I realized as I was writing that I already an entry about our visit to Bethlehem, so this added discourse is probably not necessary--except I can add more pictures I suppose, and again try to flesh out my feelings about going to so critical place in the history of humanity and yet, in this case, not quite comprehending it for all the noise and the speed of a pilgrim's progress from day to day. I probably "felt" the least here about what should, in my mind, evoke the most sense of awe.
I suppose it was hardest for me to translate what I saw in modern day Bethlehem to the time when Christ was born there in a manger--not in a stable, as is so often promulgated, but in a cave hewn out of rock. As we wound through the narrow streets in our large tourist bus in a part of the land governed by the Palestinian Authority, while I was not particularly afraid, I did sense the tension of centuries. Perhaps it was seeing the grafitti everywhere, despondent in its satire, and that big mural of Yasser Arafat, to me a terrorist, to the people who call themselves Palestinians, a hero. This is a city that feels sad; so many of the faces, particularly of the men, seem sad. Angry and sad.
We parked in a large depot; as with anywhere you went, there were people selling souvenirs, but here, prominent was the politic of the locale. From here we would take a short walk on the streets to Manger Square.
Just at the entrance to Manger Square a police booth. And then the famous tree, in the process of decoration, as it was just the end of November on the edge of the first Sunday of Advent.
There are two Churches next to each other, one modern, and then this, as you see above, the entrance to the Church of the Nativity. Note the small door. Somewhere else in this series of posting, I believe I mentioned that the original arch (which you can see in the photo) was made smaller to prevent carts of various marauders from easily entering. We passed first, though, through the newer Church, St. Catherine.
We went into the Cave of St. Jerome and Mass was celebrated. To be in this space was to have a small sense of what it might have been like for early Christians to meet to share the Eucharist (for those who have read some or all of the Early Church Fathers, the significance of the Eucharist as way more than a symbol, rather in fact the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ was already well known; I mean before the actual first writings of the Bible circa 60 AD). The back wall of where the priest celebrated, we were told, abutted the sacred place of the Birth, which we had not yet seen.
After Mass, we re-stacked the chairs we had used for seating, and wended our way to the old Church, with its layers of history from the time of Christ, to the building of the Church by Constantine in the 4th century, reconstructed by Justinian in the 6th century, occupied by the Crusaders in the 12th century and then the Turks in the 13th. The interior has probably been under siege or reconstruction endlessly through the years, and now again there is a restoration in progress.
The photo exactly above is the entrance into a kind of anteroom on the way to the stairs down to the cave where the Manger and Our Lord Lay. Again, it was hard to imagine the scene that one hears in the old hymns, "O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie, above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by. . . " a scene of village, and shepherds and creatures wandering. Here was intense and even fevered activity to go to a spot, and to touch it for only a moment, as a security man moved us along. But still, the honor of that moment!
Down those stairs, beyond that arch, many believe, I believe (Lord, help my Unbelief) that it was here that God broke into the time He created to restore us to Himself as His friends.
And then it was over; we were outside. We took our group photo which I believe is included in one of my other entries and we walked back to our bus for the trip back to the Israeli side and our many other adventures to come.
Forgive the repetition this entry represents. But it is done and now sent on the digital wave.
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