DAY ONE: Pilgrimage
Perspectives
Arrival:
As the Papal Pilgrim arrives in Jordan the
spiritual nature of his journey seems overshadowed by the pomp and
ceremony of a state occasion, the visit of the Head of Vatican
City State to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. However, this
impression is quickly transformed by the warm welcome of His
Majesty King Abdullah, who speaks of his own recent religious
pilgrimage to Mecca, and the address of the Holy Father himself.
Speaking of his journey Pope John Paul II called it "a
religious Jubilee pilgrimage … to commemorate the Two Thousandth
Anniversary of the Birth of Jesus Christ." It is pilgrimage,
he notes, to a land "sanctified by the presence of Jesus
Himself, by the presence of Moses, Elijah and John the Baptist,
and of the saints and martyrs of the early Church." Only in
this context can we understand the meaning of this apostolic
journey, both for the Holy Father himself and for us.
Mt. Nebo:
From this Moabite peak Moses looked upon the
land which God had promised to the patriarch Abraham, and which on
Mt. Sinai "I AM WHO AM" (Ex 3:14) had promised he would
lead the People Israel. At the beginning of his pilgrimage Pope
John Paul II acknowledged this inheritance and prayed God's
blessings on both the people and the land. More than that, he
recalled not only God's fidelity to those promises, but their
culmination which this Great Jubilee celebrates, the coming of I
AM to live among us (John 1:14). For the Christian pilgrim Moses
is a type, a foreshadowing, of Christ. The Father gave the Law
through Moses, but the grace and truth, the Law of Love, was given
through Jesus Christ (John 1:17).
March 20th, 2000 ( EWTNews)
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