My soul magnifies the Lord...

Our day was a little bit different today... We were off to Masada which doesn't have a lot of Christian history and then to Ein Kerem, the site of the Visitation and the home of John the Baptist.

Our opening reading was from the vision the prophet Ezekiel had...    

The angel brought me to the entrance of the Temple, where a stream came out from under the Temple threshold and flowed eastwards, since the Temple faced east.  The water flowed from the right side of the Temple, south of the altar.  He took me out by the north gate and led me right round outside as far as the outer east gate where the water flowed out on the right-hand side.  The man went to the east holding his measuring line and measured off a thousand cubits; he then made me wade across the stream; the water reached my ankles.  He measured off another thousand and made me wade across the stream again; the water reached my knees.  He measured off another thousand and made me wade across again; the water reached my waist.  He measured off another thousand; it was now a river which I could not cross; the stream had swollen and was now deep water, a river impossible to cross.  He then said, 'Do you see, son of man?' He took me further, then brought me back to the bank of the river.  When I got back, there were many trees on each bank of the river.  He said, 'This water flows east down to the Arabah and to the sea; and flowing into the sea it makes its waters wholesome.  Wherever the river flows, all living creatures teeming in it will live.  Fish will be very plentiful, for wherever the water goes it brings health, and life teems wherever the river flows.  Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit each month, because this water comes from the sanctuary.  And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal.'

So what is the Arabah? It is the Dead Sea. The vision is of the Dead Sea becoming fresh water and teeming with life... or is it? From the pierced side of Christ the waters of baptism flow so that those who have died might rise again to life. But there is a catch... and that will be realised later in this post.

Just before I left I realised by camera battery was almost flat... so I didn't have long enough to charge it and therefore didn't take photos of the Dead Sea as we travelled its length. We left in Jerusalem in heavy rain and the forecast is for more and we have been told that groups may not well get to the Masada tomorrow because of the rain falling on Jerusalem and the Judean mountains causing flash floods.

Another sad fact is the Dead Sea is dying. Israel, in particular, but also Jordan are taking water from the Jordan River for irrigation and so the Dead Sea is dropping at an alarming rate. A joint Jordanian-Israeli plan to construct a canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea to maintain its level has failed because the politicians are more interested in national gain rather than this international treasure.

Life demands that we look beyond self and self-interest for we do not live alone. We fail to look beyond self and self-interest we die and because of this the Dead Sea is dying.

So on to the fortress of Masada which was built by Herod the Great, the Herod who tried to kill the infant-Jesus. On top of this mountain he built two palaces for himself on the mountain and fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BC. 

In 66 AD the Jewish War, was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews against the Roman Empire, fought in Roman-controlled Judea, resulting in the destruction of Jewish towns, the displacement of its people as well as the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple and.

In 66, a group of Jewish rebels, the Sicarii, an extremist Jewish splinter group antagonistic to a larger grouping of Jews referred to as the Zealots, overcame the Roman garrison of Masada with the aid of a ruse. After the Romans destroyed of the Second Temple in Jerusalem  in 70 AD, additional members of the Sicarii fled Jerusalem and settled on the mountaintop. 

In 73 CE, the Roman governor of Judaea laid siege to Masada. The Roman legion surrounded Masada, building a circumvallation wall and then a siege ramp against the western face of the plateau. The ramp was complete in the spring of 73, after probably two to three months of siege, allowing the Romans to finally breach the wall of the fortress with a battering ram on April 16. The Romans employed the X Legion and a number of auxiliary units and Jewish prisoners of war, totaling some 15,000 (of whom an estimated 8,000 to 9,000 were fighting men), in crushing Jewish resistance at Masada. A giant siege tower with a battering ram was constructed and moved laboriously up the completed ramp. According to the Roman historian Josephus, when Roman troops entered the fortress, they discovered that its defenders had set all the buildings but the food storerooms ablaze and committed mass suicide or killed each other, 960 men, women, and children in total. Only two women and five children were found alive.

Masada bears witness to a world that wants to destroy faith, justice and peace.

Note the Roman wall around the site and the square shaped Roman camps

Model and diagram of Herod's northern palace. He only used it twice!

Looking to the Dead Sea

Remaining decoration and design of the bath house at Masada

One of the numerous water cisterns that made it possible to withstand the Roman siege

The Romans are coming!

The ramp they built still very evident after nearly 2000 of erosion

A Tristram's starling also known as Dead Sea starling or Tristram's grackle checking us out.

Piegeons for dinner

The Byzantine church from the years 580-600 AD

From Masada we headed to Ein Kerem and the two sites that relate to the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth and the birth of St John the Baptist.

In contrast to the violence of Masada the sites at Ein Kerem were sites of peace and beauty.

The Church of Saint John the Baptist is built at the site where Saint John the Baptist is believed to have been born.

In 1941–42 the Franciscans excavated the area west of the church and monastery. Here they discovered graves, rock-cut chambers, wine presses and small chapels with mosaic tiling. The southern rock-cut chamber contained ceramic datable to a period stretching from approximately the first century BC till 70 AD, an interval that includes the presumed lifetime of Zechariah, Elizabeth and John.

The interior of the church was largely scaffolded for repairs

The cave where John the Baptist was born...

In the days of King Herod of Judaea there lived a priest called Zechariah who belonged to the Abijah section of the priesthood, and he had a wife, Elizabeth by name, who was a descendant of Aaron. Both were worthy in the sight of God, and scrupulously observed all the commandments and observances of the Lord. But they were childless : Elizabeth was barren and they were both getting on in years.

