by padre David M. Jaeger ofm | Summer 2010
They are not “monuments,” nor are they national or international, nor “artistic,” nor archaeological. The Holy Places are places of prayer and they witness to the faith. It seems obvious, but unfortunately this truth needs to be constantly repeated.
Almost everywhere in Christian countries, there is the feeling that too many holy places are today treated as “ruins” of what they once were, as a “past” gifted with a sense of magnificent achievements in architecture, music, painting and sculpture, high altars, vestments, reliquaries and crucifixes.
Thus all too often the only goal seems to be aesthetic enjoyment; they are, in practice, compared to the ancient Greco-Roman monuments. Sometimes, in the temples of Christianity, it happens that not a single priest is seen, only tourists and their well-read guides who speak of styles and schools, of “authentic” and “copied” works, of the Romanesque, the gothic or the baroque.…
The sadness in the heart of the believer at such a spectacle is similar only to the experience of a polyphonic Mass no longer performed as worship but in a concert hall. Or the resigned indignation at churches and monasteries no longer being places of praise and sanctification, but museums belonging to states and local governments, the only ones having the means to maintain them. Some governments even took possession some time ago of the property earlier donated to the Church for maintenance, so they might just as well now pay for it themselves. Also, in those countries the Church no longer has enough vocations to staff those places.
But in the Holy Land this should never be the case. Here, the Holy Places do not recall some local saint, but the great works of God, the very Mystery of the Redemption. Here are the Holy Places par excellence, the prime example of what a “holy place” is; in other words, a space transformed into an occasion of salvific grace.
Alas, not everyone understands this or wants to understand it which is why our vigiliance must be continuous.
Some years ago, the government of Israel declared as a “national park” the holy Mount Tabor – witness to the mystery of the Transfiguration – and has wished to do the same to the area of Capharnaum, Peter’s city that Jesus made his own.
Some plan to subordinate these and other Holy Places to UNESCO, as if they were “cultural monuments.”
In fact, these and other Holy Places are private property of the Church bought over centuries at great sacrifice. At additional sacrifice, they are being built up, administered and guarded by the Franciscan Friars – or, in other cases, by other Catholic bodies.
The Church implacably opposes designs to take over the Holy Places, in whole or in part. The resources given by the faithful from around the Catholic world and the generous dedication of the Franciscan missionaries (along with others) should permit the Church to provide for itself. This is urgently needed so that, at least here, the Holy Places remain what they are: places for a meeting in time with Jesus Christ, the Divine Person who wanted to come and live in our dimension of space and time.
This does not mean we do not want to welcome all who wish to visit these Places consecrated by the Redeemer of humanity. On the contrary, we warmly invite them, provided only there is no ambiguity about what they are coming to visit and about Whom they are coming to meet.