Bethlehem

Indians pressed in behind us as we pressed on the

Birthplace of Jesus from atlastours.net

Romanians ahead of us. Hundreds of Pilgrims packed like sardines in the airless corridor inched forward taking small steps toward the birthplace of Jesus.  As we converged on a circular set of steps leading to the grotto below, forward motion stopped; the Romanians had prostrated themselves in front of the birthplace.  One couple opened a music sheet and started singing.  Despite the heat and the sweat of so many bodies packed together, this was a holy moment. Their music filled the grotto.  We were in the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. 

Like Jericho, Bethlehem lies within a Palestinian Autonomous Zone.  As our bus passed through a security check point and a walled barrier, Marian again moved to the middle of the bus and pocketed her Israeli ID. After rolling by a Kentucky Fried Chicken sign with a peace message, we stopped to pick up a Christian guide who was born in Bethlehem.  The city once eighty-five percent Christian is now about eighty percent Muslim.

After lunch at a cafeteria style restaurant, we assembled for Mass in St Jerome's Grotto hidden below St Catherine's Church. St Jerome, Father Jerry's patron saint, translated the Bible here from Greek and Hebrew into Latin in the fourth century.   

Listen as he expresses mixed sentiments about the visiting pilgrims in his time: 

 They come here from all over the world, the city regurgitates every type of human being; and there is an awful crush of persons of both sexes who in other places you should avoid at least in part but here you have to stomach them to the full. 

Maybe he was hot, tired, crushed and sweaty when he penned the words above. He also wrote:

 The very best of the Christian community comes to the Holy Land; they speak different tongues,  but the devotion is one and the same. There is no sign of conflict or arrogance, no differentiation whatsoever, except in the mode of dress. No one censures another, no one criticises or judges his neighbour.”  (Copied from See The Holy Land website.)

He could say the same today.

After our visit to the churches, we stopped at a Christian souvenir store. I thought the prices on the olive wood carvings must have been a mistake. They weren't - the lowest price, $350 negotiable, but there's only so much one can negotiate! We bought some less expensive stuff as did most everyone else.

As we were leaving, the shop owner thanked us for coming and recited the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke.
 
Eastward toward the Judean wilderness, the earth appeared to drop away at the edge of Bethlehem. The blue sky disappeared into a dusty tan haze.

As we exited Bethlehem, Israeli security guards armed with automatic rifles bordered the bus requesting us to hold up our passports and then blew us off and waved us through. We had dinner and slept in Jerusalem's elegant Dan Hotel.