“Lent is a time of renewal for the whole Church, for each community and every believer.” — Pope Francis
As the Lenten season begins on Ash Wednesday, March 5, my heart and mind will return to a 1999 fellowship in Israel and Jordan when the Lenten and Holy Week scriptures gained multi-sensory elements with a personal spiritual link unlike any experienced on other fellowships. Within the academic focus in Israel, connections between a location and its role in familiar Biblical accounts were irresistible.
Packing for this fellowship, a Study Bible was chosen instead of a tiny travel-sized New Testament. The Study Bible’s ample concordance enabled quick reference for finding passages relevant to our locales in Israel.
One day when we left the site of Saint Peter’s house on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, we were especially delighted to board a replica of the fishermen’s boat for a trip across the sea to the southern shore.
A wonderful day for sailing and this, the only craft on the water. Warm sun with a gentle breeze, calm cerulean waters, cloudless sky. Under a lightweight screen, our group sat comfortably on benches around the boat’s perimeter.
As we got underway, the concordance led me to the relevant scriptures. A group of colleagues gathered closer on the benches, one of them suggesting, “If you read aloud, we’d like to hear.”
I read quietly and worked our way through the Sea of Galilee passages. When I finished, one of the colleagues began to sing hymns softly and we joined in.
Unimaginably blessed time.
Our fellowship ended in Jerusalem with in-depth study at all the sites we would have hoped to visit.
In Old Jerusalem, we visited the hilltop Golgotha, site of Jesus’s crucifixion. The area, devoid of any barrenness of the Biblical account, has tightly clustered ancient buildings dominating every space. Merchants and tourist crowds around.
The buildings are owned or under the authority of various Christian sects. The building housing the actual crucifixion site is ornate outside and inside with another elaborate enclosed structure marking the cross’s location. Incense fills the air.
Outside in the small mall, adjacent buildings appear connected, owned by other sects. The second floor of one of the buildings was owned by one sect; the building’s first floor, by another sect. The owners of the second floor had no access to enter or exit their area…except with two very long, slim ladders reaching from the mall level up to the second-floor windows. When a person mounted the climb, it seemed a very precarious venture.
Sectarianism dominates much of any holy site in Israel. Sectarianism at first might seem understandable, then distracting, then disappointing, then sadly unchristian.
That day we also spent time at the Via Della Rosa, the Way of the Cross; Jesus’s climb up the hill carrying his cross.
At the foot of the road, our scholar-guide pointed out that over the succeeding centuries many layers of maintenance added substantial elevation from the original Biblical area. This was the building where Jesus was imprisoned and tortured and where he began his climb with his heavy cross, but we were standing several stories above the actual site.
We set out on the climb ourselves. The buildings, close by on each side, were brilliant white reflecting the blazing sun. The road, limited to walkers, had been paved recently. Sandal footprints had been pressed into the fresh cement to replicate Jesus’s path.
Remembering the agony of His Climb, my mind escaped into poetry.
On the Via Della Rosa in Old Jerusalem
“Jesus, see me walking
Where your feet have trod?
Jesus, see me place my foot
In the print of God?
Jesus, I was wondering,
Is this my path, too?
Am I where I’m needed?
Am I serving you?”
“Come, child, find my true prints;
They are over here,
Ever clearly visible,
Ever surely near.
See them with the hungry,
Naked, thirsty, scared.
See them in the prisons;
Come, child, I am there.
Walk my way today, child.
Follow in my path.
I am here to guide you
On to heav’n at last.”
J. J. Harris
Summer, 1999
Israel-Jordan Fellowship
Judy Harris is well established in Northern Kentucky life, as a longtime elementary and university educator. A graduate of Thomas More, she began her career there in 1980 where she played a key role in teacher education and introduced students to national and international travel experiences. She has traveled and studied extensively abroad. She enjoys retirement yet stays in daily contact with university students.