Now it was the turn of Zechariah's section to serve, and he was exercising his priestly office before God when it fell to him by lot, as the ritual custom was, to enter the Lord's sanctuary and burn incense there. And at the hour of incense the whole congregation was outside, praying.

Then there appeared to him the angel of the Lord, standing on the right of the alter of incense. The sight disturbed Zechariah and he was overcome with fear. But the angel said to him, "Zechariah, do not be afraid, your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth is to bear you a son and you must name him John. He will be your joy and delight and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord; he must drink no wine, no strong drink. Even from his mother's womb he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, and he will bring back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God. With the Spirit and power of Elijah, he will go before him to turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the disobedient back to the wisdom that the virtuous have, preparing for a Lord and a people fit for him." Zechariah said to the angel, "How can I be sure of this ? I am an old man and my wife is getting on in years." The angel replied, "I am Gabriel who stand in God's presence, and I have been sent to speak to you and bring you this good news. Listen! Since you have not believed my words, which will come true at their appointed time, you will be silenced and have no power of speech until this has happened." Meanwhile the people were waiting from Zechariah and were surprised that he stayed in the sanctuary so long. When he came out he could not speak to them, and they realised that he had received a vision in the sanctuary. But he could only make signs to them, and remained dumb.

When his time of service came to an end he returned home. Some time later his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept to herself. "The Lord has done this for me," she said, "now that it has pleased him to take away the humiliation I suffered among people."

- Luke 1:5-25

The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son; and when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had shown her so great a kindness, they shared her joy.

Now on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; they were going to call him Zachariah after his father, but his mother spoke up, "No," she said, "he is to be called John." They said to her, "But no one in your family has that name," and made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called. The father asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, "His name is John." And they were all astonished. At that instant his power of speech returned and he spoke and praised God. All the neighbours were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judaea. All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. "What will this child turn out to be?" they wondered. And indeed the hand of the Lord was with him.

- Luke 1:57-66

Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy...

From there we passed Mary's Spring. According to a Christian tradition which started in the 14th century, the Virgin Mary drank water from this village spring, and here is also the place where Mary and Elizabeth met. Therefore, since the 14th century the spring is known as the Fountain of the Virgin. What looks like a spring is actually the end of an ancient aqueduct. The former Arab inhabitants built a mosque and school on the site, of which a Maqam (shrine) and minaret still remain. The Muslims also hold Mary in high regard.

Mary's Spring, Ein Kerem

Then climbing the hill we went to the Church of the Visitation...

Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, "Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled."

And Mary said,

The Church of the Visitation has two levels. On the lower level as you enter you look up and see Elizabeth and Mary on the point arch above...

Elizabeth - Spes (Hope)

Mary - Fides (Faith)

On three walls are Italian frescoes depicting,the Visitation...    

Zacharia at the altar of the Lord...

and Elizabeth hiding her son during the Massacre of the Innocents.

A small altar...

with a mosaic of Elizabeth to the right

and Zechariah to the left

Mass was celebrated in beautiful the upper church.

Ka waiata kia Maria

Hine i whakaae

Whakameatia mai

He whare Tangata

Hine purotu

Hine ngākau

Hine rangimārie

Ko Te Whaea

Ko te whaea

O te ao

Filled with the Holy Spirit and the presence of the Lord in her womb Mary set out from Nazareth to visit her cousin Elizabeth having been told by the angel, that her elderly cousin who was considered barren was with child.

Hearing this word, Mary recognised the need and did something about it.. she was a woman who puts her faith into action. 

Having seen some of the country she had to travel and the distance involved, Mary is seen as a woman of courage.

Elizabeth's greeting to Mary, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled, bears witness to Mary's unshakable faith, a faith that was to take her to the cross.

And in response Mary's Magnificat displays what should be the basic attitude we have before God... praise... My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit exults in God my saviour

Mary's faith and praise is humble, it is not anything she has done... rather it is the Almighty who has done great things for me. Holy is his name. It is because of her being open to the Holy Spirit and obedient to the word of God that all generations will call her blessed. 

Notice too Mary's pondering, her recognising how God is working in the world and her sharing her faith and reflection... for He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich sent empty away. He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his mercy according to the promise he made to our ancestors - of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

And she does all this, in good times and bad with joy

This is why Mary is for us the example of discipleship, the model of what the Church should be, as filled with the Holy Spirit and the Eucharistic presence of Christ we take Christ to the world.

In front of the altar were some beautiful mosaics that inspired the choice of Psalm 42 as the concluding prayer

Like the deer that yearns

for running streams,

so my soul is yearning

for you, my God.

My soul is thirsting for God,

the God of my life;

when can I enter and see

the face of God?

My tears have become my bread,

by night, by day,

as I hear it said all the day long:

"Where is your God?"

These things will I remember

as I pour out my soul:

how I would lead the rejoicing crowd

into the house of God,

amid cries of gladness and thanksgiving,

the throng wild with joy.

Why are you cast down, my soul,

why groan within me?

Hope in God; I will praise him still,

my saviour and my God.

My soul is cast down within me

as I think of you,

from the country of Jordan and Mount Hermon,

from the Hill of Mizar.

Deep is calling on deep,

in the roar of waters;

your torrents and all your waves

swept over me.

By day the Lord will send

his loving kindness;

by night I will sing to him,

praise the God of my life.

I will say to God, my rock:

"Why have your forgotten me?

Why do I go mourning

oppressed by the foe?"

With cries that pierce me to the heart,

my enemies revile me,

saying to me all the day long:

"Where is your God?"

Why are you cast down, my soul,

why groan within me?

Hope in God; I will praise him still,

my saviour and my God.