Reflection by Rev. Msgr. Raymond Kupke
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I led a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in January 2013. Among the pilgrims in our group was Ed Rubin, a clinical psychologist and former Maryknoll seminarian, who had spent a career helping people at the Mount Carmel Guild Social Services Center, the Veterans Administration Hospital at Lyons, and the Paterson Diocesan Marriage Tribunal and Vocations Office. At eighty-two, the pilgrimage fulfilled a long-held dream for Ed.
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Every pilgrim has their own favorite place in the Holy Land. Each has that spot which ties the whole trip together, which makes everything real, where God’s grace breaks through in a palpable way. For Ed, it was the Basilica of the Agony, better known as the Church of All Nations, at the Garden of Gethsemani. Over-zealous pilgrims have been a problem in the Holy Land for centuries. The famous fourth-century Spanish pilgrim, Egeria, recounts issues with relic-seekers in 382 A.D. At the Garden of Gethsemani, the protections against such pilgrims are subtle. The olive trees in the garden are cropped high enough that no pilgrim can jump up and grab an olive branch and strip it off the tree as a souvenir. And in the church, the rock where tradition holds that Jesus prayed and wept through his Agony, is surrounded by a railing. Evocative of the Crown of Thorns, this railing, a gift of the people of Australia, is just high enough and spikey enough to prevent any pilgrim who might be tempted to reach over and chip off a piece of the rock.
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We had some time in this church and as I was in a front pew praying I was also watching Ed, who was obviously very moved by this holy place. As I saw him rise up and approach the front, I could sense what he was up to, and in my mind I was screaming at him, “Ed, don’t try it; you can’t do it.” But in a remarkably graceful movement, Ed managed to shed his eighty-two years, give full extension to his lanky frame, and lean over the railing and touch – no, caress – the rock of Jesus’ Agony.
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One month later I presided at Ed’s funeral. He had lost his balance in his own home and fallen down a flight of stairs.
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I have no idea what transpired with Ed that afternoon at Gethsemani, what he knew or sensed. But I do know that for him – and for me – it was a moment of grace. Is that not what we all seek during this Lent – to become pilgrims and on the way to Easter, to so open ourselves to God, that his grace may reach down and touch us in an ever more profound way.
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| Reverend Monsignor Raymond Kupke, Ph.D. is a priest of the Diocese of Paterson and pastor of St. Anthony Church in Hawthorne, NJ. Msgr. Kupke is an adjunct professor of Church History at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology.
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