In The Places Where God Pitched His Tent

We are less than two weeks away from the canonization of Blessed John Paul II, and only a few months away from opening the exhibit of his life and legacy at the Blessed John Paul II Shrine. As we prepare here, especially during this Holy Week, we thought it would be appropriate to reflect upon one of the most important moments in the late Holy Father’s papacy: his pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Blessed John Paul II’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land was a key part of the Jubilee Year celebrations in 2000. It was also part of a bigger desire of his to visit the “‘places’ in which God has chosen to ‘pitch his tent’ among us”:

I have a strong desire to go personally to pray in the most important places which, from the Old to the New Testament, have seen God's interventions, which culminate in the mysteries of the Incarnation and of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ.

This desire was fulfilled in March of that year, when John Paul II made this pilgrimage for the entire Church.

His pilgrimage began symbolically with honoring Abraham in Rome, and it continued on to Mount Sinai where the Holy Father meditated upon those moments in the Old Testament linking the Church with the ancient people of the Covenant. There he spoke of “the Law of life and freedom,” and how, through “revealing himself on the Mountain and giving his Law, God revealed man to man himself.”

Salvation history and its connection with the dignity of every human person was something that Blessed John Paul II carried throughout the pilgrimage, which next brought him to Bethlehem. Here he spoke of the joy of Christmas, and Christ’s “power to transform our weak nature and make us capable, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, of peace with one another and communion with God himself.” 

At the Mount of the Beatitudes, he spoke to young people of their choice to follow the call of Jesus just as the disciples did:

Not far from this very place Jesus called his first disciples, as he calls you now. His call has always demanded a choice between the two voices competing for your hearts even now on this hill, the choice between good and evil, between life and death. Which voice will the young people of the twenty-first century choose to follow? To put your faith in Jesus means choosing to believe what he says, no matter how strange it may seem, and choosing to reject the claims of evil, no matter how sensible or attractive they may seem.

And on the Solemnity of the Annunciation, he asked the Mother of God at the traditional site of her meeting with the Angel Gabriel to help the Church by teaching her “the way of humble and joyful obedience to the Gospel in the service of our brothers and sisters.”

His pilgrimage was not left without witnessing to the importance of ecumenism, and the reverence he showed to his Jewish hosts proved positive for Jewish-Christian relations. He prayed for this at the Western Wall in fact, placing in it a petition for forgiveness for the many years Christians persecuted the Jewish people.

He also visited St. Peter’s house and the site of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. He concluded his time in the Holy Land at the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of the Lord’s death, burial, and Resurrection. Like we will this week, Blessed John Paul II walked the Stations of the Cross, asking the world to look at Jesus Christ, who suffered for our sins. But as we are now anticipating, he also celebrated the joy of the Resurrection:

The tomb is empty. It is a silent witness to the central event of human history: the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. For almost two thousand years the empty tomb has borne witness to the victory of Life over death. With the Apostles and Evangelists, with the Church of every time and place, we too bear witness and proclaim: “Christ is risen! Raised from the dead he will never die again; death no longer has power over him” (cf. Rom 6:9).

This pilgrimage to the Holy Land reveals to us in summary fashion much of the legacy of this great Saint. His witness to ecumenism, to the dignity of every human person, to the joy of the Incarnation, to Christ’s love for young people, to a deep love for the Blessed Mother, and to the victory of life over death did not suddenly appear as he journeyed through the place where God revealed himself. They were gifts he gave to the Church throughout his pontificate, which all happened to culminate here as he reminded the world of who Christ is.

As we count down to the canonization of Blessed John Paul II, let us pray for the grace to embrace the God who dwelt among us, especially as we prepare to celebrate His Resurrection.

Blessed John Paul II, Pray for Us!