Hikoi of Faith

Wednesday, 8 March 2023

Looking beyond...

This morning with left Wadi Musa and Petra in a swirling cloud... perhaps very evocative of Moses being on top of Mount Sinai in the cloud, the divine cloud, the Shekhinah. As we set out on the journey we talked about so many of the images of the journey of Moses and the people of God - the divine cloud, the wildnerness, Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments, the tent of Meeting, the people grumbling and wanting to turn back. And in the midst of their trials and tribulations Moses grew in his intimacy and friendship with God. Jesus called his disciples "friends" and he calls each of us to friendship and intimacy with him. And that means for us a journey to the wilderness, the place of aloneness with God to be freed from the distractions of the world that can so easily choke and consume us. For 40 years years Moses and the people of Israel wandered through the desert... Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness before starting his ministry. And now, in these 40 days of Lent, we are invited to enter into a renewed intimacy and friendshio with God and each other.

Moses used to take the Tent and pitch it outside the camp, at some distance from the camp. He called it the Tent of Meeting. Anyone who had to consult the Lord would go out to the Tent of Meeting, outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the Tent, all the people would rise. Every one would stand at the door of thier tent and watch Moses until he reached the Tent; the pillar of cloud stationed at the entrance to the Tent, all the people would rise and bow low, each at the door of their tent. The Lord would speak with Moses face to face, as a person speaks with their friend.
- Exodus 33:7-10.

Our first stop was the Greek Orthodox church of St George in the city of Madaba which contains a famous mosaic map of the Holy Land dating back to the year 560.

A modern reproduction of the mosaic map

A couple of portions of the map

Some of the other icons of the church... the legend of St George slaying the dragon, a metaphor to remind us to fight to overcome evil. Icons are in invitation to look beyond and to enter the mystery of God

The Annunciation - Let it be done unto me according to your word

Laying Jesus in the tomb - a moment when all appeared to fail but at the same time the call to look beyond

Our Lady of the Helping Hand

We then went to Mount Nebo, where Moses looked into the Promised Land as recounted in the Book of Deuteronomy...

Leaving the plains of Moab, Moses went up Mount Nebo, the peak of Pisgah opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him the whole land; Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and the stretch of the Valley of Jericho, city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. The Lord said to him, 'This is the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying: I will give it to your descendants. I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross into it.' There in the land of Moab, Moses the servant of the Lord died as the Lord decreed; he buried him in the valley, in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; but to this day no one has ever found his grave. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye undimmed, his vigour unimpaired. The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab for thirty days. The days of weeping for the mourning rites of Moses came to an end. Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. It was he that the children of Israel obeyed, carrying out the order that the Lord had given to Moses.

Since then, never has there been such a prophet in Israel as Moses, the man the Lord knew face to face. What signs and wonders the Lord caused him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh and all his servants and his whole land! How mighty the hand and great the fear that Moses wielded in the sight of all Israel!

- Deuteronomy 34:1-12

It seems really harsh doesn't it... the great friend of God being denied what he had worked towards for 40 years. So often we feel God should do what we want for ourselves or those we love... but life is not like that, and God is not a Harry Potter God who magically makes things better. Moses was called to look beyond and to trust in God he knew face to face...

For our Gospel we reflected on the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up brought healing to the people of Israel so the Son of Man who is lifted up on the cross brings healing to us... We know he healed the sick and forgave sinners, and he died to save us and raise us up.

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,

so the Son of Man must be lifted up

so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.

Yes, God loved the world so much

that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost

but may have eternal life.

For God sent his Son into the world

not to condemn the world,

but so that through him the world might be saved.'

- John 3:13-17

With that in mind, and with the great symbol of the serpent on the standard outside the Church we celebrated the Anointing of the Sick during our Mass where we joined by a young French couple and a young couple from the Czech republic.

