Christian pilgrims. Jewish tour guide.

During the meeting, Father Artemio told the Italian pilgrim group, readers of the Italian newspaper "Il Giornale", that perhaps within a few years there would be no more Christian residents in the Holy Land. The evening prior to that, we had had a public mass in Saint Savior's Church and so the audience was already acquainted with Fra Artemio Vittores, a charismatic Franciscan priest who is also the Vicar of the Custodian of the Holy Land. The words of Fra Artemio, accompanied by statistics, shocked the audience deeply.

Important Christian religious leaders do not always make time to address and pray with groups of Christian pilgrims coming to Israel, however when it can be organized these encounters not only add a bit of magic to the moment but accompanying magic there are also new and surprising intuitions to be gained. Thus, for example, the subject of the loaded encounter between the Christian pilgrim to the Holy Land and the Jewish Israeli guide was raised.

A very short time after Christian pilgrims land at Ben Gurion Airport, the question that will accompany the entire trip like a shadow rises to the surface: Do you, the guide, our guide, the one who leads us from place to place in this sacred geography, do you believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Or, with greater directness, are you a Christian? When the answer to the question is not exactly what the pilgrim expects, a certain dismay might set in, a misunderstanding or even a disappointment. When support and assistance extended to Christians in the Holy Land becomes a part of the journey, dealing with a Jewish guide becomes an even more complicated matter.

The pilgrim who arrives in Israel does not relate to Israel as a political and sovereign entity but rather primarily as "the Holy Land". Terra Santa. The Holy Land is the reason, sacred geography is the itinerary and the last days of the life of the Messiah, a small scale Easter, these being the peak moments that the Christian pilgrim is in search of. The proximity of the Christian pilgrim to God, to Jesus, to Mary, to the saints and to the martyrs, through the Holy Spirit and by means of their very presence in the Holy Places can and must be strengthened during a visit to the Holy Land.

However, people do not live in a vacuum and they are inevitably clients of the media, knowing to some extent our political and security situation. The problem is that their knowledge is superficial and its source is in television screens and newspaper headlines. Therefore, these tourists express great surprise to see an Israeli Jewish guide who works in full and creative harmony with an Arab driver or visa versa. Consequently, they are uncertain how to deal with the human, social and economic coexistence of Arabs and Jews in general and they are completely confused when exposed to the mixed cities and the Arab rural areas in Israel in particular.

Usually, the tour guide will survey the geography of Israel and the Territories and will show the Oslo Accords on a map, Area A, Area B, Area C in the Territories and will also explain something about the Arabs of the Galilee and the Triangle, a little about Zionism and Jewish settlement history. Despite this, it is common to hear pilgrims visiting Nazareth, Haifa, Jaffa or Acre, not to mention Jerusalem, asking whether this is Area A or Area B, whether this is Israel or Palestine? But let us not get confused even momentarily: this is not a political issue or anything to do with the borders of the country, but rather the Christian pilgrim's lack of understanding of the very possibility of Arab towns and settlements inside Israel or the existence of mixed cities. The reason is that no one ever told him or her that there exist options such as these. For the Western, European pilgrim the concept of "Israeli Arabs" or even more so "Israeli Christian Arabs" sounds bizarre, if not foreign and even impossible or at least extremely problematic. Are not Arabs Muslims? And an Israeli is surely a Jew?... And here we have, therefore, a first lesson of quality that every tour guide can offer to Christian pilgrims in Israel, without any connection to whether the tour guide be a Jew, a Christian or a Muslim.

We were not even able to conclude the admirable lesson about coexistence, peace, and common economics before we encounter a strong blow from a completely unexpected direction: the passage to Bethlehem. For Israelis and for Palestinian residents of Israel or the Territories, the Israeli security barrier, the wall, the separation fence, is a reality that imprisons each one of us within one of the two opposing sides. Few are the local people, Israelis or Palestinians, who are permitted to move freely between the two sides of the barrier. Tourists, pilgrims, foreigners and holders of all kinds of weird and wonderful identity cards are the lucky ones, almost the only ones of their generation, for whom the fence and the wall are pure "formalities"; a short security check and they can pass back and forth between the two sides.

Perhaps simply a procedural matter but how does the Israeli Jewish guide explain to the group of believing Christian pilgrims the existence of the dividing wall, a cold, dangerous, threatening concrete wall at the entrance to the native city of the innocent child, the source of benevolent light for the entire Christian world? It is not simple and is a harsh blow to the attempt to defend both coexistence and shared life.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the heart of Jerusalem might also be the source of an experience that can be frustrating and difficult for the Christian pilgrim.

"One expects the central shrine of Christendom to stand out in majestic isolation, but anonymous buildings cling to it like barnacles. One looks for numinous light, but it is dark and cramped. One hopes for peace, but the ear is assailed by a cacophony of warring chants. One desires holiness, only to encounter a jealous possessiveness: the six groups of occupants - Latin Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Armenians, Copts, Syrian and Ethiopians - watch one another suspiciously for any infringement of rights."

(Father Jerome Murphy O' Connor OP, Ecole biblique in Jerusalem)

One of the greatest and most immediate dangers for the tour guide standing before tourists in general and pilgrims in particular is to slide into political debate. It has already been emphasized that the Christian pilgrim is not particularly interested in political borders and the security and inter-religious problems of Jerusalem. The pilgrim is not especially interested in the problems of Israelis or in those of the Palestinians. Indeed, even if this might be surprising, the pilgrim is not even interested in the complex Status Quo in the Christian Holy Places. If it might be said, the latter subject might even cause real anger and distraction because the main interest and the chief reason for the Christian pilgrim's coming to the Holy Land is the centuries old tradition of pilgrimage and spiritual gravitation to the sites of sacred geography, communion with God and with the Lord, the Christ the son of David. The foremost purpose of the visit is, thus, a very religious and yet also a very personal experience.

