Question 2.24

2.24 In 1971, during your courses in Rome, you left for Jerusalem to study the Bible in greater depth. …

Yes, I stayed a whole year in the Holy City. At the Biblical Institute in Jerusalem, I had the sense that my devotion to Christ was becoming even stronger. It was not only an emotion. My prayer became palpable, because the places that had witnessed the presence of the Son of God were still so eloquent. In the Holy Land, the memory of Jesus is indelible.

The privilege of walking in the Holy Land, God’s land, the land where Jesus was born, created an indescribable emotion in me and the sense of living in God’s house on earth. Like Jacob, anyone who treads the Holy Land can say: “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know: [. . .] This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen 28:16-17). Jerusalem is truly the place of his rest but also the place of Golgotha and of tears.

Why is the life of this city so complicated? In Jerusalem there is never an instant when someone is not praying, because here all monotheistic religions are represented. And yet the violence remains continuous.

On the morning of December 25, 1971, I participated in the Mass in the basilica in Bethlehem. The ceremonies of the various Christian traditions overlapped, and some celebrated simultaneously according to their own rite, language, and style of chant. This could produce tremendous chaos, which was not very conducive to prayer. The Christians are not able to pray together; on the contrary, they interfere with each other. The liturgies become obstacles that seem insurmountable. Why is it so hard for people to understand that in God’s eyes these obstacles cause his Fatherly Heart to bleed painfully?

During that year I stayed as a guest with the Jesuits in a large house where Fathers Ludovicus Semkowski, R. M. Mackwoski, James Kelly, and some excellent professors of exegesis were also living. This human and intellectual experience was very rich, lively, and especially stimulating.

At that time, I wondered whether my vocation might not be to join a contemplative order. For a long time I thought about entering a Benedictine monastery. But I did not want to abandon my country, which so desperately lacked priests.