Journey to the Holy Land
Fewer Christians make pilgrimage to Israel

By Rebecca Bostic, The Catholic Sun
June 7, 2007

JERUSALEM — Settled near the western edge of Israel, a country similar in geographic size to New Jersey, Jerusalem is called a spiritual home by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.

It is no surprise that most Christians know the coastal Mediterranean country simply as “The Holy Land.” Yet, with all that Israel holds for the Christian faith, every year fewer Christians visit and an even smaller number inhabit the land where Jesus Christ walked.

Small bushes with tiny yellow flowers pepper the hills of Israel in spring. The yellow mustard seed plant covers the land, making it clear that in “The Parable of the Mustard Seed” Christ had a clear vision of Christianity spreading throughout the world.

Israel is the backdrop of the Bible and visiting Nazareth, Capernaum, Tiberius, Jerusalem and all the land that Jesus covered with his ministry changes tourists’ lives.

Mary Arnold has wanted to travel to Israel for a long time.

In 13 years of working with the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program, which she now directs at St. Maria Goretti Parish in Scottsdale, she has become well-acquainted with the land of Israel through maps and information taught in the program.

She finally traveled to Israel with Logos Ministries Bible teacher Kevin Saunders last March.

“I wanted to go to Israel with his group because I knew I’d learn so much and wanted to experience the Bible study on the actual site,” Arnold said.

Standing in the Upper Room of the Cenacle imagining Jesus and His disciples at the Last Supper and His disciples at Pentecost was one of her favorite parts of the trip.

“Just being in Jerusalem on the ground that most of the world considers so sacred was very humbling and increases a person’s faith in the God of Abraham,” Arnold said. “I felt it was a very ecumenical place.”

Muslims and Jews primarily populate Israel, with Christians making up just two percent of its residents. The city is divided into four quarters — Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Armenian.

While the Christian and Muslim quarters have streets packed with vendors selling food, religious artifacts and tourist gifts, the Jewish quarter is pristine and peaceful.

There is not a physical boundary marking the different quarters, but the difference is obvious. One emerges from shadowed narrow streets filled with open-air vendors into a lit passage in the Jewish quarter that is more than 1,000 years old. Still, the Jewish quarter looks new with small shops selling artwork and fine jewelry.

The most vivid demonstration of the intersection of faiths is at the site of the Jewish temple of Jesus’ time. The temple has fallen, but one wall — called the Wailing Wall — still stands.

Faithful from around the world gather to pray at this massive wall that many Jewish believers consider the holiest site on Earth. Prayers written on small slips of paper are tightly folded and crammed into the wall’s crevices.

Above the Wailing Wall lies the Dome of the Rock — a mosque with a shining golden dome where Muslims permitted to enter venerate the rock believed to be the altar on which Abraham nearly sacrificed his first-born son Isaac.

Tourists are sometimes allowed to tour the grounds surrounding the Dome of the Rock, but a sign at the entrance warns Orthodox Jews not to enter in case they inadvertently step into the area that formerly was the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctuary of the tabernacle, in the original temple.

While the Wailing Wall and Dome of the Rock certainly hold religious significance for Christians, the most spiritually significant site is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which was built up around the areas where it is believed Jesus was crucified and buried.

The name of the church certainly makes the spiritual gravity of the site clear, but the atmosphere of the bustling, crowded building is more hectic than peaceful.

In small groups, pilgrims walk into the narrow tomb that holds the slab of rock believed to be the one on which Jesus laid and from which he later arose. Prayers in dozens of tongues are heard throughout the halls of the church.

Those who wish to kneel near the crevice in the ground believed to have held Christ’s cross wait surrounded by ornate religious decorations from Eastern Christianity.  They then exit through a more sparsely decorated side of the room run by a group adhering to the Western Christian tradition.

Gila Yudkin has been leading groups of tourists through the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and all over Israel for the past 29 years. A native of Connecticut, Yudkin moved to Israel as a teenager.

When leading tours Yudkin guides at sites from every part of the Bible and tries to “walk in the footsteps of Jesus” as much as possible.

“When we read Scripture in its original landscape, what was originally black and white takes on vivid color and a third dimension,” Yudkin said. “When we listen to Jesus’ words at that same site where He pronounced them, very often the meaning just leaps off the page and into our hearts and minds.”

Yudkin believes that a pilgrimage to Israel can be a powerful trip for any person.

“Judeo-Christian heritage originates in Israel,” Yudkin said. “It’s a cultural hodgepodge of West and East with people from a multitude of ethnic backgrounds and religious sensibilities.”

There are few Christians who wouldn’t like to travel to Israel, and yet for many years the Israeli tourism industry has suffered. Many fear for their personal safety, a concern Yudkin believes is unnecessary.

“We visit only safe and secure places,” Yudkin said. “In 29 years of guiding, my only casualties have been broken ankles from carelessness and dehydration from not drinking enough water.”

She asserts that the media “seems to have a vested interest in making Israel look unsafe. Most of the headlines now are generated in Gaza. None of my tours have gone anywhere near Gaza in 20 years,” Yudkin said.

Mary Arnold admits she was apprehensive about her planned March tour with Yudkin and Saunders after the violence last summer between Hezbollah and the Israeli army.

Then, after being assured by Saunders that it was not life threatening, Arnold decided to “trust in God that we’d be OK,” she said. “At no time during our trip did I feel we were in danger.”

Fr. Eamon Kelly, with the Pontifical Institute at the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, hopes that more people will swallow their fear and visit Israel. He sees it as a responsibility of Christians to visit and financially support the land in which the Savior ministered.

“I don’t want to sound sensational, but Christians are going extinct in Israel,” Fr. Kelly said, pointing to a lack of support and willingness to travel to the country as one of the causes. “We simply need more Catholics visiting the Holy Land.”

The history of the world becomes a blink in time traveling through Israel. As one visits the site of the prophet Elijah slaying 450 prophets of Baal and the Valley of Elah where David slew Goliath, it is then that one realizes the vast history that preceded Jesus Christ.

Walking the land that Jesus did brings the Bible and the ministry of Jesus into focus. After experiencing the transfer from light to darkness in a midday storm on the Sea of Galilee, it is no longer a thing of wonder that the disciples were so moved by Jesus calming the raging winds.

“Traveling to Israel has opened my eyes and my heart to listen and learn more about my Catholic faith,” Arnold said. “It was an opportunity to come face to face with people of other faiths who love God as well. I feel closer to God.”