Jesus' Last Retreat

Sat. pre-Passion Week Sat27. March Jn 11:45-56 Abbot Mark. Introd. Mass – Sat 5th Week Lent The have decided that Jesus must be die. The raising of Lazarus from the dead was for them the last straw. People were believing in Jesus and the religious authorities concluded that if too many people followed Him the Romans would send in the army and destroy their privileges. Caiaphas’ statement a man dying for the people was prophetic – though he probably didn’t realize it himself. It reflected a hardness of that was more the product of him considerations than divine inspiration. He was a man whose mind was not enlightened by the Spirit of God. Caiaphs did not grasp that the words of Jesus and the deeds he performed were signs showing that he was the Christ. We, too, need to have our eyes opened, to be moved in heart, if we are to know the truth of Jesus and let him live in our lives. Penitential Rite. Lord, open our minds to your Son’s saving work in the Gospels. Lord open our eyes to see you in the people and happenings of each day. Lord, Alert us to the promptings of your Spirit in our hearts. Prayer of the Faithfull. God our Father, we ask you to hear us as we pray for these and all our needs, Through Christ our Lord. ____________________________________________________________ Scripture Bulletin goes online The Catholic Biblical Association of Great Britain has just launched a website in time for Easter. To visit the website see: www.cbagb.org.uk - - - Immediately after the Second Vatican Council, the association made history by producing a Catholic edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, published by the Catholic Truth Society in 1966. _______________________________________________________________ Jesus' Last Retreat – Ephraim Taybeh 35m from Jerusalem Interest in Ephraim Jn. 11.54 did never arise to me until visiting the Holy Land 2003-4. In the pre-Passion Week of 2004, the Biblical Course first brought the references alive but, as the part of the awakening experience of the holy places, my visit to Ephraim-Taybey was of even more lasting love of the pathways ways of Jesus. RSV John 11:53 So from that day on they took counsel how to put him to death. John 11:54 Jesus therefore no longer went about openly among the Jews, but went from there to the country near the wilderness, to a town called E'phraim; and there he stayed with the disciples. John 11:55 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves. John 11:56 They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, "What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?" John 11:57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if any one knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him. Ephaim Taybeh Jn 21 Lk 17 12 http://www.taybeh.info/en/histoire.php II. Taybeh, from the Pentecost to Today Events Dates History of Taybeh-Ephraim ROMAN PERIOD (60 BC. - 358 AD.) Death and Resurrection 30 Retreat of Jesus Christ before his Passion. (Jn 11,54) Fall of Jerusalem 70 Vespasien establishes garrisons in Bethel and Ofrah.(Flavius Joseph, "The War of the Jews against the Romans", chap.33) BYZANTINE PERIOD(358 - 638) Flourishing of Christianism IVs. Eusebe of Cesarea in his Onomasticon locates the retreat of the Christ in EPHREM (The town is 8km away from Bethel and 35 from Jerusalem VIs. Construction of 2 byzantine churches and byzantine monastery around Taybeh. Ephraim is mentioned on the Madaba (Jordan) map: "Ephron or Ephraim, town where the Christ came". III. Legend of Taybeh-Ephraim - - - see more from the ORAL TRADITION The amazing history is to be found in the stunning Website of the: Taybeh’s Latin Parish. http://www.taybeh.info/en/histoire.php The Website opens the whole story, much wider beyond the memory from the Chronicle of my Sojourn. Holy Land Chronicle 13 Passion Week 2004 In my end is my beginning. (Four Quartets) What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. (Little Gidding. T. S. Eliot) Ephraim, ‘last retreat’ last Fri-Sat of Lent; Jn 12,32 Transjordan where Baptist had begun, earlier Jn 11,45-57 Jesus town of Ephraim Jn 11, 54 Ephraim (2) (2) The town near the wilderness to which Jesus retired after the raising of Lazarus (Joh_11:54). This probably corresponds to Ephrem of Eusebius, Onomasticon (s.v. “Afra”) 5 Roman miles East of Bethel. This may be the place named along with Bethel by Josephus (BJ, IV, ix, 9). It probably answers to eṭ-Ṭaiyebeh, a large village about 4 miles North of Beitin. The antiquity of the site is attested by the cisterns and rock tombs. It stands on a high hill with a wide outlook including the plains of Jericho and the Dead Sea. See EPHRON. Ephraim-TAYBEH TWO BOOKS: The Christian Heritage in the Holy Land, ISBN 1 900269 06 6, 1995, Ed. Anthony O’Mahony, see J. Murphy-O’Conner, “Pre-Constantine Christian Jerusalem” pp. 13-21 Patterns of the Past, Prospects for the Future, ISBN 1 901764 10 9, 1999, Ed. Hummel etc, see J Murphy O’Connaer, “Bringing to Light the Original Holy Sepulchre Church pp. 69-84. It is no wonder that Ecole Biblique is NOT the full name for the Dominican centre in Jerusalem. The full title is deservedly used, École Biblique et Archéologique Francaise de Jérusalem. (Web: http://ebaf.op.org ). Note in the former book, a picture of the Holy Sepulchre Palm Sunday Procession c.1899, fig 8. Our Palm Sunday procession, more appropriately was from Bethphage to (the Temple) Bethesda. I have to hurry if I am to get through any account of Palm Sunday Chronicle before the Easter celebrations are upon us. There is so much to observe, and a rather resistant sponge of the mind can only absorb so much – no wonder we speak of ‘absorbing’ interest. – “Old men ought to be explorers Here or there does not matter We must be still and still moving Into another intensity For a further union, a deeper communion Through the dark cold and the empty desolation, The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning”. (TS Eliot)