It is difficult to reach the Calvary in the Basilica of the Resurrection on Good Friday. The office starts at about 7.15 a.m. but at 7 o’clock the doors of the church are closed and the crowd is pressing at the entrance. When at last the double doors are opened, those who go in find the entrance to the Calvary blocked. The faithful can only enter after the choir, the celebrants and the Franciscans. There was continuous pushing and shoving, not very affectionately, although due to devotion! Not everyone will be able to go up to it, due to the lack of space. A group of Indonesian pilgrims are left below and they do not conceal their disappointment: “although we came very early.” For a Filipino worshipper on the other hand, “That’s not what matters, I’m already at the foot of Calvary.” There are several who, left at the foot of Calvary, make the best of the situation and try to join in the prayer as best as they can, some following the liturgical booklet, others reading the Bible or gripping a rosary. They cannot hear the reading of the Passion well from below where they are but they know the story. At least their prayers are marked by the songs of the choir of the Custody of the Holy Land, which is padded out throughout the Triduum by the voices of a German choir. Others decided to get close to the Empty Tomb which in fact is not empty because since the day before it has become the repository of the Very Holy Sacrament, although this remains inaccessible. “Once,” said Father Athanasius,” we would allow access to it, but then lots of groups used it for a visit rather than adoration, and this is not the time.” So the Russian nun waits patiently as she will only have a brief second to approach the Tomb in an exceptionally silent Holy Sepulchre, because the doors were immediately closed behind those pilgrims that slipped in at 7 in the morning. And the doors will stay closed until 10 a.m. Two tourists have been locked in and do not appreciate the joke: they had been warned, but it would have better to do so in a Slav language or they should have understood English, Italian or at least a bit of Greek as they were warned in all these ways!
Francesco knows that the conditions to experience the Eater Triduum in Jerusalem are like something out of Dante’s “Inferno” and perhaps the least suitable in the world to be able to pray on these holy days. “I try to forget about all the chaos around me to be able to relish the grace of being here, because it was here that the Salvation took place. Last night in the Garden of Gethsemane it was the garden of the Olives and I was in the Garden of the Olives. Here we remember the Passion which took place here. In no other place in the world can you experience this “here” and when I think of the millions of people who would like to have this grace of coming to the Holy Land just once in their lifetime, I cannot complain about the few efforts that the Holy Week requires, here in the Holy City”.
There are millions of people who would like to be in the place of the pilgrims in Jerusalem on these holy days and there are thousands of pilgrims. It is almost impossible to move in the streets in the Old City around the Holy Sepulchre and along the Via Dolorosa. Blessed is the Statu Quo and the traditions that allow making some order out of all the chaos. Then there are some who have chosen to keep their distance. Naturally there are many who decide to attend the Holy Week services in one religious community or another but on this Good Friday 2010, there are a thousand rather special pilgrims. A thousand Indians live in the State of Israel where they have come to work. The majority live in Tel Aviv or the surrounding areas, and the majority are here on their own, without their families – Israeli law does not allow family reunions. In general they all live in precarious conditions, often in fear when their visa expires and they stay illegally in the country, but this is the risk they take because what they earn here is very important for the families they have left behind in India.
Here they are all together, a lovely family of believers, in the Valley of Cedron (or Josaphat), where Pope Benedict celebrated Mass during his pilgrimage last May. There are about a thousand of them, who have come to follow the Via Crucis and listen to the Passion and their liturgy in Konkani, the official language of the state of Goa, is splendid. What makes it all the more beautiful is their faith, their numbers, their smiles and their joy. Many of them have a hard life, but they seem to be able to completely forget about it in their contemplation of Christ. An Indian priest passing through and three Franciscans animate the prayer, whilst a group of lay people conduct the singing and reading. They too are Christians of the Holy Land. Father Pra Veen de Souza, a student of the Flagellation has been their chaplain in Jaffa for a few months. He was the one to organize this moving event, to give them the grace of experiencing this “here” of the Holy Land.
