In 1996 my wife and
I spent four months in Israel at a theological study center from which
we got 15 well-arranged visits to historic sites under the leadership of
a capable and experienced tour guide. The most notable of those visits
was four days in Galilee, where the back door of our motel was only
about 100 feet from the lake. Traditionally called the Sea of Galilee,
it is actually a beautiful freshwater lake with a small canal of salt
water diverted around it in order to keep the lake water fresh.
Christian
pilgrimage has a long and rich history.
Already in Old Testament times
Jewish people made pilgrimage to Jerusalem, first from within the land
of Israel itself, later from other parts of the Mediterranean and Middle
Eastern world after Jews had scattered to all parts of that world.
Christian
pilgrimage was going strong by the time of Constantine in the early
300s. Constantine’s mother Helena urged her son to finance the building
of churches on what were already historic sites — the place of Jesus’s
birth in Bethlehem and the place of the tomb in Jerusalem.
Eventually
churches or chapels got constructed at Capernaum (meaning village of
the prophet Nahum) and at what were allegedly the place of the Sermon on
the Mount and the location of the feeding of the 5,000.
Some of these sites offer absolutely beautiful views overlooking Lake Galilee.
Pilgrims
made trips to the Holy Land even in the Middle Ages, that in spite of
the dangers of travel and of disease at the time and the Muslim conquest
of Jerusalem in 638. Some of these pilgrimages were imposed by the
church as penances for grave sins.
But
in 1008 the “mad” Caliph al-Hakim ordered the destruction of the grand
Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and his militia pillaged churches in the
Holy Land. Turkish Muslim rulers began hindering Christian pilgrimages,
and in consequence Pope Urban the second called for a crusade by
European Christians to retake the Holy Land.
The
Crusader Kingdom control of Jerusalem lasted less than 100 years
(1099-1187) before Muslims retook the city. But pilgrimage continued,
increasing exponentially after the Holy Land came under British mandate
and modern travel and tourist accommodations made pilgrimage
increasingly easier.
Pilgrimage
to the Holy Land seems to leave visitors with cherished feelings and
memories. For example, Phillips Brooks, the minister of the Episcopal
Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia, visited Palestine in 1865
and during his visit rode horseback together with others into Bethlehem
on Christmas Eve. Out of that experience he wrote the words to our still
familiar Christmas Carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” in 1968, giving
the words to Lewis Redner, organist of his church, to write the music.
Another popular
song reflecting Holy Land pilgrimage is the Irishman Daniel S. Twohig’s
(1883-1961) lyrics, “I walked today where Jesus walked in days of long
ago,” ending with the words, “and felt him close to me.” The music to
this poem was written by the Canadian-American Jeffrey O’Hara
(1882-1967), who was actually a pop songwriter, but gave Christians a
song that has resonated with many a pilgrim to the Holy Land in modern
times.
Thousands,
if not millions, of Christians have walked the Via Dolorosa in
Jerusalem, the path that Jesus is reported to have walked on the night
of his arrest and mock trial and crucifixion. As many a pilgrim to the
Holy Land would attest, it is experiences such as this that make stories
of the Bible come alive like nothing else seems to do.
Marlin
Jeschke is professor emeritus of philosophy and religion at Goshen
College. In 1968-69 he received a Fellowship in Asian Religions,
spending five months at the Center for the Study of World Religions at
Harvard Divinity School and five months traveling in Muslim countries of
the Middle East and Buddhist countries of Southeast Asia.
No comments:
Post a Comment