Remarks on the theology of the Holy Land today

1. For a Christian, this land is the land in which God chose to communicate with man: the revelation to Abraham, and to all the prophets of the Old Testament, then Jesus Christ and the mystery of the Incarnation and the Redemption. The Letter to the Hebrews sums up this mystery of God communicating with humankind in these words: “At many moments in the past, and by many means, God spoke to our ancestors through the Prophets; but in our time, the final days, he has spoken to us in the person of his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the ages. He is the reflection of God’s glory and bears the impress of God’s own being, sustaining all things by his powerful command” (Heb 1: 1-3).

These are the basis of any theology of the Holy Land. It is the theology of all the Christian Faith, and here is the land of the roots of this faith. In this land, the Eternal Word of God : “became flesh, he lived among us and we saw his glory”(Jn 1: 14).

2. This land of the mystery of God, and of the roots of Christianity, is also the land of the daily life of a small Christian community witnessing to Jesus in His land, through its faith, prayers and ordinary daily life. The Holy Places are places which contain at the same time the mystery of God and the daily joys and sorrows of men and women living their life around these Holy Places.

Therefore a theologian should strive to see the effect of this relation between the daily life of men and this treasure of holiness which surrounds him, his history, his daily living place. The holy places are places of prayer and pilgrimage, for a short period of time, for millions of Christians, but for us who live here, they are the places of our prayers as well as of our ordinary daily life.

3. Another mystery of God in this land, is the rejection of Jesus in his land. Rejected, 2000 years ago, he is unknown in his land 2000 years after. And the small Christian community is a community of witnesses, a sign, modest, humble, diversified, divided in many Churches, still a sign to the Word made flesh here.

4. Part of the mystery of God in this land is also the present coexistence of the three religions, with their differences, as well as with their common relation to one God and to one Father chosen and called by God, Abraham.

5 This land of God is living today a conflict. Two peoples are quarreling, for political and national but also for religious reasons. God and the holiness of these places are one of the reasons why people are quarreling. And God came for the reconciliation and the salvation of all. This is also a part of the mystery, a path of reflection for any believer but especially for a theologian: why do men quarrel because of their relation to God? How this human behaviour can be linked with the love of God for all his children, Jews, Christians and Moslems?

It is true that along history, and in the history of the Church our theology or learning about God led to divisions, by which we are still wounded. It is true that because of religion many wars were fought and millions of people died in these wars…. This is another mystery and another path to reflect upon, when coming to talk about the theology of the Holy Land, today in war, partly because it is the land made holy by God.

6. I have addressed to our faithful a Pastoral letter on “how to read the Bible today in the land of the Bible”? I will share with you the main content of this letter, as it can be a partial contribution to a Christian reflection on the Holy Land today.

The goal of the Letter is to determine the way to read and understand the Bible, in these days and here, in order to make it the object of meditation and prayer, amidest the living conflict (2).

6.1 The questions raised by our reality of holy land and of conflict are numerous. They can be summarized under three categories:

- What is the relationship between the Old and the New Testament?

- How is violence that is attributed to God in the Bible to be understood?

- What influence do the promises, the gift of the Land, the election and the covenant have for relations between Palestinians and Israelis? Is it possible for a just and merciful God to impose injustice or oppression on another people in order to favour the people He has chosen?

6.2 Before viewing the answers, there are some Christian hermeneutical principles to be reminded:

a. The Bible is the Word of God (10). It is an inspired Word, not by way of material dictation (reference to Islamic conception of Revelation) (12), it is a progressive Revelation (13), and it is a Word understood in the light of Tradition (14).

b. The Bible is a History of Salvation (15). It is the History of God with the whole of humankind (15). The Center of this History of Salvation is Jesus Christ, a History situated between two visions which form the beginning and the end of human drama: the vision of paradise lost and the vision of the new Jerusalem which descends from God (16). This History has already started. After the first sin, a first promise of salvation was given to our forefathers (17). The promise continues the covenant established with Noah (17), Abraham (18, a people), Moses (19 the Law), David (20 the Land). With suffering and trials, a change has begun to take place: with the exile, the people has no more land nor king, but it has always the Word of God, and it lives in His Covenant (21); the Prophets see, beyond the trials, and announce a New Covenant (21). The poverty lived by the people is thus transformed into a religious ideal. The "poor of the Lord" put their confidence in God alone. A New Covenant is fulfilled with the coming of Jesus (22) who gives the Eucharist as a sign of this New Covenant whereby God does not belong exclusively to any nation.

