I couldn’t help the tears. Drop by drop, the tears fell without my knowing it. Fragments of a song still float in my mind: “No room for the baby at Bethlehem’s Inn/Only cattle shed/No home on this earth for the dear Son of God…” Yes, there was no more room at the inn. There was only the barn and a manger. Picture the Babe laid in the manger. The opulence, the stunning magnificence of the temples and churches in the Holy City, i.e. Jerusalem, provided a stark contrast to the dark, gloomy, dilapidated shack where Jesus was born. I teared up at the awesome humbleness of it all.
As the Bible tells it—with the Bethlehem star for guide—Three Wise Men found their way to the cattle shed, bringing their gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh. What baby needs the glitter of gold, the aromatic smell of frankincense, nor the gummy myrrh? This we got from the beloved email, a question about Three Wise Women: “Do you know what would have happened if there had been three wise WOMEN instead of three wise MEN? They would have asked for directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the Baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole and given practical gifts.” If at all, in this particular case, womankind is wiser than mankind, agree or disagree.
Christmas approaches and the scene comes vividly alive—teardrops remembered in my tour of Jerusalem in 2015. My daughter Raileen, who went on a pilgrimage tour with her husband Nixon four years ago, prevailed upon her Mom to join some twenty other oldies because, “Mommy, you won’t be able to make it any year later.” Well, this octogenarian came up hale and hearty after a nine-day expedition in the choice land of Christian pilgrims.
In the piousness of my Jerusalem journey, humor was a propeller.
I’ve always believed that feelings of empathy and compassion are balanced—or even heightened by a sense of humor. Laughter that spice up the tears is good for the physical and the spiritual, i.e., for both the body and the soul. I concur with The Reader’s Digest that Laughter is the Best Medicine. Take this tete-a-tete after our baptism at the Jordan River. Said I to the group: “Your friend Julie was rebaptized. From now on, call me Julie Andrews.” Sing! was the command. Do re me – the Sound of Silence ensued.
In the wave-less Dead Sea—its salt-laden waters known for therapeutic powers—this swimming aficionado could not display her free-style prowess. A bathing suit was absent in my wardrobe. Gosh, who needs a bathing suit in this anticipated religious sojourn? No way to show my capability, like it was in the UP swimming pool of long ago.
“Anongisinulatmo? What was your petition?” asked Fr. George Snyder who saw me coming out ahead of the throng that gathered in the iconic Wailing Wall. “I’ll tell the group in our meeting,” I answered crisply smiling. Fr. Snyder, our pilgrimage adviser, was then our parish priest in the St. Joseph Church in Redding, California. It is to Filipino-American Fr. Snyder’s credit that he can speak Tagalog more fluently than this Ilongga ever could.
Indeed, what did I write? The group was insistent in our meeting.
“Well, you’re all included in my prayer: Peace for all of humankind.” Applause followed. No wailing, I said. No tears. No long sheet of paper for the petition and prayers. Just a tiny piece of paper which I neatly rolled and inserted in the tiniest crevice I could find. Hope fluttered that, perchance, I would be back at the Wailing Wall, in another pilgrimage tour, and I would find the very same tiny piece of paper where I inserted it—instead of being swept away along with the rest of individual pledges and pleadings. And even to find how right I am in my prognosis: Peace has really reigned in the entire world!
The long series of steps notwithstanding, I managed to reach the top of Mt, Precipice—from which, I surmised, must have sprung the adjective precipitous. Two tablets were juxtaposed: one carved in English, the other in Jewish. Hannah, our Jew tour guide, who speaks excellent English, asked if we’d found an error in the tablet. I raised my hand instantly. The English tablet ends with the words ancient piriod. Wrongly spelled is piriod. Of course, it should be period. The error is in the narrative, Hannah explained. “Jesus did not jump from the top of Mt. Precipice to evade the soldiers about to capture him. Rather, he faced the soldiers who were the ones who ran away.” No tears. No untoward incident. Just a typographical error, you bet. Finding typo errors goes with the territory—to be idiomatic about it— after years of my writing and editing job to earn a living.
Now my tip for priceless souvenirs: a leaf, a flower, a stone gathered along the way. Priceless because no dollar was expended. Petals of variegated flowers to make a potpourri sprayed with perfume to exude the sweet aroma in any room. A penthel pen with which to write the date and place where the stone was picked up and the petals gathered. Did the priceless souvenirs come from the Mount of Olives, Mount Zion, Mosque Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Via Dolorosa pathway, etc.?
And now for the seething AFP headline:
US vetoes UN resolution rejecting Trump’s Jerusalem decision series at Corpus Christi Parish will include
“The US was the sole objector to a UN Security Council measure rejecting President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“The United States on [Dec. 11, 2917] vetoed a draft UN resolution rejecting President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, after all 14 other Security Council members backed the measure.
“The veto cast by US Ambassador Nikki Haley highlighted Washington’s isolation over Trump’s announcement that the US embassy will be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, effectively ignoring Palestinian claims on the city.
“The shift by the Republican president, announced earlier [Dec. 6, 2017] broke with international consensus, triggering protests across the Muslim world and strong condemnation.
“Key US allies Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Ukraine were among the 14 countries in the 15-member council that voted in favor of the proposed measure put forward by Egypt. The draft resolution reaffirmed that Jerusalem is an issue “to be resolved through negotiations” between Israel and the Palestinians and that any decisions on the status of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded.”
“Israel’s army said around 2,500 people were involved in “riots” in the West Bank and about 3,500 in Gaza.Friday’s deaths brought to eight the number of Palestinians killed in violence or air strikes since Trump’s Jerusalem move.
“In Jordan, thousands of people also demonstrated on Friday in the latest round of protests called by the Muslim Brotherhood, burning Israeli and American flags.”
Did what I wrote in the Wailing Wall come to naught? Peace for all of humankind. As of this moment, the littlest I can say on the debacle: Hope springs eternal in the human heart.
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Julia Carreon-Lagoc was a Panay News columnist for two decades. She pops up with Accents now and then. (juliaclagoc@yahoo.com)/WDJ