It has been said that people of the United States think in terms of decades, people of Europe think in terms of centuries and people of the Middle East think in terms of millenniums!

This past week I visited an ancient Canaanite city, the city of Arad, located in what is now Tel Arad National Park in the eastern Negev Desert.

The ruins, which are quite ample and visible, are of a city of 2,000 people established in the fourth millennium BCE. The ruins are 5,000 years old! The city was already 1,000 years old when Abraham was called by Yahweh to leave the land of Ur and go to where Yahweh would lead him!

Biblical references to Arad are found in Numbers 21:1, Joshua 12:14 and Judges 1:16.

Also on this site, in the Israeli National Park, are the ruins of the Israelite City of Arad, which dates back to the eleventh century BCE.

While standing in the midst of these ruins from 5,000 and 1,000 years ago, one’s view can’t help but notice, across the desert, a short distance away, the modern city of Arad, a beautiful skyline with tall buildings. Many people come to Arad to live for health reasons; the air is clean, dry, and helpful for people suffering with various allergies and breathing problems.

Imagine yourself in this setting. Imagine yourself a resident of today’s Arad. Your city, this area in which you live, dates back 5,000 years and there are visible remains that remind you of this on a daily basis.

Imagine all that has happened, the rise and fall of a variety of civilizations, of which Arad has been a part. As a resident of this city, its history becomes your history! And your history, which is sacred to you, goes back millenniums... 5,000 years of memories...memories that include great divergences in politics, ethnicity, race and religion!

In this example, I am attempting to capture a sense of what individuals, here in the Middle East, bring “to the table” of negotiation when trying to resolve conflicts, be they local, national or international. So much more comes to the table in the way of memories. The negotiations by the very nature of this situation become increasingly complex and nuanced.

In the United States, even though our history and our collective memory are of a relatively short span, there is still great difficulty in achieving conflict resolution. Imagine here! Multiply our 350-year collective memory by 15 and then enter into negotiations with other groups of people living on the same land whose collective memory is as long, but whose perspective is different.

In the United States, with our short collective memory, and with a penchant for expediency and “getting things done” efficiently, we are quick to divide up into two camps. Almost immediately, it is “them” against “us”. We give those two camps a variety of descriptions - “conservative” and “liberal”, “left” and “right”, “faithful” and “heretical”, “for the working person” and “against the working person”, “radical” and “traditionalist”, and the list could go on! Everything is either “black” or “white”.

In this process of labeling, we also begin to make judgments: “We are right” and “They are wrong”. We begin, in a sense, to demonize one another! All reality is swiftly divided into two camps. How convenient it is to divide up all of reality in this way! It makes life so much easier!

In this process, I believe, we deceive ourselves. We fall into the illusion that there is our way (i.e., the right way) and there is the other way (i.e., the wrong way) and that our perception of reality is easy to grasp, to understand, to take hold of and, if need be, to fix and repair expeditiously and efficiently!

What I am beginning to see and understand here in Jerusalem, the gathering place of all the tribes of our global village, is the “acceptance” of multiple views of reality. This “acceptance” comes out of necessity, as people ask the question - “How do we all get along and survive in this multi-layered and many- dimensioned reality that we call Jerusalem?”

They realize that there are no easy answers and that it is not just “them” against “us”. The various perspectives on human reality must be taken into account. There are passionate people who stand up to be counted and, thus, become a part of the discussion, the negotiation.

These various views may not be necessarily appreciated, but they are accepted and brought “to the table” in the realization that there are a variety of legitimate “takes” on reality. No wonder conflict resolution takes so long, is so painful and is so tension-filled! There are no “black” and “white” situations here!

But once some kind of settlement is reached, no matter how small, it is a truly creative piece of “human work”. Rainbows are what Jerusalem creates!

One example of this is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (called The Church of the Resurrection by the Orthodox Church!). When one enters the Church for the first time, as I did a number of years ago, I became very upset, as many Western Christian pilgrims do.

One soon realizes that the Church is divided up into pieces by various Christian Denominations - the Armenian Orthodox, the Coptic Orthodox, the Ethiopian Orthodox, the Greek Orthodox, the Latin Rite Catholic, and the Syrian Orthodox.

All kinds of activities are going on simultaneously in different languages with different sets of rituals. There is, in the air, the feel of a spirit competing for the pilgrim’s attention and the pilgrim‘s dollar.

This pilgrim was soon bewildered! I found myself asking, “What is going on here? This is the holiest site of Christianity - the place that commemorates, the suffering and death of Jesus on Golgotha and reverences the tomb from which He resurrected. Why is it such a “mish-mash” of religious activity?”

Then, after this painful questioning, the tour guide tells you that the keys to the Church have been in the hands of a Moslem family for centuries, because the Christians couldn’t trust each another with the possession of the keys!

As an American, with an American mentality with a short collective memory, by the time I walked out of the Church, I knew what had to be done and who had to do it! I saw a “black” and ”white” situation that I could, at least in my mind, fix efficiently and expeditiously!

Over the years., as I have come to know Jerusalem better, and as I come to learn our Christian history and the histories of the various Christian traditions, when I return to “The Church of the Holy Sepulcher/ The Church of the Resurrection”, I now see a rainbow!

Despite the many different denominations clinging to their “piece of the rock”, despite the disagreements that still need resolving, despite the renovations that are needed because of lack of agreements between the Christian Churches, despite the Moslem family that still holds the keys, the Church, held together by this Christian tension, is open daily to welcome pilgrims and to allow them to pray where Jesus offered His supreme sacrifice for us!

Each time I return to the Church, I feel more at ease with it. Yes, the Church is a symbol of the lack of unity that is a reality among us Christians; but, the Church is also a rainbow, an acceptance of a variety of realities struggling to live side by side as they continue to find ways to work together for unity!

Living in this reality is much to my liking because one sees a greater appreciation for the diversity of life. Life can be lived in some very radically different ways; and, this diversity creates a richness, an interwoven tapestry of life that reminds us of the greatness of our God, the One who has created us all!

As I get comfortable in this reality, I have found emancipation. I am able to view my realities - my life within my family, my life in the United States and my life in the Roman Catholic Church - very differently!

I can become less judgmental, more tolerant, more appreciative of very different “takes” of reality, be they political, familial, or religious. I can begin to acknowledge them (possibly out of necessity), to live with them, to accept them and, maybe, even appreciate and celebrate them as part of God’s great tapestry of life.

Jerusalem is the center of the world! So ancient yet so modern, it is the global village in microcosm. Jerusalem is, consciously or unconsciously, creating a model for the cities of our shrinking planet to follow.

We need to closely observe the lessons that Jerusalem teaches as it struggles to survive. Jerusalem is not just the past. Jerusalem is the future! Our world needs the rainbows that are, ever so slowly and painfully, being created in this sacred city!

E-mail Fr Mike at: michaelr@stmoside.org