, but rather lays it on his shoulders, and not only gives a great feast but has the audacity to say that ‘there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous who need no repentance‘(Lk. 15:7).

Ministry or Evangelization?
Unlike this Divine Shepherd, the Church tends to pay little attention to the lost sheep, saying that we still have the 99 to take care. To look after these 99, a multitude of ministries came about:  campus ministries, youth ministries, ministries to the sick and homebound, etc.

According to statistics, however, time has reversed the parable; now only one remains in the flock while the other 99 are lost. This change in reality should have triggered a change in the pastors’ attitude and yet they remain as passive as they were before, now devoting themselves to fattening up the one and only sheep in the fold, and probably consoling themselves by saying that they still have one left…

Since we have only one sheep left in the sheepfold, are we not deceiving ourselves with the use or abuse of the word ‘ministry’? When we talk about campus ministries or health ministries, is it not a great assumption on our part to consider the thousands of students in a university or the hundreds of patients in a hospital as part of our flock?

If we were to use the word ‘mission’ in lieu of ‘ministry’ we would do more justice to the reality; we would then be more honest with ourselves and perhaps by confronting this harsh reality head on we would change our passive attitude of a shepherd to the proactive one of ‘fisher of men’, which Jesus wanted so much for us to be.

Mercy & Mission
‘For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus.’ (Rom. 15:4-5)

In this sense, we can relate to mercy as a form of Mission and Mission as a work of mercy. It is precisely this message that is depicted in the logo of the Jubilee Year of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis. To go in search of the lost sheep is at the same time a work of mercy and the mission of the new evangelization. In fact, in the logo, the guise of the lost sheep upon the shoulders of the Good Shepherd comes not in the form of a sheep but rather of a human being, that is, the prodigal son.

Not having a better consolation than to live out the Gospel which cherishes us, let us be its witnesses to others so that they too can experience the same consolation that we do, and be missionaries in the same sense as Isaiah who says, ‘Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.’ (Isa. 40:1)

The lost coin
‘Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.“ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’ (Lk. 15:8-10)

We would not be outraged at Jesus’ attitude towards the 99 if we thought that for him the 99 were as lost as the one; the difference is that both the lost sheep and the prodigal son were lost outside the fold; whereas the coin, the older brother, and the 99 sheep that never left the house or the sheepfold, were nonetheless also lost, divorced from God and from their own selves.

A silver coin was a day’s wage in those days and therefore, it was much that was lost. The woman swept the house in the hope of finding it, and in finding it she celebrated just as God celebrates for each one of us who is found.

Those who go to church are the worst
It is true that this grumbling has served many as a poor excuse for not going to Church and participating in the sacraments, and yet still considering themselves as Christians though non-practicing ones. However, the bad examples that the practicing Christians give, in the paths of life, make this statement unfortunately quite often true; in many churchgoers there is little evidence that their participation in the Church liturgies and sacraments has had any positive impact on their lives.

So it would be helpful if we could create some sort of mechanism by which Christians can make an examination of conscience as to the real reasons why they participate in the sacraments. They need to verify the place that religious practice occupies in their lives and to check if it is the engine of a new life of continuous conversion and progress, or if on the contrary, it alienates and justifies a certain manner of living or the general state of things i.e. modus vivendi or status quo…

When I lived in Ethiopia I saw how ignorance killed many people stricken with tuberculosis. The Ethiopian patients after taking the antibiotic Streptomycin for only two months would consider themselves cured and discontinue the treatment. We well knew that they were not completely cured and that when the illness returned, it would be caused by the much more virulent and drug-resistant strain of the bacteria from which many died.

Consequently, the World Health Organization alerted to the misuse of antibiotics for small inconveniences because this abuse rendered important antibiotics ineffective as the bacteria acquired resistance to the drugs. Similarly, this also happens at the ecclesial level, the sacraments are like the authentic antibiotics that kill harmful bacteria or in this case, the tendency to sin; but when they are abused, or they become a routine, they too cease to bear any fruit.

The same can be said of the Word of God which the practicing Christians hear often but not with a right state of mind, hence it runs the risk of sounding ‘déjà vu’ as these Christians become so accustomed to it like a body that becomes so used to an antibiotic, that the Word no longer exposes and kills the harmful germ of sin that it would normally be able to quash.

Furthermore, using the metaphor of the parable of the sower, if the Word of God sounds déjà vu, it means it no longer penetrates into our hearts since we are as hard as the soil on the pathway where the seeds are eaten up by the birds before they had the chance to penetrate into the soil and germinate (Matt. 13: 4). This is what happens to the Word of God that is proclaimed to a wandering mind, a mind that does not pay attention.

At the end of this reflection, and examining the message behind both the parable of the lost sheep and of the lost coin, we reach the conclusion that the 99 sheep were not any less lost than the one that drifted away. In the Lord’s sheepfold, not all that stay in it belong to it, and similarly not all that belong to it are in it.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC