Sunday, October 30, 2022

I can only hear the strong wind blowing. Some distance away is the oasis where everybody is still sleeping. I can see in the pale light of dawn a flock of sheep grazing. But what can they be grazing on, as I am merely surrounded by stones and dust? It is 5 o’clock in the morning and I am gazing at the sunrise in the heart of the Negev desert.
I suddenly thought of God’s dream of pitching his tent among us (Jn 1, 14). That was where it all started, in this desert, where he had called Abraham, in order to form him and prepare a people for his coming.

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

I am in front of an open door, my heart overwhelmed with emotion. It is here, in Nazareth, in young Mary’s house, that God’s dream came true. “Can anything good come from that place?” It is here that his Son Jesus lived the first day of his existence among us, the day he was the tiniest, in Mary’s womb, the day eternity entered time forever. Had Abraham foreseen such a wonder when his eyes were searching the stars in the desert nights, pondering over God’s mysterious promise to him?
“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

The following morning, we arrive in Bethlehem. The atmosphere is very different: Bethlehem is a big, lively city in Palestine territory, just beside Jerusalem. We can see the Wall of Shame, a grim remembrance of the tensions existing between Israel and Palestine. The concrete wall is 70 kilometers long, built in 2002 by the Israeli state to stop the Palestinian terrorist attacks. But at what price! A whole people is imprisoned, cheated, humiliated, forced into poverty.
I am reminded of all the wars in the world, in Myanmar, Ukraine, Nigeria and so many more places. Will armed conflicts never end? What has become of God’s dream?
Then, our eyes fall on some graffiti on the wall, picturing an icon of the Blessed Virgin. With teary eyes, I contemplate the woman who destroys walls to build bridges, the one who embraces all the children of God in her love, the mother of us all, poor sinners still wandering far from God. And I see signs of hope. Hope in the humble people who have chosen the way of peace and reconciliation.

We met some of those wonderful persons.
For example, the Melkite sisters of the Emmanuel, who have seen their convent property cut by the wall, and who welcome pilgrims, sowing forgiveness and joy around them.
Or Brother Oliver, an icon of Jesus’ love for all religions and political parties. He lives in Emmaus and has become the unavoidable witness to encounter at the end a pilgrimage in the Holy Land. He welcomes everybody equally, and his radiant faith works miracles of reconciliation. Even the Israelite government regularly sends him their young army recruits to listen to his words of peace!
And so many other men and women of God...

God’s victories will always be hidden from men’s eyes, like the birth of Jesus in a poor stable of Bethlehem. And as I am gazing at the star of David which marks the place where Mary gave birth to her son, I suddenly understand that, more than 2,000 years ago, Jesus was born here in order to be born one day in my heart. I understand that God’s dream will become
true if I allow it to be fulfilled in me. He wants to pitch his tent among men. He wants, this year again, to pitch his tent in me.

A BLESSED ADVENT SEASON! AND SOON, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

By Isabelle Bonasse, NdV

Isabelle Bonasse is a member of the Notre Dame de Vie Institute. She is French and has been volunteering in John de Britto English Center for the past two years. The above article is a reflection of her experience of visiting the Holy Land recently.