There is a man from Nazareth...

...they call The Rising Sun.

On the Feast of Christ the King (a few weeks ago), one of the antiphons for Morning Prayer was, "Behold a man whose name is 'The Rising Sun'..." So of course that made me think of something else called 'The Rising Sun'. The resulting rewrite of a certain song by 'The Animals' can be seen below. Today seemed an appropriate day to inflict it on the world, given that we come to the Great O Antiphon that begins, "O Rising Sun..."

There is a man from Nazareth
they call The Rising Sun;
He's been the friend of many a poor boy,
and, God, I know I'm one.

His mother was a maiden,
filled with the Holy Breath;
she listened to an angel's voice,
down in Nazareth.

Now the only thing this sinner knows
is where to go for aid;
and the only time I'm satisfied
is when my ransom's paid.

O Mary, tell your children,
please do what I have done,
please give your life to Jesus Christ,
'cos He is God's own Son.

He's got one foot on the dry land,
the other on the sea;
He left His home in Nazareth,
to set His people free.

There is a man from Nazareth
they call The Rising Sun;
He's been the friend of many a poor boy,
and, God, I know I'm one.

Why has no one thought of this before?

Maybe they have; but a brief search of the internet hasn't turned anything similar up. So I thought I'd put my effort out there, hopefully to the enjoyment of a few people.

Look to my coming at first light on the fifth day

As the liturgy gets us closer and closer to Christmas, the Benedictus antiphon this morning was, "Do not be afraid. You will see our Lord on the fifth day."

Which, of course, reminds me of this:

Another case where Tolkien was being consciously or unconsciously Catholic in his writing?

As he himself said, "The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision."

Bethlehem: First Impressions

By chance, if chance you call it, I managed to visit Bethlehem a few days before Donald Trump's announcement about Jerusalem kicked off some trouble in the West Bank. I haven't visited there since (although the trouble wasn't as bad as the impression often given by the international news), so these first impressions are based on one visit only so far. Hopefully I'll be there for the Christmas Midnight Mass, however.

Bagpipes
As we were driving into Bethlehem I noticed a shop selling musical instruments that had one whole window taken up with an advert for bagpipes. That was the first indication I had that bagpipes are a thing in Bethlehem. And as it happened that day there was a special procession celebrating the beginning of Advent, where I saw that their marching bands clearly owe something to Scottish influence.

Banksy
The famed undercover graffiti artist has left his mark on Bethlehem, although it's often hard to be sure which is his work and which is just inspired by him.

Beer
It so happens that my visit to Bethlehem featured my first taste of beer in the Holy Land (wine being the main drink on offer in the Jerusalem friary). I recommend this Palestinian brew:

Door, small
I had of course heard of the rather small door that one has to stoop through to enter the Basilica of the Nativity - the idea being to remind us that in the Incarnation God was "stooping down from heaven to earth". But it was still surprising to see people queuing to enter such a large church through such a small opening.

Ecumenism, Franciscan style
Because of the aforementioned celebrations for the beginning of Advent, the Franciscans of the Holy Land were out in force. We had a good chat with some brothers from different branches of the Order in the courtyard of St Catherine's Church (next door and attached to the Basilica).

Hills
Jerusalem is hilly enough, but Bethlehem and the country around it seems even more up-and-down and rugged. One can easily see how grottoes in the hillsides would frequently lend themselves as shelter for people like shepherds or a travelling family.

Occupation
Although life in Bethlehem can seem sort of normal, there were occasional little reminders that it is in occupied territory. Like having to drive through checkpoints, of course. Or a banner welcoming us to Bethlehem and asking us to pray for a free Palestine. Or this little banner informing us about some of the ongoing consequences of the occupation:

Tartan
As you may have seen from the videos above, bagpipes weren't the only Scottish element left behind after the British Mandate in Palestine.

Traffic
While not quite being up to Indian levels of hair-raising, the Bethlehem traffic was quite crowded, pushy, and noisy. And pedestrians seemed quite happy to compete with cars for space rather than be so boring as to walk on the pavement.

Wall
OK, so Jerusalem has walls as well; but this Wall separating Israel (or annexed Palestinian territory) from Palestine is rather different. It is big, grey, forbidding, and obviously has a big practical impact on the lives of the people in Bethlehem. It also had a practical influence on us, as we got lost trying to find the way along it to one of the few checkpoints.

Water
I mentioned the shortage of water among my first impressions of Jerusalem. But the problem is even more acute in Bethlehem. The Presentation Sisters (whom I have to thank for the beer mentioned above) told us that when the water comes on they have to fill their water tanks, because you never know whether the supply will continue.