c. The Bible is a History of our personal and collective Salvation (23). The History of salvation of the Jewish people is the type of the History of God with every one of us, as persons and as nations (23), a History which goes between the call to holiness, from God's part, and sin, from our part. Even the phases described here are those of our History (24). Hence comes our vocation to read and recognize the action of God which continues across human History.

d. Jesus applies the Scriptures to His Person and Mission (25). Jesus applies them in front of the Disciples of Emmaus (cf. Lk 24,27), at the synagogue of Nazareth (cf. Lk 4,21), to the Disciples of John the Baptists (cf. Mt 11,4-6), and in his speech after the healing of the crippled (cf. Jn 5,39). Jesus is not only the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, but He presents Himself as also completely new, genuine and superior in the New Covenant (26), in relation to the Law of Moses (27), (cf. Mt 5, 21-22), to the Prophets (28) and to the Wisdom writings (29). The message and the behavior of Jesus are, at a time, a confirmation and a surpassing of the ancient Law (30). Henceforth, everything should be read, understood and lived under the light of this new reality. Three words summarize this reality : continuity - fulfillment - newness. (31). To be therefore a Christian is to accept all the Scriptures, in the conscience of Jesus, in a full confidence that He reveals to us the whole truth (32).

6.3. Answers to the questions.

Relations between the Old and the New Covenants.

- There is a stream of thought today which refuses the Old Testament and Covenant and considers it merely as the History of the Jewish people (34).

- The teaching of the Church is more than solid and clear about this issue: all the Bible, Old and New Testament alike, is the Word of God, revealed for the salvation of the whole humankind (35). The Gospel is very clear about this issue, so is the second Vatican Council (DV 16).

- Consequence: the Word of God is holy. No one is allowed to change it. If some people manipulate it, it is not a reason to reject the Word of God, or to manipulate it ourselves for political reasons (36).

6.4 Violence in the Bible.

- Violence exists in the Old Testament. It is attributed to God, as a punishment for those who violate the Law, and as anathema applied to the defeated nations (37).

- God intervenes often in order to rectify violence (with David, cf. I Chr 22, 8), (Hoseah 4, 1-2). One of the titles of the Servant of Yahweh is "the Righteous one who did not do any wrong" (cf. Isaiah 53).

- How to understand those texts? First of all, we bow ourselves before "the impenetrable decrees and plans of God". And we consider the progressive character of Revelation, i.e. that God is an excellent educator. He talks progressively to human beings, by the ministry of the Prophets and other sacred authors. At each stage, God speaks in a way that people can understand it. This implies the knowledge of cultures through which the sacred authors transmitted the Revelation to us, as well as the deep oneness or unity of the Bible (39). Violence is thus presented as an answer to an offence to the Holiness of God (40).

- With the New Testament, violence has no place any more. The sole force of the “meek” Faithful is that of love (42), and of truth (43) (cf. Eph 6, 10-14. 17). With this logic of the New Testament, the war of religion or the war in the name of God is a contradiction (44): " there is no just war" (John Paul II). That is why the Letter condemns the imposition of bodily punishments for religious and spiritual transgressions, as well as any recourse to violence or more subtle methods, in order to defeat or to persuade in the religious and any other fields (45).

- As an application to the present conflict, the Letter reminds the following points:

. The Bible is not a justification for battles or wars.

. Forgiveness and conversion of the heart are the only ways of salvation for all.

. Forgiveness does not mean concessions nor loss of rights.

. The love of God for a people cannot possibly become oppression for an other nation (46).

6.5. Election, covenant, promises and gift of the Land.

- The first thing to do is to deal with these questions with a religious spiritual perspective which considers the Bible as the Word of God which gives life, and a History of salvation for all , in the framework of human History (47).

a. Election

- It is clear that, in the Bible, God chose for Himself a people, by a free initiative of His, entrusting this people to call the nations of the earth to believe in God and in the Messiah that He would send as Saviour of the world (48). This choice implies freedom from the part of God. In the same measure, it implies a responsibility of the chosen people, in front of God and humankind (48).

- But if God chooses a people. He does give all nations the necessary grace in order to demolish the mechanism of jealousy and envy. Thus, to choose someone does not mean, from the part of God, to reject someone else. The election of God should not arouse pride in the chosen one, neither the rejection in the other. God does not deprive anyone from His grace (49).

b. Covenant, promises, Land.

The Covenant is a treaty concluded between God and humankind. The New Covenant is the treaty concluded in and through the Blood of Christ. It does bring the Old Covenant to its perfection and fulfillment (50).

- The promises are part of the Covenant. The first promises contained an earthly connotation which underwent an evolution, according to the various experiences lived by the chosen people:

. With Abraham, that was the appropriation of lands where nomad tribes arrived (cf. Gn 13,14 and 12,2).

