REFLECTIONS ON THE HEALING OF A LEPER (Mk 1: 40-45) XVII
This week we are speaking of the importance of what St. Ignatius of Loyola describes as “composition of place” in the prelude to our contemplation of the life of Christ.
Yesterday I allowed myself to call to mind some of the memories I made walking through the Holy Land on my pilgrimage. At the end of my reflection, I encouraged you to visit the places where the Lord lived not only because it allows us to better understand the humanity of the Son of God, but also because the Holy Spirit will be able to use it to show us what otherwise would be more difficult or impossible to discover.
I heard a Spanish priest from Servi Trinitatis, Fr. Mario, use a beautiful expression to refer to the Land of Jesus: “the fifth gospel". The life and words of Jesus Christ have been written down, we know, in the narrations of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But God wrote salvation history with deeds before doing so in written words and those events happened in a particular place, at a specific time. Just as the 4 Gospels in our Bibles bring us closer to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, Messiah and Son of God (Mk 1:1), the places where the life of the Lord unfolded also offer us access to the mystery of Jesus Christ.
Continuing with this analogy, I want to invite you to read this fifth gospel. There, almost by osmosis, the Person of Jesus is assimilated. In the streets of Jerusalem, in the fields of Galilee, in the caves of the Judean desert, on the shores and sands of the Mediterranean Sea, in the mountains of Naphtali, on the banks of the Jordan, in the olive trees of Palestine, and on the banks of the Lake of Tiberias, the pilgrim who opens his heart to God learns from the Lord. Jesus was there! There he grew up, he spoke, he worked, he walked, he worked miracles, felt joy and suffered, there our Lord died and rose again. It is interesting to point out that St. Ignatius of Loyola marched to the Holy Land during the process of his conversion when he was 33 years old and, somehow, his Spiritual Exercises, in many aspects and in details here and there, manifest the deep mark that this pilgrimage made in his soul and in the Exercises themselves that would later transform the hearts of so many men throughout history.
So to those who listen to me or read this, I advise you to go to the Holy Land. And I must add, when you do, take that grace very seriously. I say this because I have the impression that most of the pilgrimages to Israel don’t produce the fruits of conversion. There are many reasons and it would take a long time to get into this discussion, but it is evident that going to the Holy Land, in itself, does not change anyone's life, in the same way that reading the Gospel without also opening the heart to the love of God is useless. The effectiveness of such a journey is not automatic, and it is not serious or responsible to think that by setting foot there and visiting the land of Jesus our lives will be more holy.
If you go, go with the desire to change your life. Go with the determination to make the most of that grace. Prepare yourself properly, pray, offer sacrifices, be quiet, and give God time and space while you are there. Relate to the people in those places. Get out of yourself and learn from what is strange to you. Eat what they serve you and soak up everything that God, in his land, wants to give you. Don't take the noise of our modern world to those holy places. Really make an inner path because, in the end, everything you live there must serve to change your heart.
If you have these attitudes, go. If you don't have them, work to acquire them before you go, and when you finally set foot in the Land of the Lord, read that gospel, the fifth gospel, and the other 4 of your Bible, and you will find Jesus. Read them very slowly, without haste, and may your soul be a sponge that absorbs that living Word that is Christ, who invites us to communion with God in this life and to eternal joy in the true homeland in Paradise. (Heb 11:16)