Wine
From water to wine (via the normal, everyday miracle involving vines, photosynthesis, and fermentation): on the way into Bethlehem we stopped at a vineyard belonging to the Salesian Order, at a place known as Cremisan, to buy some wine. Their 'Star of Bethlehem' dry red wine is our favourite table wine.

If Aragorn's nickname was Biker instead of Strider...

...this would be his bike.

Perhaps not the kind of thing you'd expect to see in a backstreet of the Old City of Jerusalem. But then again, why not? Minas Tirith and Jerusalem have long been associated in my mind.
I guess the owner of the bike was in this tattoo shop that has a pedigree going back 700 years.

Cats

In an earlier post I mentioned that I seemed to be seeing a lot of cats in Jerusalem; but added the caveat that this might me just a subjective impression.

Well, now I'm quite convinced that it wasn't just subjective.

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.

Jerusalem: First Impressions (Part 2)

Here continues my alphabetical jumble of initial observations and thoughts from my first six days in Jerusalem.

Languages

Because of the gathering of nations, all kinds of languages can be heard. But the main languages are Hebrew, Arabic, and English. And in fact all the street signs are in those three languages. Which is helpful for trying to pick up again my reading of Hebrew script, for a start. So far I have only a handful of words in Hebrew or Arabic that I can speak.

Mary

What I said in the previous post about feeling closer to Jesus can mostly apply also to Mary. And her imprint on Jerusalem is more marked than I expected, with shrines marking the (reputed) places where she was born, died, and was buried. She’s no bit-player. Even the imam who gave me a copy of the Qur’an encouraged me to start with the chapter headed ‘Mary’.

Muslims
Islam is also no bit-player in Jerusalem. After all, the city was under Muslim control for most of the last 14 centuries. There is still a large Muslim population in the Old City, and pilgrims come to the Dome of the Rock from all over the world. Other sites, like the place of Christ’s ascension, remain in Muslim hands.

Olive

There are olive trees all over the place, although there isn’t much room for them in the more crowded parts of the Old City, as well as olive oil, olives themselves, and items made of olive wood. I’m here at the end of the olive season, and I was sad to see that the olive trees in the parks are just left to shed their fruit on the ground.

Peace
‘Jerusalem’ means ‘tower of peace’; but for much of its history it has not lived up to its name. The shadow of war still looms over the city. I didn’t at first see many soldiers around, but that changed over the last couple of days (I’m not sure why), and there is always a strong police presence. From little monuments around the place, and overheard commentary from tour guides, I also gather that the recent military history of Jerusalem is very significant for the Jews. They (or many of them, anyway) see the current situation as the result of a war of independence and liberation. But, like everyone else, they realise that war isn’t quite over yet. The day-to-day reality in Jerusalem itself is people living side-by-side in peace, and that holds out a hope of what might be possible. But it’s a wary peace.

Sabbath
I thought that Sabbath would be a very quiet day. But while most businesses would be closed, there were plenty of people out and about. It seems the Sabbath is a day for families to go out walking together. And in the Old City most of the shops were still open, run as they were by Muslims or Christians. With each religion having a different day off, the city never really stops.

Sparrows

Plenty of sparrows around, which keeps bringing to my mind the words, “Even the sparrow herself finds a home…” So it was especially delightful to see some of them chirruping and flying in and out of the bushes that grow on the Western Wall, all that remains of the Temple.

Sunday

Because of Muslim Friday prayers and the Sabbath on Saturday, Sunday is like Monday – the beginning of the working week.

Warmth

Daily temperatures have been consistently around 20C, and it doesn’t get particularly cold at night. Apparently some sort of winter will get here eventually, but right now it isn’t much different from summer for me.

Water

Although we have water on tap, and there is a lot of greenery around, there are reminders that water is a scarce resource. Like the general dryness of non-irrigated land (even the cacti are looking rather sorry for themselves) and signs warning us that the parks are irrigated with effluents. Along with the knowledge that the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee are shrinking due to irrigation, and that Palestinians don’t get their fair share of this resource, I feel quite conscious of all the water I use.

Western Wall

I enjoyed my visit to the Western Wall, although I was slightly disappointed that it didn’t live up to its popular name, ‘the Wailing Wall’. It was intriguing to see some structure that I could be certain Jesus had also seen and maybe even touched. But I wasn’t inclined to go up and touch it myself, still less to leave a prayer in the crevices of the wall, as is the custom. I just felt that that is for the Jews. Our Temple is something other. And again a verse of Scripture came to my mind: “You see all these buildings? I tell you that not one stone will be left standing on another.”

UPDATE: After two months in Jerusalem I have done a post correcting some of the above first impressions. You can read it here.