THE WORLD IS CONNECTED

EL SALVADOR AND BEIT JALA


The day before I left we went to Sunday Mass in the Catholic church in Beit Jala, on the grounds of the Latin Patriachate’s seminary.

The Mass was very participative – with a choir, lay readers, and altar boys and girls.

But as I looked at one of the altar boys I thought I was back in El Salvador. The color of his skin, the shape of the face of this young teenager reminded me of boys I had seen in El Salvador.

But then I remembered. This boy doesn’t resemble Salvadorans. It’s the other way around.

In the early 1900s Palestinians left and many went to Latin America, largely to escape the efforts of the Ottoman Empire to recruit them into the army.

A good number of these Palestinians settled in El Salvador. In fact the candidates in the 2004 presidential election were both descendants of Salvadorans! The first night as I entered Bethlehem about 3:00 am I saw a sign over a shop – the Saca brothers; a few days later I saw a sign on the door of another store – Handal.

My heart has been touched by experiencing the struggles and sufferings of so many people in El Salvador. So here again, in Palestine, the poor have touched my heart


DINNER IN THREE LANGUAGES


Three times Omar and I went to visit the family of a student I know. The three daughters knew some English but were reluctant to speak it; so Omar did a lot of translating.

But I spoke directly with the grandmother – in Spanish! Elen is in her later eighties, hard of hearing, but full of spunk. She had been born in Chile and returned to Palestine when she was still a child.

Elenandme
Elen and I in Beit Jala


And so we conversed in Spanish – as other members of the household spoke in Arabic. Occasionally Omar translated something for me into English.

She was especially concerned that I wasn’t married. She was also concerned about Omar’s father who lost his wife four years ago. She was going to be our matchmaker!

The volume was loud – not only when I tried to get Elen to hear me, but almost all the time. The energy was high, especially when the father, Elen’s son, was present.

It was another case of being welcomed. Here again I experienced the great hospitality of the Palestinian people.

In Ramallah, we visited with a distant relative of Omar’s. We talked about nonviolence. Two of the sons and the father played the oud. We sat around the kitchen table as the mother and the boys made pastries stuffed with spinach and onion.

In Lydd, the Bedouins served us thick coffee laced with cardamon.

In Taybeh Maria insisted we stay for lunch. “I’ve already prepared lunch for the family and I’m only adding a few more spoonfuls.”

Everywhere people offered tea.

It was just like El Salvador, where I have so many times been fed and housed by the poor.

One of my favorite icons is the hospitality of Abraham and Sarah. In the foreground are three angels seated around a table, laden with food. Behind them are Abraham and Sarah, standing and waiting on their guests. This was my experience in Palestine and Israel. This is the challenge for us all too private and individualistic North Americans.


ORTHOPRAXIS


The Christian community in Palestine is very heterogeneous. The largest Palestinian Christian communities are the Greek Orthodox, the Greek Catholics (often called the Melkite Catholics) and the Roman Catholics. There are a number of other groups – including small groups of Anglicans and Lutherans. There is some cooperation – though there is also a lot of pride in one’s inherited religion.

Omar was baptized Orthodox, but is truly ecumenical in his faith. Yet he still holds dear his Orthodox heritage, especially since it was the faith of his mother who died four years ago.

A family in Beit Jala whom he and I visited several times is Catholic, very Catholic. The father is very involved in the local Catholic church. One daughter is teaching in a Catholic school and another daughter attends Bethlehem University.

The subject of religion often came up. The family was glad that I was Catholic and that I worked in a Catholic Church. The father good-naturedly teased Omar about being Orthodox.

At one point I wanted to tell them that I was really an Orthopractic.

Praxis, the Greek word for action, has become, especially in Latin America, a word for the type of action that flows from a faithful analysis of reality. Orthopraxis thus means the right way of acting.

Doxa, in Greek, means belief but it can also refer to glory.

So the critical issue for a believer is about right belief and the right way to glorify God – as the Orthodox might say. The issue is also about embracing the universal message of Jesus – as Catholics might say.

But as I read the Gospel for Thursday of the first week of Advent, the central message was one not so much about what we believe or how we worship, though these are extremely important. The message was whether we do the will of God, whether we practice what we believe, whether we live out how we worship God, if we glorify God in all we do. “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord,” will enter the Kingdom of God. But whoever does the will of my heavenly Father.” (Matthew 7: 21)

And then the day before I left, the Second Sunday of Advent, I listened as the Gospel reinforced the message: “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.” (Matthew 3:8) Let us all be good Orthopractics – and so glorify God!