Dear Friend, 

Reflection by Rev. James P. Platania

A Journey of Faith in a Diverse City

When I was a newly ordained priest, I had the opportunity to spend six months studying Hebrew, archeology and the Sacred Scriptures in Jerusalem, a city held sacred by three monotheistic faiths and by many more cultures. The city proved itself diverse in its language, culture, and religion. In fact, one can visit the Muslim Dome of the Rock, the Jewish Western Wall, and the Christian Church of the Holy Sepulcher all in a brisk afternoon walk. It is a city where the Muslim call to prayer projects from mosques, church bells still ring out, and the Torah is read in both synagogues and in the public square. Prayer is everywhere—on every corner and in the air. Traditional food, clothes and other items are sold in the busy “souks,” or marketplaces, lined along each side of the skinny streets, much as it would have been in ancient times. The Jerusalem of today easily takes one’s imagination on a journey 2,000 years into the past, when the drama of the Incarnation played out in the Holy Land.

One of my favorite places to visit in Jerusalem was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which commemorates the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. The church takes its name from the tomb donated by Joseph of Arimathea, in which Jesus was buried and from which he arose gloriously triumphant. When the church was originally commissioned by Constantine the Great in the 4th Century AD, however, it was not named after the holy tomb as it is today, but was called the Church of the Anastasis, which translates as resurrection. I spent much time visiting and praying in this holy resurrection church; and it was here where I encountered all different forms of Christian worship—from the Franciscans who each afternoon would pray the Stations of the Cross, chanting prayers in Latin, to the Armenian Orthodox, who would make a great procession proclaiming the resurrection on Sunday. The prayers within the church became a microcosm of the religious and cultural diversity of the city.

My exposure to such diversity allowed me to situate my own religious traditions within a much broader context. Diverse environments elicit both curiosity and introspection that can lead to compassion, understanding, and dialogue, yet it can be a challenge to venture into new situations or expand out from what is familiar. Lent is a sacred time for the Christian to separate from what is comfortable and embrace uncomfortable situations to find out how close one is to Christ Crucified. In this way, every difficulty in life can be an opportunity for grace. As Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity wrote, “Receive every trial, every annoyance, every lack of courtesy in the light that springs from the Cross; that is how we please God, how we advance in the ways of love.” May our experiences in this Lenten journey open our hearts to the light of Christ who walked the diverse streets of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago and still leads the souls of Christians everywhere on the journey of faith.

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Rev. James P. Platania, S.S.L., S.Th.D. (Cand.) Director of the Turro Seminary Library and Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology.