Israel: Following the footsteps of Jesus

Tiberias, Israel - Early Sunday morning, we left the Al-Fanar Palace Hotel for a short 45-minute ride to the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge spanning the Jordan River, the border between Israel and Jordan. Of course we were prepared for a tighter security checks… after all this is Israel, where its neighbors aren't exactly friendly to this Jewish State. As Delmar Tours & Travel gave us a briefing not only of our itinerary, it included tips about getting into the Israeli Border Post.

First stop was on the Jordan Border Patrol, where our bags were checked in an x-ray scanner… though I thought they did not bring down all the bags inside the bus. We gave our passports to David, our tour guide, and waited in the air-conditioned bus for around 40 minutes. Then the bus moved towards what I would say was a "No Man's Land" into the Israel side on the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge, which spans a dried-up Jordan River.

While I had my TV Crew for Straight from the Sky with me… we were not allowed to take any video footage, not even photographs of the border between Jordan and Israel. Then the tour bus arrived in the Israeli side where a pretty young lady official approached the bus and gave instructions on the unloading of our bags and pointed us to the Immigration booths. Looks maybe misleading… that pretty young thing that approached the bus was probably working for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and an expert in hand-to-hand combat. So we obeyed their orders like feeble sheep.

The lady official pointed to me and Fr. Gerry Martiano to follow her with our bags and led us to the Immigration booth, where there were long lines, many of them in Muslim garb. The Immigration asked me only two questions… "Are you Filipino? Then he asked… when are we going back home? Then it was all done. But what took me aback was, both Fr. Gerry and I didn't have to get our bags x-rayed. Here we are, anxious about Israeli Security and they didn't even bother to check my bags?

The rest of the group arrived and we were off to our first pilgrimage to Mt. Tabor with new tour guide Exie "Romana" who is a walking biblical encyclopedia. Indeed, if you're on a pilgrimage tour, you should brush up on your Bible or at least get a tour agency that gives you smart tour guides. But before going to Mt. Tabor, it was time for lunch as our leaving the Jordanian border to go to the Israeli Border took our entire morning.

As we were turning towards the Sahara Restaurant, Exie pointed to the signs "Nain" and "Widow's Son" just below the MacDonald's Golden Arch. It turned out to be the very town that was written in Luke 7:11-17 where our Lord Jesus Christ was passing by the town of Nain with his disciples and were met by a funeral procession, which a young man died, the only son of his widowed mother. Jesus was so filled with pity and compassion, he touched the coffin and said, "Young man, arise!" And Jesus gave the risen son to his mother and everyone praised God for a great prophet has risen.

It finally bore on me that we were in Israel, where our Lord Jesus Christ was born and walked the earth and was crucified that this pilgrimage would take us to the sites written in scripture and the Gospels, thus making the Bible stories truly alive. They're no longer words or stories in our Bibles, but they all happened right here in Israel 2,000 years ago!

Then we took a short steep ride to Mt. Tabor, which was truly a very high mountain. But the tour buses are not allowed to go up the last three kilometers to the top as the roads are quite narrow complete with hairpin turns. We transferred to mini-vans and went up to the top of Mt. Tabor where the Franciscan Church of the Transfiguration is located. This is when Peter, James and John joined our Lord Jesus Christ to a "High Mountain" and Catholic tradition says that this was the place.

As written by Mark, the garment of our Lord Jesus was in dazzling white… and a Shekinah Glory cloud appeared and the voice of God said, "This is my beloved Son whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him." Jesus was with Moses and Elijah and the Church of the Transfiguration has two small chapels. The Chapel of Moses and the Chapel of Elijah.

Fr. Gerry Martiano concelebrated a mass with Fr. Dante Barcelona, as it was the first time for both priests to be in the Holy Land. Fr. Gerry surprised me by asking me to share my thoughts and reflections in lieu of his homily. It was also a first for me to do so. I merely pointed out that our pilgrimage started in Mt. Nebo, which was at the end of the life of Moses… and as we entered Israel, we immediately went to Mt. Tabor where the evangelist Mark reports that our Lord Jesus Christ was with Elijah and Moses. What was surprising in our visit to Mt. Tabor was, when we were going to the mountain, a solitary cloud hovered on top of the summit. Was it the Shekinah Glory cloud of God? Perhaps as I don't believe in coincidences!

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