IF YOU EVER
GET TO ISRAEL
The title of my thoughts for this morning is: “If You Ever Get To Israel.”
If you ever get to Israel, it probably will be on a Christian tour.
And one of the spots you’ll go to is Capernaum.
It’s featured big time in the Gospels – but it hasn’t
been that big a deal down through the centuries after Christ.
In Jesus’ time it was a tiny town – with about 1500
people – on the northwest shore of the Lake of Galilee.
You get off the bus and walk a short distance to go
through the gate into city.
Today it’s a tour spot that only has basically 2 spots to look at: the synagogue and Peter’s
house - both of which are mentioned in
today’s gospel.
The Franciscans bought property there – above the Lake –
and in and around 1867 there was excavations there – as well as after 1967.
I was in Israel for 10 days in the year 2000 - January.
We were in Capernaum for about 2 hours in a morning.
We went into the Synagogue remains. It’s a small
rectangular building with sides, but no roof. It was very clean. You can sit on
the hard stone steps along the side. It has a large open space in whole center
of the former synagogue – like a small church without seats.
Our tour was a retreat, so we had an hour of quiet.
Father Steven Doyle was giving the tour and the retreat. He read a gospel like today’s – made some
comments – and then gave us time to
reflect. The 22 of us priests making the
tour and the retreat became quiet. Hey,
we were in a sacred place. My prayer was
the prayer of the man with demons in yesterday’s gospel and the people with
demons in today’s gospel: “Jesus you are the Son of God.”
Archaeologists say the present structure is from the 4th
century. They say it’s a synagogue built upon a synagogue. They date it - based on coins in the mortar
holding together the big stones of the synagogue.
After the hour of prayer, we went about 40 to 50 yards to what archaeologists said
was Peter’s mother-in-law house. They
figure an octagonal church was built on top of an older building. In 1990 they finished a hexagonal church –
with steps up into the building – with glass floors – so you can see the ruins
of an older church below – which was built on what some think was Peter’s
house.
After that we went outside before heading out the gate to
the bus. Father Steven Doyle pointed to
a red roofed church about a mile away. He said it’s a Byzantine church. He
pointing to small clumps of earth or small bumpy hills all around it. He said,
“Under those small hills is a lot of rubble and ruin to excavate in the future.”
When in Israel, there is plenty of time.
We were on Franciscan property and they had done most of
the work where we had just visited. Amen.
