Capernaum

When John the Baptist was arrested, and Jesus was rejected in his hometown of Nazareth, He went to Capernaum and made it His chief residence during His Galilean ministry. There He performed several miracles. He healed the mother in law of St. Peter and the Centurion's servant. He cast out devils, and called his apostles. He cured a paralyzed man. He withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth he went and dwelt in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Mt4:12-14. It was in Capernaum that Jesus also had many of His confrontations with the Pharisees, and it was in Capernaum that He even confronted his disciples when they had their discussion as to who would be the greatest. Jesus' exhortation? If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. Mk 9:35.

Jesus was accepted in Capernaum. There the people listened to Him. They saw His miracles, and they believed. His apostles heard his call, and they followed Him. Most astonishing and amazing of all was the centurion, Lord I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed. 8:8.

So there in Capernaum on the northwest shore of the sea of Galilee, we sat in the ruins of an ancient synagogue which some believe was built above the one where Jesus preached. We read from scripture and meditated on His words, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. Mt 4:17. It was another perfect autumn day. Earlier, we had walked the grounds, stopping to see the place where it is presumed the house of Peter's mother in law had once been.

The River Jordan

And when Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him: and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. Mt 3:16-17.

Like so many other landmarks in the Holy Land, the Jordan has its superlatives. The Jordan is a meandering river that takes 200 miles to flow a course of only 65, starting out as melting snow from Mount Hermon in the north, feeding the Sea of Galilee and another Lake Huleh, before finally ending up in the Dead Sea. It is the world's lowest river, reaching a depth of nearly 700 feet below sea level at the Sea of Galilee and 1,286 feet below sea level when it ends in the Dead Sea.

It is the most important river in Palestine and the most significant river in scripture. Who hasn't heard of Jesus' baptism by his cousin, John? Or of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, bathed in rays of light, as God introduces His Son? Most significant is the trinitarian event that occurred before so many present that is, the voice of God the Father and the sight of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Before Jesus' arrival on the scene, John was baptizing for the removal of sins, but Jesus was without sin and John was reluctant to baptize Him. Jesus' response, Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness Mt 3:15. For Christians, Jesus' anointing by the Holy Spirit and commissioning by God the Father is the cornerstone of our faith. It is the start of His ministry. From here on He proclaims the Kingdom of God.

We hurried to the Jordan in the evening, as the sun was beginning to set. Father was going to have us re-enact our baptism (for you are baptized only once), and as there were nearly forty of us in the group, he wanted to do this while there was still light. Naturally, I had not known what to expect, so I was surprised to see so many people there at that hour of the evening. Some were being completely immersed in the river; others were just having water poured over their heads. Many were wearing long white gowns. We looked like tourists, most of us wearing the yellow caps the guide had given us to wear so that he could find us easily and we could spot each other. We carried our cameras of course and all the other unnecessary stuff we had collected that day.

Father led us to a spot the guide indicated. We sat down facing the river, which looked very green to me after the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee . It was a peaceful river; I could barely detect its movement, and the cool breeze that was blowing was barely discernible. Had it been blowing harder, we would have felt cold.

Father asked me and another person to read from the gospel of Matthew. Then we said a prayer. We all took off our shoes and one by one, we stepped into the river. Taking a small amount of water in a conch he had brought for us, father poured water over our heads and prayed the baptismal prayer. We were so quiet, I could hear the silence.

Afterwards, I felt light as I do when I step out of the confessional. None of us said much. We were lost in our own reverie. We had just renounced Satan. What more can be said? Two thousand years ago, Jesus had allowed John to immerse Him in these very waters! I could almost hear John's voice, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. How awesome is that?

Jericho

After driving in the Judean desert for miles, we began to glimpse the fertile oasis in its midst. The patches of green in the middle of so much brown and gold were a soothing sight. We soon discovered that these were date-palm groves. This is why you can find the largest and most delicious dates in the world around Jericho. Seeing the change in the landscape helped me to understand what the Israelites must have felt when they saw it after wandering around in the desert for forty years. And to think that most of them were not even going to get to leave the desert! That's what they got for being such a "stiff-necked" people.

Jericho was an attractive place then and it is now because it was built around the Spring of Elsha, which releases some 1,000 gallons of water a minute. It was the winter home not only to Herod the Great (a title he gave himself) but to the last caliph of the Umayyad dynasty around 743 AD. It is also the lowest town in the world at 1200 feet below sea level.

But Jericho is notable for so much else. Jericho is the oldest place in the world, at least 10,000 years old. By the time Joshua conquered it for the Israelites, it was already an ancient city.

During the time of Elijah and Elisha, there was a school of prophets living in Jericho, and in the New Testament, Jericho was the home of Zacchaeus, the tax collector, who climbed the sycamore tree in Luke 19:1-10 to get a glimpse of Jesus. Jesus was just passing through Jericho when He looked up, saw Zacchaeus and told him, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today. Imagine that! In Jericho, Jesus healed the blind man, Bartimaeus (Matt 20:29-31), and the parable of the Good Samaritan was set on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.

There in Jericho, some of us took a cable car up to the Mount of Temptation, where Christian tradition holds that the devil tempted Jesus during Jesus' forty days in the desert. A beautiful Orthodox church is built at the site.

After lunch and an afternoon in Jericho, we boarded our bus for Jerusalem. We had much to ponder and meditate upon in Jericho, this ancient city that fits so prominently in our Biblical past. Most of us spent the rest of the journey into Jerusalem in quiet contemplation.

Mount Tabor

To get to Mount Tabor, we traveled by bus part of the way and then took a "very fast" moving van to the summit. The drivers could probably tell they were scaring us out of our wits as they wound their way around and up, but I tried to keep my mind on more significant things, and I prayed a lot!

Mt. Tabor is 1,500 feet above the Plain of Esdraelon, the biblical plain between Galilee and Samaria, where some major Old Testament battles took place. The Plain of Esdraelon or Jezreel was notably the place where Deborah and Barak defeated the forces of Jabin and Gideon defeated the Midianites. But most importantly, Mt. Tabor is believed by Christians to be the place where the miracle of Jesus' Transfiguration took place. If I am going to die, I thought, what better place than this!

In no time we were at the top and making our way to the Basilica of the Transfiguration, a magnificent church first erected in the 4th century and later enlarged by the Crusaders. But this one was not the original. This one has only been in existence since 1924. No matter, it is nevertheless magnificent.

Father celebrated Mass there. I had the privilege of doing one of the readings. Our Mass followed a beautiful Latin Mass celebrated by no fewer than twenty Franciscans. I did not take pictures of the Mass out of a sense of reverence and awe.

Afterwards, we wandered around the premises. I looked out at the Holy Land below and breathed in the crisp evening breeze. "Tabor rises up to Heaven like an altar that the Creator built to himself," I read somewhere. How true. In those moments, I was transported back through faith to witness the miracle of the Transfiguration.