Acsension & Beyond - Palestine of Jesus - VII

Things seem to be back to normal with my keyboard.  Thanks be to God!  Perhaps it was demons!  Saturday was a particularly interesting day here in Jerusalem and at the College.  It was Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of attonement and the Holy Day which is taken most seriously.  Large segments of the city are shut down completely and it is very quiet.  Most Jews prefer not even stepping out of the house.  At the College, this was seen at a great opportunity to go into the old city, which has a Jewish Quarter, but is also three-quarters non-Jewish.  The thinking was with few people and no commerce we would have an easy time doing the traditional Stations of the Cross, which, believe me, can be a real struggle on ordinary days.  So, out we headed, after an early breakfast, toward Herod's Gate, the most direct route to Station 1.  Just as we arrived at the entrance to the Gate, a stream of Muslim worshippers, eight across, and moving at maximum speed surged up Herod's assent and continued to come without abatement all the way to Lion's Gate Street, the location of Station 1.  It was an amazing sight and experience.  We twenty or so, hugging the wall as we moved single file against the onslought, carrying a cross, nonetheless.  The crowd was still coming when we made our turn the other direction to Station 1.  We discovered later, that Saturday was also the beginning of a very important feast for Muslims called Id al-Adha, proper celebration of which calls for much feasting and celebrating for three days.  We also later found out that the highest religious leaders in the country, both Jewish and Muslim had called on everyone to be on their best behavior to avoided conflicts.  Two different commemorations with more diverse traditions could be hard to imagine.  At any rate, the flood of people we experienced were apparently just finished with the early morning service on the Temple Mount, and were in a hurry to get started with the party.  I was not worried, except for being trampled, but some in our class thought we were in great danger of being attacked, especially since we were carrying the large cross.  Maybe they would have been more reassured if they had known that it was really just a rush to get the party going.  I doubt that we were even noticed.

A sort of continuation of this story is that Sunday, the worship schedule at Saint George's Cathedral was also changed to accommodate a special day, Thanksgiving Day.  This is the beginning of the late summer harvest and in the last few days, we have begun to see an amazing abundance of new fruits and vegetables, including bananas and oranges, apples and pears, and, of course, some of those strange looking middle-easten specialties.  The Cathedral had only one service at 10:30, a mixture of English and Arabic, with the whole altar area covered with squash, mellons and all the aformentioned varieties.  The Archbishop preached a good Thanksgiving Day service, first in Arabic and then a second time in English.  The serice finished off with a rousing rendition of "Count your blessings, name them one by one, and you'll be surprised to see what God has done," in English and Arabic, simultaniously and a final blessing after which alll the locals tore up to the altar to carry away the loot, which apparently carries some special blessing which will go home with you and probably bless your own Thanksgiving dinner.  Monday, Ha Aretz, the local English newpaper, was full of praise for how well everyone behaved, no riots, no bombings, only the usual number is kids falling off a cliff or into a pond.  I guess we can get along!

Lunch after church, of course, and then we were off to the last site directly connected our Our Lord, the Church of the Ascension, also located on the Mount of Olives, half a block from Pater Noster Church and Eleona.  It seems a little odd to even call it a Church.  The first commemorative structure on the site was built by the Byzantines, whose architect had some feeling for its theological significance.  He built a round column about 12 feet tall around the spot with a completely open top, and then at some distance, I'd say about fifty feet, he built another round building exactly concentric to the shrine building, but about thiry feet tall, also with no roof.  Apparently, this was in homage to the disciples who stood looking up as Christ ascended.  The outer circle had two columns across from each other, to represent the two young men who showed up and asked the disciples why they were looking up.  Like everything elsed in Jerusalem, it, too, has been altered to adhere to the preferences of Jerusalem varied and changing politics.  First, the Muslims turned it into a mosque, then the Crusaders turned the outside wall into an octogon, and put a dome on the shrine itself.  Somewhere along the way, no one knows, a stone with an indentation has come to be considered the footprint Jesus left behind as his last foot left the earth.  Early pilgrims report that Jesus' footprints were visible on the surface of the site, and that each year on Ascension Day, when all the Christians gathered to celebrate the feast, exactly at noon, a great wind would arise and scour the entire place, but the footprints would always remain.  You may  decide how much of that you choose to believe.  Here is what it looks like today.

Jesus' footprint (left one, I was told)

Today, we were up really early to make the trip to Caesarea Maritima, the site of the Roman Capitol during the 600+ years that Rome and Bzyantium ruled Palestine as a Roman province.  Its significance for the course is that, after Jeusalem, Caesarea Maritima was probably the most influencial city in the spread of the Gospel message to the rest of the world.  For one thing, it had the only harbor from which ships could sail to distant lands.  Pontius Pilate, as governor of Palestine lived there (he only went to Jerusalem when he had to).  Paul spent two years there in custody, and left from there to go Rome on his apeal to Caesar.  Cornelius the Centurion and his family and friends became the first gentile converts to Christianity, after Peter had a vision in nearby Joffa (our Jewish friends say that this is when Judism and Christianity split, and maybe their are right) and we know that Phillip the Deacon was transported there.   This was a massive and impressive city!  Herod the Great built it as a present and thank you to Caesar Augustus, and everything had to be perfect. It had all the necessities of the Roman city, a theatre, a hippadrome for charriot raced, gymnasium, baths, and a huge temple to Caesar, himself.  No one has any record of a synagogue.  Herod's faith was in getting and staying on top.  He didn't have much time for anything that didn't work toward that end.  

Hippodrome, today.

Some contemporary stand-ins!

Herod also had an elaborate palace there.  He strared with nothing but the ambition to provide the most lavish present that anyone could every imagine, and he succeeded.  Unfortunately, nature will prevail.  The sandy sea floor ultimately could not provide the stability needed to maintain the harbor, and earthquakes knocked down much of the rest.  Of course, Caesarea was retaken and rehabilitaed by the Crusaders who used it as a major port of entry for their campaigns and they left many distinguishing signs of their passing, including the handsome city gate seen here.

Today, Caesarea is a major recreation area, with swimming, fishing, boating, golf and all the rest.  It may have been a poor place for a habor and a show place, but it is still a great place for a resting day by the sea.

The course finishes officially with breakfast in the morning, but we had our "graduation" ceremonies and farewell dinner this evening.  Several van loads have left already, and there will be a few more tomorrow.  There are also a few, like me, who will be hanging around a little longer.  I still have a few things I need to do, and one or two curiosities, I'd like to satisfy.  For today,

Vale!