EYEWITNESS FROM JERUSALEM

A WEEKLY JOURNAL WRITTEN BY SISTER MARY

Jerusalem Journal # 10

March 10, 2001

    On the first Sunday of Lent I made the journey to Bethlehem to meet a friend so they we could travel together to the Catholic church in Beit Sahour. There we intended to celebrate the Eucharist in solidarity with the Christian community and to deliver some money to the Rosary Sisters for the use of the needy of that besieged town. I made it through the checkpoint outside Bethlehem and then began the walk to my friend's apartment across from the military outpost by Rachel's tomb. Due to the detour one must now take around the Israeli outpost, I walked along two sides of it. That early in the morning the road had scant traffic and only one Arab woman, carrying her child, shared the road with me. I felt that all eyes in the watchtower must have been on us as we were the only moving objects in the soldiers' line of vision.  

    I entered the apartment of my friend and sat down next to the balcony door while she prepared to leave. While waiting I began to read over the scriptures for the Sunday liturgy, when suddenly an eruption of gunfire from an M16 about 30 yards from me filled the air and sent bullets onto to the bypass road where I had been walking only minutes earlier. I wondered who had been shot at and for what reason. My friend called out, "Don't go out to look, you'll be shot at." I stayed put and my glance returned to the passage I had been reading from the book of Deuteronomy, "When the Egyptians maltreated and oppressed us, imposing hard labor upon us, we cried to the Lord...and he heard our cry and saw our affliction, our toil and our oppression." That first reading from the Sunday's liturgy took on new meaning and it was a terrible feeling to realize that those whose spiritual forefathers had been oppressed in Egypt, had now become the oppressors of the people of Bethlehem. 

    About five minutes later were in the car and on the same bypass road heading for Beit Sahour. We arrived to an already full church and found two seats in the back row. Now there was standing room only along the back and sides of the church and that was even with four chairs having been placed in the center aisle next to each row of pews. The Eucharistic liturgy was in Arabic and the people sang with full voice and heart. One truly had the sense of full participation of the Catholic community of Beit Sahour in this liturgy. These Christians who have suffered so much, still sought help from God. 

    I admire the people of Bethlehem, Beit Sahour and Beit Jala for their tenacity, and I mourn with those who have lost their homes and especially for the loss of so many young couples who have taken their children and left these besieged towns, seeking safety far from their homeland. 

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