In this CARF Reflection Meeting we spoke with experts about the hope that is making its way among the communities of the Holy Land, the mother Church of Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ lived and died.
"Last year it was the Holy Week of silence and impact; this year it will be the Holy Week of hope and resurrection."Salvador Rosas, a Mexican Franciscan friar who has been the custodian of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem for 10 years.
The online dialogue between Fray Salvador and Ana Lucía Guerra, expert on the Holy Land and director of the Red Peregrina travel agency. gathered more than one hundred live visitors who wanted to know first hand the situation of the Holy Places and when they will be able to travel to the land of Jesus. CARF plans to organize the next pilgrimage to the Holy Land in February 2022, called Holy Land the trip of a lifetime.
In Israel, thanks to the fact that more than six million people (out of a total population of nine) have already received the two doses of the coronavirus vaccine, normality is gradually returning. Children and young people are going to school, workers are returning to their workplaces, stores and restaurants are opening, local Christians are going to the shrines..."There is a spirit of confidence that we didn't see six months ago."said the custodian of the Holy Sepulcher.
Fray Salvador has not yet been vaccinated. "At Christmas I won the lottery. A brother in my community tested positive and some of us also got vaccinated, including me. I have a certain immunity and I won't be vaccinated for another three months," he told the online reflection meeting. He spent Christmas indoors praying for all the people who are suffering and for the end of the pandemic.
During Throughout this year, the Franciscan friar has seen the suffering of many families who have lost their jobs, many sick people alone without their families in the hospitals.Although most of them were able to receive the sacraments before they died, they even saw one of their brothers from their community depart for Heaven.
Salvador Rosas, in the Holy Sepulcher of the Holy Land, which he has kept with his congregation for more than ten years.
The Franciscan friar recalls for the listeners of the reflection meeting, the sad day, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the Holy Sepulcher had to be closed. "That image is impressive. Today, March 25, marks one year since the closing of the basilica.. We were told half an hour in advance. At 4:30 we were told that the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher would be closed at 5:00 p.m. At that time, we sped up the procession. At that moment, we accelerated the procession's pace".
Like the rest of the world, they figured the confinement would last just a fortnight. "The pandemic had arrived a month before, but we imagined that things would be resolved quickly. I am Mexican and I had the memory of the 2009 swine flu in my country, which was controlled in a couple of months. We thought that by Easter we would be open again."
But this was not the case. The silence of the Holy Sepulcher during all these months has been shocking for the community of ten Franciscans who guard the tomb of Jesus.. Holy Week behind closed doors, celebrated only with the brothers of his community and five people from outside. No pilgrims. No faithful.
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After three general confinements in the country, the first step has now been taken with vaccinations. "People here are eager to see pilgrims, to walk the streets of the holy city again. Those immunized and vaccinated are receiving a green passport. to enter shows and closed venues that will allow us to travel abroad. These passports will mark pilgrimages in the coming years in all countries."Salvador explained yesterday at the online reflection meeting. He also affirms that to make a pilgrimage to For every Christian, the Holy Land is a commitment of faith..
It is expected that, by this summer, the first communities that have received the vaccination will have more open doors to enter Israel. "Starting this summer we will begin to see pilgrims from abroad, overcoming quarantine hurdles."
Speaker at the last CARF Reflection Meeting on the Holy Land. Ana Lucía Guerra, expert on the Holy Land and director of the travel agency Red Peregrina and Fray Salvador. It was conducted online and was attended by more than 100 listeners.
Ana Lucia Guerra, who has been to the Holy Places several times, asked Friar Salvador about the Christians of the Holy Land, a minority population, and how they have survived during this time.
"Our Christians for the most part live on pilgrimages and their survival has been affected. Thanks to their savings, the help of their relatives living abroad, the Latin Patriarchate, institutions such as Caritas and the Custody of the Holy Land, and also some help from the Israeli government, they have been able to get by," explained Friar Salvador, who is usually the guide for the CARF pilgrimages.
But it is not only Christians who have been affected by the cancellation of pilgrimages: the Jewish and Muslim populations have also suffered from these restrictions. It should be remembered that other pilgrims of these denominations come to Jerusalem to pray at the Wailing Wall or at their mosques.
CARF reflection meeting, Holy Land in pandemicThe meeting, held on March 24, 2021, allowed us to learn more about the land of Jesus Christ during this past year from two local experts.
Jerusalem is undoubtedly the place where Holy Week is experienced in its fullness. This year, local Christians will once again be able to celebrate the commemoration of the Lord's last days on earth.
Friar Salvador tells how Holy Week is lived in "an ideal world". "Jerusalem is a song of colors, of liturgies, of experiences. Holy Week is lived in the same land where Jesus walked. The Palm Sunday procession through the same door through which the Lord entered; the washing of the feet in the same Cenacle where Jesus established the commandment of love. The Stations of the Cross through the same streets where Christ carried his cross and fell three times; praying in front of the stone where Jesus was crucified...., is impressive".
This is why the Good Friday collection for the Holy Places is so important, a tradition that dates back to the time of St. Paul and has been preserved by the various popes throughout history.
"Jerusalem is the mother Church and we cannot forget her. Thanks to this collection, we are helping to maintain the Holy Places, but also to support works of evangelization, schools and hospitals," he said.
The Franciscan friar concluded this meeting of reflection by inviting all Christians not to forget the Holy Land. To this end, although it recommends that the faithful celebrate Holy Week in person in parishes or basilicas,announced two technological tools to follow the celebrations online: Custody.org y Christian Median Center.
The Franciscan friars who guard the Holy Sepulcher "We are all in communion of prayer. There has not been a day that we have not prayed for you, for the families and for all countries", concluded Friar Salvador.
