Oh Little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie?
I refuse to sing this anymore....The Holy Land is anything but... and the truth is - it wasn't 2000 years ago either!
Graham Greene once said that, 'you cannot conceive of the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God' - i may be wrong but i think it will get worse before it gets better...
Our Lord,
We are waiting for your rebirth!
We are looking forward to your return...
Come and see...
The Grotto becomes Ghetto!
Despite the thick Walls surrounding your home,
We are shivering from cold…
Winter is bleak…
Summer is beak
Fall is freak
Spring is weak
The animals are no longer allowed to warm up your Grotto
The magii are not coming again..they are forbidden from visiting.
The Magi couldn’t climb up the wall. It is too dangerous and risky.
Herods are controlling the roads from Persia to Palestine.
It is unsafe...
Gifts are stolen…
No one dares to say by whom...!
If you question authorities you might be labeled
“Terrorist” and then
There will be war on terrorism
Baby Jesus come and see...
Your least brothers...
Are without shelters…
They lack every basic thing.
No... Human security...
Rachel is still weeping not only for her children but
also for her neighbors’ kids...
Rachel has died again today after seeing how her grave has
been misused!
She was upset... she loved to have a humble grave not a military fortress!!!
Rachel refused to violate human security of other kids
Rachel revolts because she doesn’t want
her people to worship a new golden cow called “security ”
Voices are heard in
Beit Hanon, Khan Younes ,
Nablus and Jenin and not only in Rameh …!
Crying and wailing – maiming
Justice is fading
Peace is laming
Reconciliation is wading
Healing is waiting
Baby Jesus ...
The Grinch has stolen Christmas
Children are for your waiting ..
Children are hoping…
They’d like to have a safe haven..
They love to live their life
Peacefully, gracefully ..
No fear! No Trauma! No Paranoia
If we are cold...
Your agape will warm us up
Your freedom and liberation beyond
Thought and imagination
Oh Lord! YOU emancipate
us despite all cuffs of
Enslavement and oppression
Your light will illuminate
Our path of transformation and reconciliation ...
Let us pray with the
Children and their families
Oh child of Cave… please expand the cave ... let it be
Bigger than the wall…
Please create tunnel underneath
To seek refuge at times of danger!
Let it be purified and warm
Our homeland is frigid
Our hearts are frozen
Our tears are pouring down
Christ is our hope
Building peace innerly and outwardly adobe by adobe
Life is again recreated in our veins as they throb
Blessed Christmas is a reminder that injustice is under probe
Benign victory will be yours and ours… we want to cope
(Zoughbi Zoughbi, Founder & Director of The Palestinian Conflict Resolution Centre, "WI'AM", in Bethlehem.)
15 comments:
God, this is so powerful, and so very sad and true. Thank you for sharing this.
Amazing....
As your post says towards the end
"Christ is our hope"
I'm so glad I don't have to imagine my life without that hope
emancipation through transformation and reconcilitation........ let us pray that this thought and possibly this process allows for a path to hope.
Powerfully sad Paul. The reality of the raging fires makes me wonder if hell has found a dwelling on planet earth. I pray not.
My heart and thoughts journey there to the humans who are suffering and struggling to find peace.
I may have to stop reading this at school because it's just so overwhelming and powerful. I've just had an argument with my ethics teacher and now I'm sitting here wondering what it was about. What anything's about
Comments are deep and real - am going to follow this with another post in a couple of days about the Jerusalem Peacemakers that Mr T and The Father were at in Belfast last week
Do you know about The Forgiveness Project?
I have a vague memory we have discussed them. Anyway they are worth mentioning twice.
i think they are a wonderful organisation who deserve all the mentions we all can give them!
Beautiful words and very poignant.
Life without hope is worse than death, it is a breathing nothingness.
I have wept with Rachel many times for the suffering of all children.
Even so, Lord Jesus quickly come...
Being the most intelligent animal to walk the face of the earth, we should all be ashamed of what we have allowed to happen to our planet. How can we possibly hand this mess over to our children, when we have misused and abused it so terribly? But then, that is the lament of all the generations before us. Perhaps we should have payed more attention in history class... so as not to repeat that which we know is wrong.
I am tired of all this security, and wars, and hate. We were put here to do good things, and we sadly miss the mark when holy lands are fought over because someone thinks they have a better God than someone else. Or worse, that we need to protect holy lands with a fortress, as they become a piece of real estate rather than sacred ground.
Being agnostic, I don't really
think there is a magical or better God out there.... only the warmth of our hearts, the skills of common sense in our developed brains, and the tireless work of our bodies that can pull it all together. Sadly, I don't see this happening in my lifetime.
It's not that I don't believe in God.... I do believe in a higher power of ourselves... the God inside of us that has the abilities no other animal before us has had. As they say: a brain is a terrible thing to waste.
Just my 2 cents....
Oh... and, I surely didn't mean to offend anything you said, as your words are powerful and very thought-provoking. I know the more I read your work, the more I like your God.
When I was doing my A-level, I read a book, about 'the historical Jesus'. It suggested that at that time the Gallileans were hated by the majority of Isralites and though of as ignorant peasants.
Jesus came to earth in an occupied country, with death threats every day, as one of the most despised and oppressed groups. The child of a mother pregnant before marriage, being forced to travel under political pressure.
Today I hope and pray his spirit is still there with the people, as the tanks roll past and bombs fall.
On Saturday night there was a vigil for peace in Gaza, an end to the segregation there, started by some Israelis who objected to what theie government was doing. Standing in trafalgar square with them, and watching the world rush by, makes you think what is happening to the holy land.
But the birth of Christ, if nothing else, signifies God's solidarity with the suffering.
He is our hope.
Thank you Paul.
traillady,
i think hope is the sister of faith - it;s kinda being guided by a hand you cannot hold...
ellen,
i like your thoughts, and it takes a lot to offend me - am glad you like my god - sometimes she pisses me off, but i know really that my god is good - just wish i was
mich,
'But the birth of Christ, if nothing else, signifies God's solidarity with the suffering.
He is our hope.'
my main reason to follow Christ was that he suffers with me - as far as i can tell, no other god loved me enough to do that...
Zoughbi Zoughbi is a wonderful man - and it is people like him, that remain my only hope when I weep over the land they once called holy. Thsnks for keeping this special, ragged place in our thoughts.
seems i am not the only one who can't sleep....
will get to see this painfully beautiful myself next year with the legend called garth
Great poetry(or prose) and I like the part about a golden calf called Security.
We all just pray for Jesus to return, don't we?
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