In these past months I have had the privilege of living in theHoly Land. I was there to give service as a Franciscan friar in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth.
My ministry consisted of welcoming the pilgrims and tourists and being available for the Sacrament of Reconciliation to pilgrims who wanted to experience God’s mercy.
The pilgrims came from all over the globe. I enjoyed the African Christian communities and those from the Spanish-speaking world of South and Central America, the North Americans and Canadians, Australians, Japanese and Chinese, Indians and those from the Philippines, the Europeans including Maltese directed by our Commissariat of the Holy Land in Malta.
I had the privilege of joining the Maltese pilgrims for a couple of days to visit the sanctuaries in Galilee. I also had, at different times, the opportunity to go down to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the Jordan River for different celebrations organised by the custody. Also a day of rest together with the fraternity on Mount Hermon.
A common question I have been asked is: are you not afraid of living there or visiting those places? Some say, I could visit but I am afraid.
With all the pilgrims I met, with my own experience and the organiser’s experience, the pilgrims are never put at risk. The local political situation, though very sensitive to those who live there, does not make the whole country a time bomb as it is sometimes pictured in the news or in the fantasy of our minds.
Every journey, every pilgrimage, wherever we go, entails the risk of going beyond, seeing with your own eyes and touching with your own hands what awaits you: holy grounds, culture and heritage, food, people and most of all the experience, as the Blessed Pope Paul VI used to call the Holy Land, of the 5th Gospel.
Come and see for yourself.
The Maltese Commissariat of the Holy land organises several pilgrimages during the year. I hope that for the one in May, being led the Archbishop, I will again be part of the Franciscan Nazareth Community to give him and the Maltese pilgrims a warm welcome.