As a last reflection at Mount Nebo I suggested that people look to the Promised Land as Moses did and think of broken dreams... spouses, children or relationships lost, doubts and fears in the midst of trials, and think how God is faithful to his promises in ways we could never imagine for Moses did not enter the Promised Land over the Jordan, rather he entered a greater Promised Land,

Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit… May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up.

Behold... look beyond

The ancient mosaics of the earlier church

Looking beyond the Dead Sea and the Jordan River to the Promised Land

The Valley below where Moses was somewhere buried some 3500 years ago

We then descended down to the Dead Sea, 427 metres below sea level...

As Moses and the people of Israel lived in tents in the wilderness to the Bedouin continue to do so today

Mum and her new baby

Jesus said to his disciples: 'When the Son of Man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory. All the nations will be assembled before him and he will separate men one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats. Why does the shepherd separate the sheep and goats? For milking! A new insight for me into the Scriptures

Grace us O Lord that we might look beyond into the mysteries of You the Living God who is always faithful to your promises

Tuesday, 7 March 2023

The Journey to the Promised Land

Today we began in earnest our pilgrimage to the Holy Land visiting ancient city of Petra. Petra is not mentioned in the Bible but we stayed in Wadi Musa (which literally means the Valley of Moses) and nearby is Jabal Harun, (the Mount of Aaron), Aaron being the brother of Moses.

Jabal Harun with the tomb of Aaron

We then entered the Siq, the ancient fissure that has been eroded by water over the centuries by the water... With the connection with Moses and Aaron to this area we reflected as, we walked through the walls of stone shaped by water, of the people of Israel who walked through the walls of water.

Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove back the sea with a strong easterly wind all night, and he made dry land of the sea. The waters parted and the children of Israel went on dry ground right into the sea, walls of water to right and left of them.

The Egyptians gave chase: after them they went, right into the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his own horsemen. In the morning watch, the Lord looked down on the army of the Egyptians from the pillar of fire and cloud, and threw the army into confusion. He so clogged their chariot wheels that they could scarcely make headway. 'Let us flee from the Israelites,' the Egyptians cried 'the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians!' 'Stretch out your hand over the sea,' the Lord said to Moses 'that the waters may flow back on the Egyptians and their chariots and their horsemen.' Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and, as day broke, the sea returned to its bed. The fleeing Egyptians marched right into it, and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the very middle of the sea. The returning waters overwhelmed the chariots and the horsemen of Pharaoh's whole army, which had followed the Israelites into the sea; not a single one of them was left.

But the children of Israel had marched through the sea on dry ground, walls of water to right and to left of them. That day, the Lord rescued Israel from the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. Israel witnessed the great act that the Lord had performed against the Egyptians, and the people venerated the Lord; they put their faith in the Lord and in Moses, his servant.
- Exodus 14:21-15:1

The people of Israel were journeying to the Promised Land, a land for them that would have been shrouded in mystery. And so at the end of our journey through the Siq we came to our destination...

The so-called Treasury, a facade carved from the mountain.

The amphitheatre... carved from the mountain

The Royal Tombs

We celebrated Mass in the remains 5th Century Byzantine church which is famed for its mosaics. The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453.

For our Gospel reading we read John 14:1-6

Jesus said to the disciples:

'Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Trust in God still, and trust in me.

There are many rooms in my Father's house;

if there were not, I should have told you.

I am going now to prepare a place for you,

and after I have gone and prepared you a place,

I shall return to take you with me;

so that where I am you may be too.

You know the way to the place where I am going.'

Thomas said, 'Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?' Jesus said:

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.'

We reflected that through baptism we join the people of Israel as we enter the waters and go down into the tomb with Christ to rise again with him to eternal life. Then like the people of Israel we journey through the wilderness of life, with its ups and downs, twists and turns. We remember that even in the dark valleys the Lord shepherds us as he leads us to the Promised Land of eternal life in Heaven. As the people of Petra prepared places for their beloved dead so Christ prepares an eternal home for us his beloved.

