Jesus in Galilee, part II (Wednesday)

Wednesday was a full & busy day, beginning in Capernaum. Our scheduled time for Mass wasn't until 10, so we visited the Church of the Primacy of Peter first. This church commemorates the appearance of Our Lord after the Resurrection, Him preparing them breakfast and Peter's triple confession of faith (John 21:1-19). The church encloses a rock on which Jesus' had their bread and fish breakfast laid out. To me, the church is surprisingly small. The setting, right on the shore of the Sea of Galilee is very beautiful. The picture of the statue of Peter and Jesus didn't turn out the way I intended; in fact, it turned out better! I think the silhouette against the hillside and water is beautiful. We sat and prayerfully read this passage; we were quite moved by the place. Outside the church there are two outdoor chapels. One has a mosaic of Pope Paul VI prostrate before St. Peter making his confession to Jesus. The other has a striking mosaic of Pope John Paul II. The colors and execution of both are breathtakingly brilliant.

After that, we made our way to St. Peter's house. The church is literally built on what is considered to be the ruins of St. Peter's house, which you can see through the glass floor in front of the altar. We arrived to a Franciscan friar in a snit: for some reason, they had us down for Mass at 9:00 & 10:00 that morning. As you can see, the church is large, so he was (rightfully) miffed that the AC had been on for an hour and no one had shown up. After some soothing words on our part and Fr. Gregory showing him the confirmation that had us only down for 10:00, Fr. Bartholomew offered Mass.

A word on the city. It is an English contraction of its proper Hebrew name, Kafar Nahum (the city of Nahum). There are traces of human habitation from the 13th century BC, but it only appears in history under the reign of Herod in the 2nd century BC. Nahum is the name of one of the so-called minor prophets and is (was?!) a fairly common name. There is nothing special about the place that would make it place for Jesus to settle after leaving Nazareth, other than it is where his first disciples lived.

After Mass, we visited the ruins of a synagogue in Capernaum. It is quite literally right next to St. Peter's house! While is the exact dating of the building is debated (evidence points to the late 3rd to mid 4th century), it almost certainly does not date to time of Jesus. Nonetheless, it is a powerful experience to sit in the ruins of a synagogue in Capernaum reading what Our Lord did there! In the picture of its ruins, you can see our professor and guide, Fr. Gregory. It was ungodly hot and humid, so we were happy that the walls cast significant shade for us to sit and reflect in.

Our next stop was the chapel of the German Benedictine monastery at Tagbah, the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes. It contains the famous mosaic of a basket of loaves between two fish. Unfortunately (for tourists like us), it is near the altar and is roped off. I figured ducks were close enough! It is a very simple, beautiful chapel: in a word very Benedictine! It is a replica of a 5th century building with the ruins of a 4th church underneath it, which was slightly smaller.

We arrived at our next scheduled stop, the Church of the Sermon on the Mount, on the Mount of the Beatitudes, 15 minutes after it closed. Undaunted, we backtracked a bit, had lunch and visited the basalt ruins of Chorazin (Korazim). Jesus condemns it along with Capernaum and Bethsaida for its inhabitants' lack of faith. (Mt. 11:20-24) The ruins have a dark feel, being almost exclusively basalt, but also for the city's negative association in Scripture. That didn't stop us from playing around around a bit: we were alone on the site with no "adult" supervision. To give one example: there are pictures of yours truly doing a (bad) imitation of the famous Karate Kid pose on top of a pillar.

Our last stop for the day was the Mount of the Beatitudes and the Church of the Sermon on the Mount. It was a powerful "bookend" to the beginning of the day on sea shore below. From this mountain, you can see almost of the places Jesus lived and worked! We sat facing the church and the amazing view of the Sea of Galilee behind it and read the Sermon on the Mount. Talk about a powerful experience. Although the chapel itself is rather plain (given what we've seen on this trip!), it does have some interesting features: the altar is in middle (directly under the dome) and mosaic "water" flows down the steps on all four sides, it is eight-sided to reflect the beatitudes; on floor in each of the "sections," there is one of the Theological and Cardinal virtues (the 8th being Jesus himself who is the model and exemplar of the beatitudes and any/all virtue).