All day long, and everywhere in the city, the different Churches, each with their own ritual, at the Holy Sepulchre, in the streets or in the parishes, all venerate the mystery of the Passion. In the Latin Catholic Church, but also in the Oriental one, it is the office of the funeral of Christ that is the most moving for the faithful. This year the Latin parish held a procession through the streets around the convent of St. Saviour, with the representation of the body of Christ. On its route, it also met the Greek Orthodox procession but which does not carry any statues, banned by the cult in favour of icons.
At the Holy Sepulchre, in the evening, the Custos presided the celebration of Christ’s funeral. The faith of all those present is moving: they throng to touch the statue. They all realize that the real body of Christ is already transfigured in the glory of the resurrection and that this statue is only an aid to remember that he really died, was rally buried and was really resurrected for eternity… but this mystery is part of Holy Saturday.
Mab
Francesco knows that the conditions to experience the Eater Triduum in Jerusalem are like something out of Dante’s “Inferno” and perhaps the least suitable in the world to be able to pray on these holy days. “I try to forget about all the chaos around me to be able to relish the grace of being here, because it was here that the Salvation took place. Last night in the Garden of Gethsemane it was the garden of the Olives and I was in the Garden of the Olives. Here we remember the Passion which took place here. In no other place in the world can you experience this “here” and when I think of the millions of people who would like to have this grace of coming to the Holy Land just once in their lifetime, I cannot complain about the few efforts that the Holy Week requires, here in the Holy City”.
There are millions of people who would like to be in the place of the pilgrims in Jerusalem on these holy days and there are thousands of pilgrims. It is almost impossible to move in the streets in the Old City around the Holy Sepulchre and along the Via Dolorosa. Blessed is the Statu Quo and the traditions that allow making some order out of all the chaos. Then there are some who have chosen to keep their distance. Naturally there are many who decide to attend the Holy Week services in one religious community or another but on this Good Friday 2010, there are a thousand rather special pilgrims. A thousand Indians live in the State of Israel where they have come to work. The majority live in Tel Aviv or the surrounding areas, and the majority are here on their own, without their families – Israeli law does not allow family reunions. In general they all live in precarious conditions, often in fear when their visa expires and they stay illegally in the country, but this is the risk they take because what they earn here is very important for the families they have left behind in India.
Here they are all together, a lovely family of believers, in the Valley of Cedron (or Josaphat), where Pope Benedict celebrated Mass during his pilgrimage last May. There are about a thousand of them, who have come to follow the Via Crucis and listen to the Passion and their liturgy in Konkani, the official language of the state of Goa, is splendid. What makes it all the more beautiful is their faith, their numbers, their smiles and their joy. Many of them have a hard life, but they seem to be able to completely forget about it in their contemplation of Christ. An Indian priest passing through and three Franciscans animate the prayer, whilst a group of lay people conduct the singing and reading. They too are Christians of the Holy Land. Father Pra Veen de Souza, a student of the Flagellation has been their chaplain in Jaffa for a few months. He was the one to organize this moving event, to give them the grace of experiencing this “here” of the Holy Land.
All day long, and everywhere in the city, the different Churches, each with their own ritual, at the Holy Sepulchre, in the streets or in the parishes, all venerate the mystery of the Passion. In the Latin Catholic Church, but also in the Oriental one, it is the office of the funeral of Christ that is the most moving for the faithful. This year the Latin parish held a procession through the streets around the convent of St. Saviour, with the representation of the body of Christ. On its route, it also met the Greek Orthodox procession but which does not carry any statues, banned by the cult in favour of icons.
At the Holy Sepulchre, in the evening, the Custos presided the celebration of Christ’s funeral. The faith of all those present is moving: they throng to touch the statue. They all realize that the real body of Christ is already transfigured in the glory of the resurrection and that this statue is only an aid to remember that he really died, was rally buried and was really resurrected for eternity… but this mystery is part of Holy Saturday.
Mab