. After the exodus from Egypt, it was an armed conquest.

. The promised Land must be governed in accordance to the Law of the Covenant (cf. Dt 12 -16).

. The Prophets (Amos 2,9) threaten that God will punish, by the loss of the Land, the violation of the Covenant (cf. Hoseah 9,3; Jr 4,27).

. During the exile, God promises to liberate His people. But He will create a new people, with a new heart (cf. Jr 31,31 -34) (50).

c. The land in the Bible

The Land belongs to God (cf. Lv 25,23). Israel is only the guest of God in the Land. The chosen people has to become worthy of the Land of God, by observing the divine Law, otherwise the Land "vomits out its inhabitants" (cf. Lv 18,25).

The jubilee year limits the absolute right on the Land, (cf. Lv 25,10, 13. (51).

With every new phase of the History of the Jewish people, the spiritual and universal meaning of the Covenant and of the promises becomes clearer (52).

Between God and the Jewish people, and between God and humankind, there is one Covenant, though expressed in various moments of the Holy History and under many forms, (cf. Hb I , 1 -2. (52).

Jesus is the Chosen One, par excellence. In Him and through Him, the old election applies to all those who, Jews or non Jews, accept Jesus as Risen Saviour.

In this view point, the Land belongs to God and it is the "meek who will inherit it", (cf. Ps 37,29 + Mt 5,4.) And the possession of the Land by the meek will be fulfilled by the image of the heavenly Jerusalem,( cf. Rv 3, li). The earthly Jerusalem becomes the image and the symbol of the Promised Land which is our heavenly homeland, cf. Gl 4,26.

The concept of the Land has thus undergone an evolution from the political and geographical meaning to the spiritual and symbolic one. A specific land is not an absolute value for cult (cf. Jn 4,21).

The First and the Absolute is God Himself: One can worship Him at any place in the earth (52).

d. The question put by the Jew and the Christian who believe in the Bible is the following :

Does the Bible, as the Word of God, give the Jews the right to appropriate to themselves the land and to deprive the Palestinians of it ? (53). The Jew and the Palestinian find themselves in opposed attitudes : for the Jew, God has promised this Land to Abraham and his offspring. It constitutes presently, with God and the State, the triangle of his security and tranquility. for the Palestinian, this very same Land belongs to him since centuries. Even in the times of the Bible, it remained the land of another people which has always coexisted with the Jewish people. (53).

Thus, today, two peoples or nations have political rights on the same Land. And three religions have there their religious History. All of them are the physical or religious offspring of Abraham to whom God had promised this Land (53).

- In the name of faith, every one of these three religions, has an equal right of presence and access. But this right is, as a matter of fact, limited by political right (54).

- Every political authority which wants to take the Word of God as a reference as far as the gift of the Land is concerned should be guided, in the present conflict, by the moral principles contained in this same Word, namely justice and goodness.

- We acknowledge the relation according to which the Jewish people links itself to the religion that God revealed to it. But this religious right does not imply, in itself, a political right (55).

- God wanted to take the biblical History as a instrument of Revelation and of History of salvation for humankind. This is the difference between the biblical Israel and that of the present day (55).

6.7 Conclusion

The Bible is the Word of God; its value and truth depend on the very authority of God, not on that of those - enemies or friends - who use or misuse it (56). This is, by the way, the explicit faith of the three monotheistic religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam), although each of these religions has its own interpretation of Revelation.

The Word of God is above and beyond all human conflict. No one is supposed to look in it for a support for a conflict among persons or nations, but a message of salvation even in a situation of conflict (57).

It is time to free the Bible from the social frameworks which can suffocate it. Thus freed, it becomes itself a force of liberation for individuals and peoples (58). This is a grace and a challenge at a time. (64).

Theology of the Holy Land today has to deal with all the mystery of God in this land and with all the human reality in it, conflict and coexistence, two peoples and three religions.

The theology of the Holy Land today has to deal with a military occupation imposed by one people on the other. It has to deal as well with violence, caused by this occupation. What says theology about occupation? What does say every religion, Judaism, Christianity and Islam about occupation? And what do they say about violence, from the State or from the groups?

The conflict, which goes far in history, and which started more than one hundred years ago, does not seem to have any resolution in a short time. It seems rather that it will take still more time, years or perhaps generations. So our reflection as Christians and our recommendation to our faithful are the following: this conflict is a reality with which we have to deal. It is a part of our life, of our Christian life, it is a challenge with which we have to deal according to all human criteria in conflicts, and according to our faith in God, our Creator, our Saviour, our Father and Lord of history, who started here the History of salvation of humankind.

Jerusalem, 12.9.2003