The Sacred Heart & 2 Empty Tombs

Today we celebrated the solemnity of the Sacred Heart. In his first letter, St. John tells us "In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins." (1 John 4:9-10) Jesus most perfectly reveals God's love on the Cross. Today was semi-free: we didn't have class, but were "strongly encouraged" to visit Bethphage & Bethany. We decided to do a "Jesus Enters Jerusalem" day.

We started with another encounter with the "fence." Bethany and Bethphage are just on the other side of the Mount of Olives from Gethsemene, etc., but with the wall, you have to go quite a ways south before getting to a check point to cross.












Although Bethphage is the starting place for the annual Palm Sunday reenactment of the Jesus' entry into the Holy City (Mt. 21:1, Mk. 11:1 and Lk. 19:29 ), our cab driver told us he had just been there a day or two ago and everything was closed, so we started in Bethany.The chapel is a simple Greek cross-shaped building with four lovely mosaics with scenes involving the siblings and Jesus. Lazarus' Tomb is just up the street from it. It is actually quite a small space, not for the claustrophobic. We spend some time there praying for the dead, especially Fr. Fabian (Stanley) Parmisano who had just died. We read aloud John's account of Jesus raising Lazarus. It is one of my favorites in the Gospel and take any chance to preach on that text. It was also moving to be in that tomb itself, as well as the spot from where Jesus summoned his friend.

Getting back into our taxi to get onto the other side, we started near the top of the Mount of Olives at the Church of the Paternoster. This is traditionally the site where Jesus taught the disciples the Our Father. The courtyard in front of the church has ceramics of the Our Father in over 60 languages. We had the opportunity to spend some time before the Blessed Sacrament with the Carmelite sisters who live there. (The church was closed when we arrived, but when the sister (?) in the shop learned we were priests, she took us into the chapel.) Midday Prayer was a bonus. (They also prayed in French.) From there, we arrived at Dominus Flavit ("The Lord Wept") Church just in time for the gates to be almost literally closed in our faces. We walked down into the Kidron Valley and up to the Lion's Gate. Believe me, the Psalms aren't kidding when they say "let us go UP to Jerusalem!" The picture taken near the top of the Mount of Olives looking toward the Old City. When we reached the bottom, there was a olive tree from which we each took a small branch which we carried as we walked up into Jerusalem.

After lunch, we prayed for a long while at the Western Wall, recalling Jesus' lamentation over the Holy City. We sat in silence. We end our day at the Holy Sepulcher complex, where each of us went his own way. I spent quite a bit of that time praying at Golgotha. We met up again at the Tomb just in time for the 13th & 14th Stations of the Cross. I'm sorry that the image is fuzzy, but for seeing the outside of the tomb, it was the best I got today. I was probably not perfectly still: I was so amazed that I got an unobstructed view into the tomb from where I sat, I had to move fast. (We will be back: we have the amazing privilege of celebrating Mass inside the Tomb next week and we hope to get locked into the church for the night one Saturday night.)