Monday, February 22, 2016

Day 7: Moving to Tiberias



Today was sad in that we had to say goodbye to our “home” in Jerusalem (the Knight’s Palace Guest House) and move on to Tiberias. In doing so we drove past Magdala (home of Mary Magdalene) and into Galilee. The Sea of Galilee and the area around it is truly beautiful. There are many small villages around Galilee that are truly gorgeous. Among The areas in Galilee that one might recognize are Tiberias (where we are staying at the Mount of Beatitudes), Magdala, Capernaum, Nazareth, Agrippina, Japhia, Mount Tabor, Mount Moreh, Cana, and Kadesh, just to name a few.


On the way to Galilee, we stopped in Emmaus. In the Gospel of Luke, Luke mentioned that Jesus appeared after his death and resurrection to two of his disciples – a man and a women (presumably a married couple) – while they were walking on a road to Emmaus. These disciples has heard about Jesus’s tomb being empty, and they were discussing the events of the day when they came upon Jesus. “Their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” He soon rebukes them for their unbelief, and He explain prophecies about the Messiah to the. On reaching Emmaus, they ask the stranger to join them for the evening meal. When he breaks the bread “their eyes were opened” and they recognized Him as the resurrected Jesus, and Jesus immediately vanishes. I often wonder if I would recognize Jesus in moments like this. I pray that I would.


While in Emmaus, Monsignor Al and Father Rich celebrated Mass at Emmaus Nicopolis on or near the spot where this meal with Jesus and his two disciples occurred. After the Mass, we hit the road again, and we visited Megiddo. In the ancient world, it guarded the western branch of a narrow pass and trade route between Egypt and Assyria. In Greek, Meggido, is known as “Armageddon,” and many believe that Jesus will return to this location on earth to defeat the Antichrist (the beast) or Satan in the Battle of Armageddon, then Satan will be put into the “bottomless pit” for 1,000 years.


After this adventure, our bus driver and our guide treated us to a real picnic lunch with fresh sesame bread, cream cheese, local spices and yogurt. Yummy!!!


At this point, we drove along the Sea Galilee until we arrived at our “home” for the next few days, Mount of Beatitudes Guest House. It is so lovely and peaceful here. We are going to Nazareth and Cana tomorrow!


Peace!

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