Petra was the capital city of the Nabataeans. It is not known precisely when Petra was built, but the city began to prosper as the capital of the Nabataean Empire from the 1st century BC, which grew rich through trade in frankincense, myrrh, and spices. Here you see the main, colonnaded street in the foreground which would be the main shopping street. Perhaps some 2000 years ago some wise men purchased some gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Above is the Great Temple, Petra was later annexed to the Roman Empire and continued to thrive until a large earthquake in 363 AD destroyed much of the city,

The stairway to heaven on a Nabataean tomb - evocative of Māori tukutuku panels

The call to journey...

The Lord said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your family and your father's house, for the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name so famous that it will be used as a blessing.

'I will bless those who bless you:

I will curse those who slight you.
All the tribes of the earth
shall bless themselves by you.'

So Abram went as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had amassed and the people they had acquired in Haran. They set off for the land of Canaan, and arrived there.
- Genesis 12:1-5

On Sunday evening 20 of us left Auckland, families and homes, and now have arrived in the eastern reaches of the land of Canaan, the eastern reaches of the Holy Land in the Kingdom of Jordan. Over the next two and a half weeks we will walk in the footsteps of holy men and women and most especially the Holy One who assumed or flesh and walked with us on our paths.

Our journey was in a relatively comfortable seat, with movies, food and bar service... the holy ones who walked these paths had long journeys with many trials through the wilderness that marks this land.

Day one of our pilgrimage was a day to ponder on our journey, a journey to the Promised Land

The desert highway... imagine walking long journeys through here

Sunday, 26 January 2020

St Philip Howard Church, Norfolk Island

The Norfolk Island Catholic community hasn’t had a parish priest since 1987 and it relies on visiting priests. There was already a priest visiting while I was on the island... The first priest arrived in 1838 when Fr John McEnroe volunteered to minister to the convict settlement on Norfolk. Sacred Heart Parish was established in 1959 but the church was later rededicated to St Philip Howard (who had been the Duke of Norfolk) after a visit by James Cardinal Freeman and then Duke of Norfolk Miles Fitzalan-Howard.

Philip Howard was a second cousin (once removed) of the Queen Elizabeth. In September 1584 he became a Roman Catholic, hiding his conversion and attempting next year once more to escape abroad. He was betrayed by a servant and arrested not long after his ship set sail.

Howard was committed to the Tower of London on 25 April 1585. He was charged with being a Roman Catholic, with quitting England without leave, sharing in Jesuit plots, and claiming the dukedom of Norfolk. He was sentenced to pay £10,000 and to be imprisoned during the queen's pleasure. In July 1586 his liberty was offered to him if he would carry the sword of state before the queen to church. In 1588 he was accused of praying, together with other Romanists, for the success of the Spanish Armada. He was tried for high treason on the 14th of April 1589, found guilty and condemned to death, but his sentence was not executed. Queen Elizabeth never signed the death warrant, but Howard was not told this. He was kept constantly in fear of execution, although comforted by the companionship of a dog, which served as a go-between by which Howard and other prisoners, most notably the priest Robert Southwell, could send messages to each other. Although these two men never met, Howard's dog helped them to deepen their friendship and exchange encouragement in each other's plight.

One day Howard scratched into a wall of his cell these words: Quanto plus afflictiones pro Christo in hoc saeculo, tanto plus gloriae cum Christo in futuro ("the more affliction [we endure] for Christ in this world, the more glory [we shall obtain] with Christ in the next") (cf. Rom 8).

Howard spent ten years in the Tower, until his death from dysentery. He petitioned the Queen as he lay dying to allow him to see his wife and his son, who had been born after his imprisonment. The Queen responded that "If he will but once attend the Protestant Service, he shall not only see his wife and children, but be restored to his honors and estates with every mark of my royal favor." To this, Howard is supposed to have replied: "Tell Her Majesty if my religion be the cause for which I suffer, sorry I am that I have but one life to lose." He remained in the Tower, never seeing his wife or daughter again, and died alone on Sunday 19 October 1595.