Evening Day 5

What exactly am I doing here, and why have I come?  I have heard that this might be the question we get asked tomorrow when we meet the Holy Father Elias Chacour.  It is a question that I've already been asking myself.  Of course, I knew this was the inherent "promise" of this trip, that my small world would be turned on end.  It feels like I've been helicoptered into history in motion.  As unique as the political, social and religious issues and manifestations of daily life are here, this could also be another historical time and situation, a bottom line being the impersonalization and creation of "other" for all the reasons that make being human sometimes horrific.  Tonight in our group discussion we talked about this being akin to the devastation of the Native Americans, the reservation model, the depletion of entire cultures.  Being here is seeing that in real time. 

Today we left Jerusalem, and said goodbye to our Guest House and our host.  She was so lovely and gracious - I had such a feeling of connection there.  We took a short bus ride to Neve Shalom, an intentional community of Arab and Jewish Israelis living in the hills between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.  Sixty five families live here and work through the issues of living harmoniously.  

We rode 2 more hours to the Village of Ibiline, in the hills just east of Haifa on the Mediterranean.  This is the village where the young Elias Chacour came on his first appointment from the church after his ordination, as recounted in his book Blood Brothers.  We are staying in the school he founded, Mar Elias for two nights.  Frank Massey gave me this book when I first decided to come on this trip, and it has been my first "window" into Palestine/Israeli world.  After we unloaded we walked (straight up hill - it was nearly a 90 degree incline I promise) to the home of Palestinian friends of Max.   They graciously hosted us for afternoon talk and walk around their home, their olive oil press, some ancient ruins on their property, and their neighborhood which included the Greek Orthodox, the Melkite Orthodox and the Mosque.  At the end of our walk we were served arab coffee and cake under their grape arbor.  The hospitality here is a normal and civil and beautiful part of life.  

I have had several conversations this evening, and a hot (the first) shower so my recounting of the day has been interrupted.  But let me say that this is visit to people first, and that is how I can begin to understand this place. 

Tomorrow, to the Galilee and the place of the Sermon on the Mount. 

As our new friend Elias said earlier this evening, "dream well."  And that, we must.