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Emmaus (Nikopolis)
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/emmaus.htm |
| Supper at Emmaus (Bassono J.) |
Wednesday in the Octave of Easter
Wednesday in the Octave of Easter
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 24:13-35.
Dear William,
Thank for the greeting from your Paschal Tide break in Parma, at the Cistercian Abbey (under1560) at FONTEVIVO.
This morning, in the Intersessions we prayed for:
"The Monks of Latroun Abbey, Israel, remembering Cleopas and his companion meeting Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and Latronus, the Good Thief."
And at the Gospel today, I am awakened all the experiences of the Holy Land Sabbatical which surges to the surface.
Below, the account of Emmaus from the Chronicle.
Yours ...
Donald
(Email of May 2004)
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| Latroon Abbey |
DEAR LIAM,
- - -
Of interest is the collection of pictures which seems to use help memory.
I hope you are all enjoying Venice.
Best Paschal Tide wishes.
...
My time is getting short in the Holy Land - deadline 29th May.
I should be winding down but the opposite is more the case
I could use all my days here with so much interest, and making up for 33 missed years of Biblical study.
News from an Email correspondent tells me that six priests in Scotland have had threats on their lives.
IT IS MUCH SAFER TO LIVE IN ISRAEL!
God Bless.
Emmaus Easter Monday 2004
On the strength of the Night Office Reading on Easter Monday, I thought this must be the special day of Latroun, the day of Latronus, the Good Thief. (“The Cross opens to us today the locked paradise. For today God introduces there, the thief. So that He achieves two great wonders; He opens paradise and he brings in the robber. He gives to him His own heritage, He leads him in to the city of his Father. “Today, he says, you will be with me in paradise” John Chrysostom).
Br. Benoit had fuller information on the situation for me. This is also Emmaus Day, recalling the Resurrection meeting of the two disciples with Jesus. What is in a name? Historically there is a whole string of ancient interpretations of the name ending with the decision of a British Cartographer fixing on Latroun. Br. Benoit looks back further than even his 86 years. In the Hebrew the ancient name signified a ‘look out’, a spot from which one could keep guard over a wide vista. The Romans had a fortress here-abouts long before the Crusaders’ Templar Toron (Tower). And before the Jordanians and Israelis were locked together in disputing the same location, evidently, the British made their mark. Maybe that Cartographer who specified Latroun on his Map was a Welsh Methodist from the Rhonda Valley. It is said that, “Lloyd-George’s political advisers were unable to train his mind on the map of Palestine during negotiations prior to the Treaty of Versailles, due to his training by fundamentalist Christian parents and churches on the geography of ancient Israel. Lloyd-George admitted that he was far more familiar with the cities and regions of Biblical Israel than with the geography of his native Wales, or of England itself” (from an essay on the British and Christian Zionism).
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| Emmaus |
So bridging the gap between the Biblical origins and modern history is the Christian tradition in which Latroun is well established. Br. Benoit went on to explain that the Good Thief was named Dismas and lived nearby. His wife was Egyptian and she and the family received the faith as a result of the death of Dismas beside Jesus on the Cross. And complete this setting of the scene, the Church of Latroun is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, the transept on one side is dedicated to St. Dismas, the Good Thief, and the other transept is dedicated to St. Cleophas and his friend, the disciples who joined Jesus at Emmaus, (Lk. 24:18, Jn. 19:25). Since the altars are stripped in good post Vatican II style, it would be nice to replace them with a good icon designed for each transept. The subjects would be very relevant even if the geography and other details may not be all that Canonical. Who is going to quibble about such problems? Certainly not His Beatitude Michel, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. He is coming the this afternoon on his Easter Monday round of the three places commemorating Emmaus, i.e. Emmaus (Latroun), Emmaus Qubeibah (OFM), and Emmaus Abu Gosh (OSB). Cleophas, according to tradition, was martyred for his faith and is also buried here. So I am quite happy with Emmaus-Nikopolus (Latroun), knowing full well that the other locations were only heard of at the time when the Crusaders first brought their own latest Exegetes from Europe.
I heard the French Gospel this morning and it mentioned a 2 hour walk from Jerusalem and that would fit perfectly - not that I intend to test it by walking. (TOB, Ecumenical Bible used in Liturgy “Ephata – Missal of the Christian Life”, “towards a village called Emmaus, a two hour walk from Jerusalem. Lk. 24:13”. Sadly this favoured version cannot be accepted by the textual critics. )
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| Community of the Beatitudes at Emmaus |
In the evening of Easter Monday any of the community at Latroun who wished could go along the road to the site of the ancient Byzantine Basilica, to join the Community of the Beatitudes and the Pilgrims for this Easter Evening Mass.
While we waited for transport, Alex and I looked for a CAROB tree I was curious to identify. Sure enough there was one right there and plenty of these evergreen trees here and at Emmaus. And the HUSKS of last year were still to be seen to satisfy my curiosity about Luke 15:16, (And he would willingly have filled himself with the husks the pigs were eating but no one would let him have them), to complete a detail of the “Prodigal Son”.It is also recounted of Saint Sabas, when he first came here, to Nikopolus c. 500, that he lived off the husks and leaves of the carob tree.
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| Baptismal fondations of the Emmaus Basilica |
Titular Bishop of Emmaus. For the Mass, there was plenty of space in the ancient nave but one could only call the congregation a “little flock”. One of the two assistant Bishops, Mgr. Marcuzzo, is based in Nazareth but he is the Titular Bishop of Emmaus. His Homily was beautifully appropriate to the place and to the occasion. He looked out on the plain of Ayalon all around us and recalled the Biblical instance here in which Joshua delayed the sun in order to attain the rout of his enemies, (Jg. 1:35, Jos. 10:12). Bishop Marcuzzo had a lovely thought on, “Rest here a while with us”, see Lk. 24:29, drawing the parallel of the “SUN” waiting until the Israelites reached their aim, and the “SON” of God in the soul warming account of the encounter with the disciples.
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| Tiles preserved in the Basilica |
Incidentally, St. Cleophas’s companion is not left anonymous in the Liturgy of the Holy Land, - The name of St. Simeon appears on the stage at this point in the prayers. When it is said to be apocryphal I begin to see that the word is not entirely negative. Taken in the technical sense of an Apocryphal source it can be understood among other respected traditions.
The evening sun, 5.00 p.m., was so hot that there was a shift of seats to allow the Bishops and Concelebrants to use the shade of the ruins. I watched the Paschal Candle, in the full blaze of sun, gradually bend over in the heat and I felt urged to move it. Eventually it wilted, and fell over - at the point where it was ‘well caught, Sir’ in one hand by one of the Brothers, who had the very ornate Patriarch’s Crosier in his other hand. - This sleepy observer picks up the most peculiar things, - and forgets the impressive things like the music.
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| Latroon View the Crusader Fort |
The Community of the Beatitudes gave us great singing. The first two Readings were in Arabic, the Gospel in French. At the conclusion all were invited to the Museum for a ‘party’ i.e., refreshments. The mini-bus brought us and the borrowed vestments and altar fittings back home to Latroun, just as the abbey Vespers ended.
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| Old Crusade Fort above the Abbey |
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