“Move fast. Don’t stop,” shouted the burly Greek
Orthodox priest who was controlling the crowd lined up outside the main altar
at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the walled old city of Jerusalem. It’s the holiest of the holy places on earth for Christians —
yes, it’s Golgotha, on the hills of Calvary
where Jesus Christ was crucified. This is also place where Jesus was buried
(the Sepulchre, or tomb).
The priest allowed us – 26 pilgrims from Mumbai led by
Rev Fr Xavier Kanatt — only a few seconds. We just had a glimpse of the Rock of
Calvary, or the 12th Station of the Cross, which can be seen under glass on
both sides of the altar. And directly underneath the altar is a hole where the
Roman soldiers raised the cross, where the salvific presence of God is
revealed. It’s an emotional place and moment for every Christian, but the
Orthodox priests manning the area would have none of it. They shooed away
our friends, Dubai-based couple Sony and Annu, who were furiously clicking
pictures of the most venerated place.
The
division in Christianity is amply on display here. The site is shared by
several Christian churches. While Greek Orthodox controls the main altar, the
Roman Catholic Church, led by Franciscan priests, controls an altar on the
other side which is the Chapel on the Nailing of the Cross or the 11th Station
of the Cross. The Eastern Orthodox Church has a chapel on the east side which
houses a statue of Mary. It’s also the 13th Station of the Cross and also the
place where Jesus’ body was removed from the cross. “There are occasional
skirmishes among church groups inside the site. Nobody wants to lose control of
their areas,” said our guide, a Christian from Galilea.
While Franciscans were credited with rebuilding the site,
control of the church swung back and forth among various church groups. Tired
of the squabbling, Sublime Porte — which is the Ottoman Courtin Constantinople
— divided the church among different churches. Now the church, which was
destroyed and rebuilt several times in 2000 years, is surrounded by markets,
souvenir shops and minarets.
“They (pilgrims) would like peace and quiet around them,
but they feel the confusion amongst the five groups that occupy it – the
Franciscans, the Greek Orthodox, the Armenians, the Syrians and the Coptic
Orthodox – who zealously guard their right of being there,” says Fr Artemio
Vítores, OFM, Vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land.
It is actually the only place in the world where love for God is manifested in
the clearest and deepest way, but so is the human weakness of wanting to
monopolise that same God, he said candidly.
The main custodians of the site are the Eastern Orthodox,
Armenian Apostolic and Roman
Catholic Churches,
with the Greek Orthodox Church having the lion’s share. The Coptic Orthodox,
the Ethiopian Orthodox and the Syriac Orthodox acquired small portions of the
site in the 19th century. Strangely, the keys to the main entrance of the
church are being held by a Sunni Muslim family — which had links with Prophet
Muhammad — for several centuries. “It’s unbelievable,” my wife said.
When we visited the compound, some areas of the site were
in a dilapidated condition. “You can’t touch the common areas in the site for
renovation without the consent of all the churches. That’s why some areas are
in acute state of repair,” said our guide.
“Pilgrims wonder where the hill, the garden and the tomb
are, wishing that the principal sanctuary of Christianity stood in majestic
isolation from the rest and that natural light illuminated it all, far from the
crowd and darkness,” Fr Vitores’s message on the Franciscans website
says. You can’t miss the hostile glances of priests on the site. They are
looking at each other suspiciously. Different church groups had clashed inside
the sanctum sanctorum for even silly reasons, our guide said.
The journey of Jesus to Calvary,
with the cross on His shoulders, was painful. If you take the same route now,
in these modern times, you will be shocked. The path to Calvary
is through a market area where people sell all paraphernalia. Several Stations
of the Cross fall in the market area which is always crowded with hawkers and
there was barely any space for our group of 26 pilgrims from Mumbai. “It’s
unbelievable… the path that Roman soldiers and Jewish priests took to bring
Jesus to Calvary s in such a bad condition,”
my wife said again.
Is the Israeli government listening?
Franciscans say that it’s “important that the pilgrim,
who feel bewildered, allow themselves to be embraced by the mystery and
understand that like him, thousands of other pilgrims considered it worth
risking their lives to adore our Saviour”.
As Fr Vitores wrote, only kneeling on the Empty Tomb and
forgetting everything that surrounds Him, will the pilgrim be able to hear the
words of the angel “He is not here! He is risen! Come see the place where the
Lord lay.”
Franciscans manage St Catherine church in Bethlehem, Gethsemane garden of olives, the shrine of
flagellation, VII Station, the Basilica of Annunciation in Nazareth,
Church of first miracle in Cana, the shrine of Transfiguration on Mount Tabor
and archaeological work at Capernahum and Magdala.