Modern pilgrimage is easier than it was in the past: only a few hours flight, luxury tourist bus, comfortable hotel and a State of Israel that has anchored in its declaration of independence freedom of religion and worship. If the Christian believer is interested in something about local politics, statesmanship, local agreements and accords, then it is uniquely connected to the human suffering that impedes the experience of the visit within the context of a lack of loving kindness. This, it seems, is the way of the world, even if this is indeed a very superficial way of the world.

Let us return now to the question of whether the experience of the visit in "Terra Santa", the Holy Land, is harmed by the fact that the guide is not a fellow traveler, that he does not believe in the Good News. He is not a Christian. There is a very clear borderline up to which point one might propose to Christian pilgrims a sophisticated, allegorical, theological and exegetical reading of the Holy Scriptures. The believing pilgrim comes here in order to experience first hand not just the holiness of the Christian Messiah but also to embrace a thousands of years' old tradition of pilgrimage and pilgrims, an array of living churches and the remnants of ancient ones. The exegetical, metaphysical, divine Jesus and Old Testament prefigurations the pilgrim can find anywhere in the world if he or she is interested, but for this the pilgrim does not need to come to the Holy Land as there are enough research institutes and directed reading seminars of the Scriptures in his or her country of origin. The pilgrim comes here, to the Holy Land, to touch the stones, knowing that along these same trails Jesus, his mother and his disciples walked, on these same beaches of the Sea of Galilee Jesus and Peter grilled fish after the Resurrection, that in this very church the miracle of the bread and the fish was carried out, on these very waters Jesus appeared walking, and on these same waters, upon which he sailed, the Messiah quieted the storm by reprimanding it after he awoke. Here and here again and there many miracles took place, and here he reprimanded his disciples and there he supported, helped, taught and told his parables. Here Jesus was raised from the dead, there, on the mountain, the Lord met the men of Galilee and from here he ascended into heaven, returning home to his Father after he had descended from heaven for our salvation. This is the heart of the matter. This is the heart that beats in the breast. A real physical experience!

And so, here comes the tour guide, a Jew himself, with all the years of a weighty story that separates him from the Christians, and he tells of the miracles and wonders of the Son of God, derived from the very being of the Father, describing with enthusiastic precision the journeys and wonders of the Messiah in the Holy Land and then it transpires that he himself does not believe. This is a terrible paradox at the very peak of a deep Christian experience, touching the holy remains and stones that make for the desired communion with the Lord, with the Holy Spirit, with the other saints in "the true place". Spontaneously, the Christian pilgrim might say to himself: Here is the proof! Here are the stones, the churches, here are the places that we have been told about in the Gospels and in the Acts and in the Epistles. Now I understand better the Holy Scriptures, really "one on one" - not just an academic, "neutral" geography but rather a sacred geography! True! Can it be then that in this place, this very person who has led us down these holy trails in the Holy Land, the land of Jesus and the apostles, does not believe himself? This is a rather pessimistic matter that can ruin the entire experience.

Father Murphy O' Connor is not pessimistic and, as far as I can see, does not see the paradox. Up to this point, we have heard only the first part of his words. His proposal for a solution is clear and it derives from the comments he made about the situation of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher:

"The frailty of humanity is nowhere more apparent then here; it epitomizes the human condition. The empty who come to be filled will leave desolate; those who permit the church to question them may begin to understand why hundreds of thousands thought it worthwhile to risk death or slavery in order to pray here."

The Jewish guide can then be a bridge. A bridge between faith and its sources in the Holy Land. Between Christianity and its sources. He should be a bridge of tolerance and he should help to bring the Christian pilgrim physically to the traditional places in which Christ walked, in which he lived, spoke, preached, taught, told parables... He should help the believing Christian pilgrim to visit those places in which the perfect and innocent baby was born, to the places in which he taught, spoke, did miracles, told parables, to the sites of prophecy, to the place where he was betrayed, arrested, humiliated, where he suffered in the days of Pontius Pilate, where he was buried. He should bring the pilgrim physically to the place where our Christ rose from the dead on the third day as was written, and where he ascended into heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father. For the believer these are not vain matters but rather very physical matters indeed, through them and by means of them every believing pilgrim can find his or her own way.

Even if the knowledge of the tour guide is vast, his formation long and exhausting in many different areas, he is not a spiritual pastor and we cannot see him as such. The spiritual work, support and aid to Christian faith must be sought elsewhere it would seem.

I opened with the words of Fra Artemio, the Vicar of the Custodian of the Holy Land, I continued with the words of Father Murphy O' Connor, both of them prominent priests responsible, each in his own way, for central institutions of learning in Jerusalem and both of them addressing real physical crises. Fra Artemio explained the desperate circumstances of the Christian community in the Holy Land and Father Murphy O' Connor, even if he is not enthusiastic about the present situation, ended on a more spiritual note. The expectation is that clerics and priests might help us in a search for answers to our crises and our spiritual experiences and that they might even celebrate mass for pilgrims in the places that connect most strongly between metaphysical holiness and sensory experience. They too are the one who will point out the significance of the visit and the support for continuity and prosperity of pilgrimage in the Holy Land, for the support of the communities of "living stones" and they are the ones who must pray together with us for the success of the processes of reconciliation among the residents of this divided land.