Christmas with a difference

Celebrating midnight Mass in Bethlehem was magic. The night was frosty and the stars were out. The numerous groups that had gathered earlier in the evening had left and the Shepherds' Field was quiet with a few smaller groups huddled in prayer. We celebrated the Mass in a Byzantine oil-press facing the vast Judean desert - hauntingly beautiful with a lone barking of a dog somewhere in the Bedouin camps far below us. You can imagine what it was like 2000 years ago. The loneliness, emptiness, silence, cold, darkness - and the Son of God was born amid all these. No fanfare, no pomp and pageantry, no commercialism. It only highlighted the grandeur of the Incarnation.

Christmas Day in the Basilica of the Nativity was quite the opposite. Literally thousands of people, not seen since 2000, flocked in and out. We said Mass at the Altar of St Joseph which is beside the Grotto of the Nativity. Cardinal Martini was lined up for Mass after us. The group spent the day reflected on the Incarnation, and read a homily by Pope Leo the Great on Christmas Day 1500 years ago. Just the day before Christmas I brought the group to the excavations of the City of David and the pool where Isaiah prophesied the coming of Emmanuel. For me it was an impressive moment to spend those two days in the actual places where the Scriptures spoke about - and of course I remembered you all at Mass.

The day in the desert was also fantastic. We visited the Herodian Fortress where many believe King Herod the Great died and was buried. We studied the Bible regarding this person. Then we journeyed south to visit Tel Arad with its ancient temple to Yahweh before reaching Mamshit - the Bedouin camp. We had a Bedouin lunch and we studied the text regarding the Magi. Some scholars believe the Magi were Nabateans and Mamshit was a Nabatean city. Then on our way back to Jerusalem, we made an unplanned stop at Hebron to visit the Tomb of Abraham & sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah, the forefathers of Jesus as noted in the genealogy of Luke and Matthew. We practically covered the Infancy narratives on the spots that were related to the texts. It was great. I'm sure for the group of 41 people, it was a Christmas with a difference, an unforgettable Christmas. Wish you guys were here!