Week 4 |
Jerusalem - The Rainbow Maker |
September 24 |
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When I came to the Holy Land, Israel and Palestine, for the first time, in the early 1990's, within the hour I got my first taste of a new multi-layered reality. Within a day, I knew that this new environment was beyond my comprehension!
The first indication of this new reality, as I left the terminal at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv and went up to Jerusalem, was that all the street signs are written in three languages - Hebrew, Arabic and English.
Mindful that words are symbols of reality, immediately, I knew that I was being "hit in the face" with three realities! And two of those three realities were new to me!
(Little did I realize that the English-speaking reality in an Israeli world and in an Arabic world was each different from my "back-home" reality of the United States).
With great confidence, I whispered to myself, "this is going to be very different". Little did I realize how different and how so multi-layered in every aspect - language, customs, culture, dress, religion, politics, history, thought processes - was this place and these peoples that I was visiting.
The next morning, with the thought of tri-lingual street signs running through my head, I got on the tour bus to begin the pilgrimage, my journey with Jesus. I was going to get to know Jesus better, not just through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but through the Fifth Gospel, the peoples and lands of which He was a part.
Holy Land Pilgrimages, these "Walks with Jesus", are, in the Holy Land, jokingly referred to as "Runs with Jesus". The pace is fast. It seems to be a competitive race to see how many holy sites one can get to in one day and still feel holy at its end.
Indeed, on that first day, holy site after holy site and in between those sites, the tour guide's commentary caused me very quickly to spiral downward into despair as I realized that I was in a world in which my ability to neatly organize everything and everyone was of no use.
The questions flooded my mind: "...this site belonged to whom first? ... who conquered whom and when? ...In what millennium did that happen? ...was that C.E or B.C.E? ... whose perspective was just described - the Jews', the Christians', the Arabs'? Oh, the Christian perspective, but did it represent, the Orthodox, the Latin, or the Protestant view? Okay, it was the Orthodox view, but which rite - the Greek, the Coptic, the Armenian, the Syriac or the Ethiopian? Okay, it was the Greek but, in what century; before or after the great split of 1054C.E.? ...Jerusalem has been conquered at least twenty times in its over 3.000 years of existence, these ruins are from which time? ...and who did it? ....and why?"
By the end of that first day, I was drowning! In profound desperation, deep frustration and with great faith, I called out to the Lord as Simon Peter did on the Sea of Galilee. He stretched out His hand. I took hold and promised not to let go.
The next day was a new beginning! I threw away all my neat categories. Nothing fit into them anyway! The Holy Land experience began to "wash over" me. I learned a few facts and figures and forgot most. I began to experience and "not figure out" and "come to conclusions about" the people and the land.
In that desperate act of faith, the Lord gifted me! The freedom of time, energy and reflection was given to me in order to simply take it all into my being. I didn't have to understand it, to categorize it, to resolve it. I could live with "not-knowing", "not-understanding", "confusion" and "different world-views that are co-existing in immediate proximity". What a gift! Something was happening to me. That I knew! But what was happening? That I didn't know!
My first visit to Israel and Palestine has led me to come back, over the years, for three more "short" visits and now, in 2000, a three-month sabbatical. After each of the short visits, I vowed to come back "for more". I knew that I had to spend a longer amount of time in Jerusalem, the symbol of and the reality that is the Middle East. People would ask "why", but I didn't have an answer to give. It was inside me, but it was not yet formulated for verbalization. My response would be a glib, "I guess that I just like it there!"
Jerusalem is the center of the world! It is in this city in which the entire world lives, side by side, "rubbing shoulders", in very close proximity, on a daily basis. Not always peacefully, but, remarkably well considering that the global village is here in concentrated form, Jerusalem goes on, day after day, into its fourth millennium!
What attracts me to Jerusalem? The words of Orlando Agudelo-Botero in "The Rainbow Maker" describes well the conversion that is taking place within my mind, my heart and, most importantly, my soul:
In linear thought... life is short, day is light, night is dark,
rain is sad,
young is good and old is not,
God?...in church.
Think religion but not of light.
Be the man, be the woman but no more.
Black is black and white is white,
humans walk but do not fly,
Seven colors has a rainbow we were told,
seven and not one more...
Emancipation.
In the dimension of the creative fields, none of these are so.
Life and death, God and light, day and night,
man and woman, young and old, black and white,
rain and shine
are one.
Celestial, luminous body of prisms,
reflecting beams of light
creators of euphoric rainbows
in which humans do fly.
Oh luminary splendor, brilliantly colored, lyrical and tender,
spectrum of fascinating quality and appealing hope,
illusory and mysterious light...
let it be in you, be in me and in all
for the sake of humankind.
Of ancient perpetuity I am,
observer of all unconscionable time,
simple in form, joyful and of ardent love.
The physical, mental, and spiritual experiences that I am
constitute a continuous creative existence
exhibiting the wisdom of the ages to all
a oneness,
subsequent
consequent
full life!
Jerusalem is giving me new life, teaching me how to live in our global village. In one word, Jerusalem has given me the gift of "emancipation"!
How is it that I have been emancipated by a city that is in a constant state of tension... where a thousand different views compete for attention and acceptance... where every stone cries out a history of sorrow and joy... where every person has a reason not to trust the next person... where every person, deep within their being, has the seeds of peace planted... where ruins, sites and buildings take on lives of their own?
What is it that Jerusalem can share with the rest of the world if only we allow ourselves to "have eyes that see" and "ears to hear"?
My thoughts will continue in next week's column. Tonight (9/23/00) I am going into the city of Jerusalem for dinner with Fr. Garrett Edmunds. He is a Franciscan priest and the brother of Mrs. Karen Laaperi, our Academy Principal. He happens to be in Jerusalem for a few weeks leading several pilgrimages to the Christian holy sites. We will be celebrating my "emancipation"! Know that I will remember you as we toast Jerusalem!
You never know what you are going to see when you go into Jerusalem. I went to walk the ramparts, the walls, of the Old City of Jerusalem looking to see the Holy Sites from a different perspective. Instead I ran into the filming of a new movie, starring Jean Claude van Damme. He is in the tee-shirt. It was a fascinating afternoon. Living only a hundred miles from Hollywood, I had to come to Jerusalem to witness the filming of a movie. This was taking place at the Damascus Gate,in East Jerusalem, just a few yards away from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Here is Fr. Mike and his tri-lingual signs.
A picture of a small piece of the ramparts walk. It is a great way to see the Old City of Jerusalem! You are literally walking on the rooftops of the Old City!
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