After our day exploring Jerusalem, I was left sadly disappointed. Having only seen places the Catholic Church had turned into public memorials, I was skeptical as to whether or not we were going to see something authentic. The Mount of Beatitudes was its saving grace.
Overlooking the Sea of Galilee (and a banana farm?), atop the Mount of Beatitudes is a small nunnery, hotel, and coffee stand. However, each of these structures is spaced far enough apart from each other to not be that distracting. Lush flowers and shrubbery spills over the mount and tiny stone plaques each with their own beatitude accompany the pathway to the nunnery.
After walking the stone pathway to a spot overlooking the seascape, we listened to Professor Lee's devotion. He read from Matthew 5:3-12, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Our group sang 2 praise songs acapella and some people even joined in by the end of it.
Some of us decided to walk down the hill to the Sea of Galilee. The biggest problem with this was a rather spirited nun who insisted it was not possible to walk down unless we were hotel guests. She was wrong.
I decided to walk down by myself. If there is only one thing you get to do in Israel, meandering down the Mount of the Beatitudes path is unquestionably what it should be. I took the time to reflect, pray, and meditate upon.
It was at Galilee Jesus fed the 5,000 and walked on water, the very same water I swam in later that day. Perhaps we don't know the exact spot these things happen, but we were at least in the vicinity where they occurred. Even some of the landscape we see now was some of the landscape He saw then, and there is an odd reassuring beauty in that. Shalom.
No comments:
Post a Comment