Holy Land Day 5: Sepulcher, Bethsaida and Via Dolorosa

Today we started very early, and it was the most emotional day until today.

We arrived around 6:00 to the Holy Sepulcher, we were able to visit it with few people and really get excited until we were in tears. Before entering there is something that draws attention, there are two large doors but one closed with bricks permanently. This is because at one time a Sultan wanted to leave Jerusalem without Christians or with few because he planned to expel them. And he finally closed a door saying that after his term would be so few “Nazarenes” that a single door would suffice.

Once inside we go to the “Golgotha”, for this we must climb a staircase and at the end of it we find an altar, under it you can touch the rock where the cross of the Lord was nailed.Then we went down and saw where they cleaned the body and covered it with the Holy Shroud. And we ended up entering the Holy Sepulcher, which is a very small place with a slightly larger antechamber. Many of the pilgrims broke at this point.

This part of the visit relives the last moments of the passion and the immeasurable pain that Jesus must have gone through.Inside the same temple there is an altar that recalls the encounter of Mary Magdalene with Jesus already risen, we remember that she arrived before anyone and did not recognize him. Another altar recalling the Roman soldier who converted to recognize him as true God. A place where you see the crack caused on Earth at the time of his death, and the place where they found the cross that was actually a garbage dump found by St. Helena mother of the Emperor Constantine. When she found all these woods used as crosses, she had a blind man brought in to touch her. And by touching the Cross this person was healed, in this way they knew which was the Cross of the Lord.Later we went to the door of the sheep, was one of the four gates of the city and had this name because here came the lambs that would be slaughtered. It is also known as the door of San Esteban, because this is where this Saint was taken and martyred.

Very close to here are the pools of Betsaida, next to the Santa Ana and San Joaquín houses. In the house of these saints there is a Basilica in honor of Saint Anne. Some Christian rites recognize here as the birthplace of the Virgin Mary.

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As for the pools, this is where Jesus heals the paralytic on Saturday and this is later questioned for carrying his stretcher being Saturday and Jesus for having healed him. If we remember the gospel, the ancient Jews believed that the waters of these pools moved every so often, that this movement was caused by an angel, and that this movement cured diseases. This was discovered to be a belief since below the pools there are pipes from the time of the Canaanites that draw water from the mountains, these pipes filled with air in the drought period and when the water was re-introduced there was a Bubble effect that caused the movement of the waters. A few meters from the pools is the Praetorium and the beginning of the Via Dolorosa. Here are the first stations of the Way of the Cross remembered by the Chapel of the Condemnation and the Chapel of the Coronation of Thorns.

In the Chapel of the Condemn you can see litostofos that was the type of ground that the Romans used to enter or remove the condemned from the Praetorium. We also learned that the Roman soldiers played a game and the loser must die. Since these were Centurions and of great value to Rome, they were forbidden to play it, but they adapted it. Who lost the game should take the condemned to death on the Cross without company to the outskirts of the city, this was not easy because there could be some revolt and this Centurion would be alone. This game was called the “King’s Game” and among other things consisted of disguising the condemned as King.

This game took place in the litostofos. In the afternoon we went to Eim Kareem, a town near Jerusalem (in fact it is now a neighborhood of the city) that is in the mountainous region of Judea, exactly where Isabel and Zacarias lived. This place also appears in the Old Testament, it is precisely where the Ark of the Covenant was for three months to be recovered (it had been stolen by the Phoenicians).

Then King David, danced of JOY to know that he had again the ARK OF THE ALLIANCE. This scene was repeated almost in the same way in the New Testament, it was when Isabel saw her cousin Maria entering her house and the child jumped from GOZO in her belly to see the ARK OF THE NEW ALLIANCE (Maria) who also stayed during three months. So it was that Isabel and Zacarías had their son whom he called Juan, which means “God forgives” Until next time!

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