Reflection on my travels from 2003

 A few years back I spent some time in Israel traveling back and forth into the West Bank.  I want to share with you a reflection that I wrote then.  Given the wars raging around the world and the hostility among those who could be friends we have not made much progress this millenium.   I asked again and again as we went from one devastated town to the next, "Lord, where are you?  How can these atrocities be happening?  Don't you care?  This is what I wrote in my journal.

 “Last Sunday we woke up early and boarded our bus at 7:30.  We had planned to attend the 10 AM Eucharist at St. Andrew's in Ramallah, but we had not been allowed to pass through the checkpoint and so we had continued on our journey the long way, crossing through the occupied territory on roads made for Israelis and internationals only and then heading north on the eastern border with Jordan to make our way to Nazareth.  That is how we ended up, unexpectedly, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee near where Jesus had prepared breakfast for his disciples after the Resurrection.  We had some extra time on our hands and we were hungering for a Eucharistic celebration that the soldiers had denied us earlier in the day.

The beauty and the peaceful quiet of the place contrasted sharply with the grotesque, harshness of the checkpoint.  As I was standing in the shallow water letting the waves wash around my ankles Bishop Tom came up and began to tell me about the topography of the place.  There is a valley running between two mountains through which the wind is funneled onto the lake.  That wind is the cause of the sudden and violent storms that are typical of the Sea.  Tom reminded us of the story in the gospels of Jesus who had wanted to get away for a while and so he asked the disciples to put to sea and to go to the other side of the lake.  But on the way a great storm arose and these fishermen who were thoroughly familiar with the dangers of storms at sea and who should have been able to handle the boat - panicked and ran to Jesus for help.    In response Jesus calmed the wind and the waves and then asked the tense disciples, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" 

In Israel today there is a lot of fear.  The fear manifests itself in suicide bombers and snipers - in bulldozers and tanks, rocket firing helicopters and a system of oppression that is intent on the eradication of the Palestinian people from the Holy Land.  The fear is manifested in a gigantic wall.  You see there is this gaping hole that weaves in and out of the landscape there that takes the form of a gigantic wall of concrete, razor wire, and guard towers.  Cities have become isolated from each other and the barren earth has been violated by with bulldozers and cranes. The Israeli government calls it a security fence.  It is an Apartheid Wall.  It is designed to protect Israel from terror, but in fact only serves to isolate and alienate people who are trying desperately to live their life with some sense of normalcy in a place that is far from normal.  Surely, there are kind, generous, faithful people on both sides of the Wall, but there are also those who are consumed by fear and hatred and their will seems to be dominant. 

Dear Lord help us to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them.....