The Hero's Quest

Today's Gospel reading was the episode where Jesus, travelling up from Jericho, comes in sight of Jerusalem and weeps over it: "If you in your turn had only understood on this day the message of peace! But, alas, it is hidden from your eyes!" So, as you do, I decided to toddle over to the Mount of Olives to the place where this happened.

The church of Dominus Flevit ('the Lord wept') is probably not in the precise spot that Jesus shed his tears; but it's a good a guess as any, given that it sits more or less on the route that Jesus would have taken coming up from Jericho and has a good view of Jerusalem. The church is so oriented that it points directly towards the site of His crucifixion and resurrection, thus indicating the purpose of Jesus' journey.

The life of Jesus went as swift and straight as a thunderbolt. It was above all things dramatic; it did above all things consist in doing something that had to be done. It emphatically would not have been done, if Jesus had walked about the world forever doing nothing except tell the truth... The primary thing that he was going to do was to die... the story of Christ is the story of a journey, almost in the manner of a military march; certainly in the manner of the quest of a hero moving to his achievement or his doom.

(G. K. Chesterton, 'The Everlasting Man', Part 2, Chapter 3)

The cross behind the altar in the Dominus Flevit church lines up with the Holy Sepulchre (beyond
and slightly to the right of the golden Dome of the Rock) like the cross-hairs of a rifle's sights.

Having visited that church, I then went a little further up the Mount of Olives to the place where Jesus ascended into heaven. His quest was achieved.