Thoughts from Father John MacInnis

July 29, 2010
Today is Friday, a day when the old city of Jerusalem will swell with crowds of Muslims going to prayer during the day and tonight our Jewish companions will take us to Shabbat services. Friday is the day Christians recall the death of Jesus Christ. For Father Jim O'Driscoll, Father Sean Maher and me, today began at 6:30 AM when we celebrated Mass in our small hotel room.


The heart of this daily priestly ritual is the dying and raising of Jesus. Later we'll walk the Via Dolorosa with our group. Jim and Sean will lead the Stations of the Cross, recalling 14 points along the route Jesus took to his death and burial. We will end up at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which tradition holds marks the place where Jesus died and was buried.
Our morning lecture was a lecture on "Ethics in the Field" by an Israeli colonel. During his explanation of how soldiers are trained to avoid civilian casualties when responding to terrorists, the colonel received a call on his cell phone. He was told that a missile had been fired from Gaza into the city of Ashkelon. He continued his lecture but suddenly I feel -- and I'm sure others felt -- that the reality of the violence we've been talking about has become uncomfortably closer. A little while later, on the bus, Rabbi David Lerner got a call from a friend in Ashkelon. She tells him the missile landed not far from her home. Terrorism feels much closer, more personal. During the day, as we pray at the Western Wall I lay my hand on the ancient stones and pray for peace with terror. When we were entering the Old City, I read aloud from Psalm 122 "Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem" I have prayed this so many times as a Priest. Today I prayed with deeper emotion and urgency. I recall that the death of Jesus outside the walls of this ancient city was the sacrifice which God's own son, his beloved, made of himself to save us from sin and death. His story does not end with but new life after his resurrection. When, I asked myself, will the dying in this land be transformed into new life? When, I pray will this land, so holy yet so wounded over centuries, become a place where believers can dwell in worship in peace with God and with each other?