Christmas in Bethlehem

Joe Pallugna

ISRAEL–It was a dark, rainy morning when our group met outside our hotel for a one-and-a-half-hour bus ride from Tel Aviv into Bethlehem via Jerusalem to the west of Israel’s capital.

Dark I say because the sun rises here during winter at about 8 am as it sets early at about 5:30 pm. The nights are long and the days are rainy. Fortunately, as we arrived in Jerusalem the rains have stopped.

Passports were ready since Bethlehem is located at the West Bank, in Palestine and under the control of the Palestinian Authority. It is outside Israel already.

And arriving in Palestine brought us to the Church of the Nativity. This is the supposed place where Jesus Christ was born.

We entered the Church of the Nativity through a small door where I have to literally bend down to enter. Its called The Door of Humility. Indeed, the feeling of aweness of anyone’s Supreme Being and humility in life permeats anyone who enters this massive structure built in Byzantine architecture and filled with ancient lamps and chandeliers and paintings and mosaics from walls to floors. It is the symbol of Christ’s greatness.

Inside is the Altar of Nativity underneath of which is the Grotto of Nativity built on the supposed exact place in a cave where Jesus was born and where the Three Magi visited. On the exact spot was installed a 14-point Silver Star. All visitors touched, and even some kissed, the stone within the Silver Star as reverence to Jesus.

The tradition believes that Mary and Joseph entered a cave for the birth of Jesus and hid there before they escaped to Egypt to avoid Herod’s order to kill all first-born male babies at that time. So the cave’s entrance is rightly marked inside the Church.

And just in every church tours, we passed through the adjoining Church of St. Catherine, Chapel of St. Jerome, Chapel of St. Joseph and the Chapel of the Innocents. Then we viewed the Tree of Jesse, a huge12x13 feet Bas-Relief work featuring the lineage of Christ from Abraham to Joseph.

The tour immersed everyone not only in the History of Christ but also in the history of Christendom, including the conquests by the Greeks, the Romans, the Ottomans and even by the British and the Israeli in this century.

Little did I really believe that the stories from my history schoolbooks would jump out of its pages and be real in the Church of Nativity. Little did I also realize that Bethlehem lies in Palestine where the 25,000 small population is composed of 99 percent Muslims and only one percent Christians.

Yes, ironic as it may seem but history has been full of ironies. And the Church of Nativity and Bethlehem itself is a place wrapped in conflicts and wars and rebuildings over centuries. In fact, the affiliation of the Church of Nativity is shared by Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolics, and  Roman Catholics with minor Syriac and Coptic rights. And, the preservation and ongoing restoration of the Church is largely financed and administered by the Palistinian Authority.

Again, ironically, not only is the Manger Square where Christian devoutees gather to sing Christmas carols while waiting for the start of the Christmas Mass located in front of the Church decorated with a very tall Christmas Tree, the entire Bethlehem is alit with Christmas lights along the streets and on the buildings all over.

Christmas, after all, is not only for children and Christians. It is also for grownups like me and you and for non-Christians alike who believe in the joys of life and who respect the beliefs that everyone indulges in.

E-mail: ajpallugna@gmail.com