Day Eight -- Updates and Photos

By Natalie Hoefer

JERUSALEM—With a dust storm making a haze of the city of Jerusalem, the pilgrims walked through the narrow, cobbled streets of the Old City at 6:30 a.m. for Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The massive, multi-layered church is a maze of shrines and chapels. The pilgrims climbed stone steps smoothed slick from centuries of use to the chapel next to the exposed stones of Golgotha believed to be near the spot where Christ was crucified. (See a photo gallery from their day)

In his brief homily during the half-hour Mass, Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin noted the holy place where the pilgrims stood.

“We look at the cross today, we stand where it stood, and we realize that the tree of death has become the tree of life for us,” he said.  “All we can do is be quiet and thank God.”

Archbishop Tobin reflected on the experience later in the day.

“I think the celebration of the Eucharist on the top of Golgotha was a moving experience for all of us,” he said. “I could sense it among the people and I could certainly feel it myself.

“In celebrating the Eucharist, we were renewing in an unbloody manner the sacrifice of Christ. For me that was really the highlight of the day, and maybe of the trip.”

When asked about her thoughts on the experience of Mass on Calvary, Katie Rushing of SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis teared up.

“I’m at a loss of words, to know that we stood on the place where Jesus was crucified,” she said after a moment. I just kept thinking, if I had lived then, would I have stood by the cross there with the women, or would I have fled?”

Silence was not an option later in the day as the pilgrims walked the path to Calvary on the Via Dolorosa, or the Way of the Cross. The path winds up to Calvary primarily through what is now the Muslim section of Jerusalem, with markets of colorful clothing, trinkets and souvenirs lining the narrow streets.

“The Way of the Cross was not what I expected,” admitted Cathy Flood, a member of St. Malachy Parish in Brownsburg. “I expected something more authentic—it was just a crowded marketplace that we were walking through. People were bumping into us, and some people were annoyed that we were there and shooting us looks. People were trying to sell things to us.

“I imagine that was more authentic because people were spitting on Jesus and cursing him and calling him names.”

Archbishop Tobin noted that on the Way of the Cross the pilgrims “were sharing an act of faith, and life went on around us.

“I thought of Jesus carrying his cross, and how 100,000 people were in town for the celebration of the Passover, and probably a lot of them didn’t know what was going on—probably what was the most important fact in human history.”

The pilgrims also visited the Wailing Wall, the portion of the western wall of the temple from Jesus’ time that would have been closest to the sanctuary, or holy of holies. The Jewish people now view this as a holy site where God is still present. Pilgrims write petitions and place them in crevices between the large stones of the wall. Several pilgrims joined in this ritual.

With a dust-laden drizzle coming down, pilgrims visited the archaeological remains of the Pool of Siloam where Christ gave sight to a blind man.

Both there and along the Way of the Cross, pilgrims helped each other along steps and stairs all made of uneven stone. Women linked arms, and the men literally lent hands to others as they stepped down from foot-worn steps.

“I’m very edified about how the pilgrims are helping each other,” the archbishop noted. “I’m not surprised, but I think it’s a beautiful part of pilgrimage, that it isn’t simply a personal experience of God, but it’s a shared experience that leads us to care for each other.”

See a photo gallery from Day Eight of the pilgrimage