It was a spiritually uplifting pilgrimage

We got back to Cebu late Monday evening after a very hectic, but fruitful pilgrimage to the Holy Land. During our last day in Israel, we finally got to the Dead Sea and saw the exact mountain in Qumran where the famous Dead Sea Scrolls were found. These scrolls were kept by the Essence, a Jewish sect that lived a hundred years before Christ, contained the most controversial book of Isaiah 53 that talks about the Suffering Servant.

Let me quote that part of Isaiah 53, "He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people was he stricken." The Jews of today believed that Isaiah 53 was made by Christians as the only books of Judaism existed hundreds of years after the death and resurrection of Christ. But the Dead Scrolls have proven that Isaiah existed in Israel before Christ was even born. Messianic Jews are those Jews who now have accepted our Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah and believe that he is the suffering Christ written in Isaiah 53.

We did not really enter the very cave where the Dead Sea scrolls were found because there is nothing there but a cave. The bus merely stopped by the roadside for us to take pictures. We also passed by Ein Gedi the place where there is a cave where King Saul met with King David as written in the Bible. It is also a place for pilgrimage for the Jews.

I would have wanted to climb up the Mountain of Masada a famous place for Israelis where they refused to surrender the entire fortifications and chose to die instead. It is in the mountain of Masada where King Herod had a Summer Palace where today, the Israeli Defense Forces graduate in order to know their great history. Again we only took photos of the place.

We finally arrived at the Le Meredien David Resort Hotel in Ein Bokek by the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is 55 kilometers long and 18 kilometers wide and supports only two kinds of organisms and algae. There are no other living creatures found in the Dead Sea because of its high salinity. Chemists found a high natural deposit of potassium chloride and bromme, which are used in health products. Indeed the Dead Sea was in the days of King David and Queen Cleopatra a special spa, which is why tourists still go there despite the harsh conditions. Not far from Ein Bokek is the famous remains or ruins of the City of Sodom, which God destroyed.

We arrived in our hotel quite late in the afternoon when the light was already fading and walked to the beach to swim. We had to take pictures using flash photography. Indeed swimming in the Dead Sea isn't anything near like swimming in any sea as we were warned that we should never put our heads under the water as the water would affect our eyes. Yes, even a small amount of water hitting our eyes would be discomforting. Our skin, especially on my face, burned in the area where I shave as if a saline solution was splashed on me. As we returned back to the hotel, we learned that they had two kinds of swimming pools…one using Dead Sea water and the other was a freshwater pool.

As we returned back to the Jordan River to the King Hus-sein/Allenby Bridge, we passed by the place that was known in tradition as the baptismal place of our Lord Jesus Christ. While we went to Yardenit for the renewal of our baptismal rites, it was so far from the real site. The reason was in the place where our Lord was baptized there was no longer any river flowing, but mud. Although there was a Greek Orthodox Church also near that place.

So we flew back from Jordan's Queen Alia International Airport to Dubai International to take the flight back to Manila. One thing about Dubai International Airport, they do not shut down for late flights. In fact when your flight is delayed for at least five hours the airport will give you a food coupon so you can still eat while you're waiting for your flight.

When people asked me…how important was this pilgrimage for me personally…my reply was, "It made me a better Catholic…as I now understand how it was during the time of our Lord Jesus Christ because it makes the Bible not just a book to read…but something real that happened 2,000 years ago. Indeed the pages of the Bible jump out as you read it in Jerusalem.

While most of the place we visited like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where you can touch the very hole where the cross of our Lord was inserted into the rock or in Bethlehem where you can touch the spot where our Lord was born, it is no coincidence that we can touch the very places where our Lord Jesus Christ lived and died. As a Catholic, I felt at home in Jerusalem, after all, we're not just simple flesh, we are also spiritual beings where God has promised that we'll be with him in our next life through eternity. 

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