Jerusalem, Israel - After three-days of touring in the Region of Judea around the Sea of Galilee, where our Lord Jesus Christ did his Galilean ministry and did so many miracles and healing of sick people, we finally left Tiberias and moved towards Jerusalem. But we didn't go straight to Jerusalem…rather we took the longer route by first going to Haifa, the biggest Port in Israel where the Carmelite Monastery in Mt. Carmel is situated on top of a very high mountain overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It is an hour and a half freeway ride from Tiberias. But the trip took longer as there was a bad accident on the freeway and traffic was snarled and we missed the mass.
Mt. Carmel is known as the site where the Prophet Elijah lived inside a cave like a hermit and in 1206-14 when their Prior St. Brocard solicited a written rule of the life from St. Albert, the Patriarch of Jerusalem. This placed the order in the Diocese of Jerusalem, where they became known as the Carmelite Order. Centuries later, we even have our own Carmelite monastery in Cebu and many other places in the Philippines.
We then left Mt. Carmel for the City of Caesarea and right on the beach we got to see the remains of a Roman Aqueduct that carried water from as far as 7.5 kilometers to Caesarea. Only a few kilometers of this Aqueduct stands today. Beside it is a parallel aqueduct made during the Byzantine Period, which is also in ruins. But the Roman Aqueduct is better built.
As we left those Roman and Byzantine ruins, our tour guide Exie asked Abraham the bus driver to stop before we reached the main road. As we went down, she showed up a thistle brush, which is abundant in the area with sharp thorns. For sure, the crown of thorns that the Romans pushed hard over the head of our Lord Jesus Christ must have come from that area. Right next to these ruins is the Caesarea National Park, which was once the city, built by King Herod the Great whom he named in honor of the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar.
I have seen a National Geographic documentary on this very impressive archaeological site that has now been turned into a national park. There you will still see the ruins of King Herod's magnificent Palace that juts out into the sea. While it is in total ruins now, you can still see the flooring of this palace, which had a swimming pool in the middle of the Palace courtyard. When King Herod died, Caesarea became the headquarters of the Roman occupiers of Israel. Pontius Pilate, the Governor of Judea once stayed in that palace and if you read the Book of Acts, it is the place where the Romans brought the Apostle Paul from Jerusalem.
Behind King Herod's Palace is the Amphitheater that the Romans used for their gladiatorial entertainment. Beside the Palace is the Hippodrome where Chariot Races were once held. That's the Roman equivalent of the F1 races in their time. This facility that King Herod built also had an excellent man-made harbor where sailing ships would dock from the Ports of Rome or from Crete or Greece. This made Caesarea a bustling economic powerhouse in the region.
But then the Roman Empire fell and the Byzantine period took over Israel, then the Muslims came and destroyed everything until the First Crusades arrived and revived Caesarea. Today, it is one of Israel's most popular tourism sites, next to Jerusalem and the Sea of Galilee.
From Caesarea we finally motored towards Jerusalem, which is an hour and a half ride by bus up into a high plateau. We arrived at the outskirts of Jerusalem for lunch in a place called Abu Ghosh, which is located in between Jerusalem and Nicopolis, which is traditionally known as the "Road to Emmaus" where a Christian-Arab village is located. This is also known as the ancient Kiryat Ye'arim, where the Ark of the Covenant rested for 20 years until King David brought it to Jerusalem.
After lunch, we rode towards Ain Karem, the traditional site where Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth lived. During the Annunciation, the Angel Gabriel announced to the Blessed Virgin that her cousin Elizabeth who was barren was expecting a son and was now on her sixth month. As the Bible story goes, "Mary went to visit Elizabeth in haste to the hill country."
After our visit to Nazareth the other day where we prayed the Angelus at exactly 12 noon inside the Church of the Annunciation, we have come to realize that the visitation wasn't an easy journey for the Blessed Virgin Mary as Ain Karem is 150 kilometers south of Nazareth where the roads are difficult and extremely rugged especially for a pregnant woman.
Again Fr. Gerry Martiano officiated a Holy Mass for the group assisted by Fr. Dante Barcelona, where everyone was requested to say aloud their prayers. My prayer was for our sick nation and our distraught people weary of earthquakes, floods and corruption in the government.
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