Why I want to go to the Israel this Summer (Part 3 of 3)

Continued on from Part 2

How can I Encounter Jesus in the Here and Now?

After Jesus stepped foot on Earth He changed everything. Jesus isn't just a Game-changer. He is the Author of the sport. He makes it what it is. The Mystery of Jesus' Incarnation changed the nature of our approach to encounter God. Pioneer and explorer He made way onto Earth so that we could literally meet God here and ever since nothing has remained the same.

The Annunciation of the Lord (Philippe de Champaigne, 1644)

Though Jesus expressed to the Woman at the Well (Jn 4) that it was not upon this mountain nor in Jerusalem that God was to be worshiped soon after it is fact that even Jesus worshiped upon that particular mountain and in Jerusalem. Jesus joined the human community of those worshiping God and worshiped here on Earth. 

"Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”

Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem." (John 4:20-21

While our worship is not tied down to a place here and now our every worship embraces a location, a place and a time. We pray from the heart yet that heart beats within a body in motion. We are not 'condemned' or "entombed in our bodies" as Plato and the Ancient Greeks spoke of. We are gifted with our bodies, made as one, in body and spirit.

Jesus also was Body and Spirit. His every movement was measured by duration and he took on the full measure of the human experience. He, though God, knew what it was to be a human being yet retaining every measure of His Divinity. This mystery is one that we'll never plumb. It will allude us to the Gates of Heaven.

So why Israel? To gain ground, to get one inch closer. To get to know Jesus better and to know His World, His Life, His People, and to fall in Love with Him ever more. That is my reason to travel there, experience His Mercy, and get to know the environs in which He became Him.

Sea of Galilee, 1900

View of Mount Tabor, Nazareth, Israel

Jerusalem Today

The Sacred Heart Experience

Throughout the course of this past year I have received the grace to accompany an elderly priest with Alzheimer's disease. Once a star soccer player he is now incapable of even bathing himself. He isn't capable of a conversations but he often repeats:

"Sacred Heart of Jesus...I trust in you!"

It has been a beautiful year, one in which I have learned how much we can learn to love Our Lord despite our smallness.

I've always been fascinated by Chapters 13 - 17 of St. John's Gospel. The Evangelist Saint John wrote them in his old-age and does not offer a chronological order of events - now having spent time with a senile octogenarian, one who has had much to teach me about life - I have begun to understand where, perhaps an order is missing but nonetheless a very deep experience is present.

This is an experience each Christian is called to - the Sacred Heart Experience. Below is an image of our Lord with His Sacred Heart which was scrawled onto the cement walls of a Polish Lieutenant who was awaiting his execution in Auschwitz. We can only imagine the thoughts that went through his mind as he awaited his iminent death. Sacred Heart of Jesus, I Trust in You!




Sacred Heart of Auschwitz
(more info)

Throughout our own lives we can grow in a Heart-to-Heart love for Jesus. That's true Christianity - not just dry words or some sort of intellectualism. It is a personal experience and personal response a Heart that calls out and says, each day as He said to St. Faustina:

Now, rest your head on My bosom, on My heart, and draw from it strength and power for these sufferings, because you will find neither relief nor help nor comfort anywhere else. Know that you will have much, much to suffer, but don't let this frighten you; I am with you. (Diary, 36)

To Hold my Author

I was first in line. To my right stood the 1700 year-old baptistery, behind me a line of over a hundred Brothers and behind them the beautiful mosaic-copy of Raphael's Transfiguration. To my left, as if in the distance, the Pietà, carved by Michaelangelo, maybe the most beautiful statue of Mary holding our Lord's lifeless body in her arms. Serenity, Love, Faith.

Before Mass

Before me stood open the famous (or infamous) "Door of Death". Nevertheless, In my hands I held the most important message of all, Life itself. With the immense crowds united at St. Peter's to celebrate the Eucharist the Holy See surprisingly requested seminarians to help give out Communion. Over two hundred Legionaries helped give communion in what seemed like the episode of the multiplication of the loaves. Walking into the Chapel where the Bl. Sacrament I discovered ciboria, not one or five but more like 200 with hosts waiting to be distributed.

I've had the chance to give the Eucharist several times often feeling so unworthy (other times not 'feeling' a thing) but nothing compared to waiting in line as the Celebration outside reached beyond the Consecration to step out into the Plaza and give the Body of Christ to the Mystical Body, his Church. I felt like a brand-new dad holding his brand-new son stepping outside. But in this case it was the Author of the Universe letting me hold Him in my hands.

Pope Francis during the Homily (B. Meza-photgraph)

Today the Pope gathered the many Ecclesial Movements and associations, everything from Opus Dei to the Charismatic Renewal, Marian prayer groups to my own Regnum Christi. The Church is Alive. You could not deny it seeing the 200,000+ people in the Plaza. I asked myself, What is the message here? Why was I asked to give Communion Pentecost Day? I have a feeling the message was to be sent by the Holy Spirit to share the Beauty of our Lord, as we should always do.

I can't wait to do it again...I guess I have all a life ahead of me for that.

PS: The Marian Pilgrimage was wonderful. I hope I can share some of those experiences soon. I carried your prayers with me.