Going Up to Israel

The two disciples...said to him, “Rabbi...where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see” (John 1:37-39).

When I told a Jesuit priest friend that we were going up to Israel again after so many years he expressed surprise. Asked what I could bring him from the Holy Land he answered softly, “Bring me a glimpse of God.” I wondered whether God could be found in identifiable form in the hectic, secular, modern, colorful and complicated swirl which is Israeli society, and wished he had asked for a different souvenir.

At first, I looked for God in the obvious places, in the sites holy to Jews, Christians, or Muslims. These places are stacked one atop another, details of three monotheistic faiths juxtaposed and jumbled together. Sacred places seemed reasonable repositories for traces of God. Yet, I might as well have looked for ashes from the burning bush.

We had gone up to Jerusalem to visit Fr. David Neuhaus, S.J., after encountering him in Indiana, USA, at the Annual Meeting of our Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, in September 2012. Before he spoke to the Knights we had known nothing about the kehillot to which he ministers and we wanted to learn more about Hebrew speaking Catholic Christians. He invited us to come and see. As soon as we could make arrangements we went up to Israel.

With great generosity Fr. David and the men in his house welcomed us into their home and their lives. We joined them at morning prayers and evening Mass, at meals, at study. We sang with them, laughed with them, and tried desperately to learn some Hebrew. Fr. David, Fr. Piotr, and Benny Di Bitonto accompanied us to visit and explore Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Haifa, Jaffa, Tel Aviv and Beer Sheba. Kirill fussed over us and our needs. We prayed with some of the kehillot and joined with them at Mass. As the period of Lent began, we received ashes with the community at the Beer Sheba kehilla.

We are back home in Michigan now after a busy week spent acquainting ourselves with the people and places of the Hebrew Speaking Catholics in Israel. I found a glimpse of God – not in the ancient stones or the beautiful and solemn holy places. I found it among the people who gather in the kehillot to worship and praise the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Their faithfulness, kindness, love and patience were shown to us at each encounter. I long to return to them and the Vicariate House soon.

Cia Lakin
(Lady Cecilia J. Lakin LHS)
West Bloomfield, Michigan, USA