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After our trips to Acre and Nazareth, we settled in more in Ibillin (a Palestinian village of nearly 30,000 residents) to begin what would be one of the highlights of our time in this Galillean city: the building of a relationship with Father Elias Chacour. This Melkite priest was sent to Ibillin over 30 years ago, to minister to the town's residents. Thinking that this would be a temporary appointment, Father Chacour surprised himself and others, as he came to call this place home and to begin a vision for a peaceful and just co-existence across lines of religious difference that has led him to receive numerous peace awards (including three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize). On the Sunday of our time in Ibillin, Father Chacour invited some of us to join him, as he delivered the mass at a nearby Orthodox Church (Notre Dame) in the Galillean town of Rama. Dressed in his golden vestments, Father Chacour addressed the congregation in three languages (one of the thirteen he speaks or reads fluently): Arabic, German, and English. He told us, with arms outstretched before us, that we were welcome in the homeland...the place where his ancestors, the first Christians, began to spread the gospel of Christianity. "We have been waiting for you to come here for 2000 years," he told us...."you are our children! Welcome home!"
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(inside Notre Dame church in Rama)
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an icon to Mary with the church's special inscription of deer on either side of the cross
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While Mar Elias was founded by a devout Melkite Christian (an Orthodox branch of Christianity whose patriarch resides in Damascus) and Father Chacour's ethics are unhesitatingly Christian, Father Chacour has sought to create a learning environment in Ibillin for young people from kindergarten to college age which is open to people of all religions. His vision of justice for Palestinians has meant that he himself has stood beneath the cross's shadow on numerous occasions, with threats not only to his professional vision, but even to his own physical well being.
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Father Chacour acted out a very simple gesture of compassion to me and my family during our time at Mar Elias by the way he treated the littlest one of our group, my two year old daughter Hannah. Prior to our trip, Hannah was somewhat afraid to board the airplane. She began to cry, so I told her that we were going to Israel and that we would find a slide in a park where she could play. Hannah had just discovered the joy of sliding, so this immediately switched off the tears and helped her to become excited about our trip. As I should have guessed however, the minute we arrived in Israel she began asking everyone we met, Father Chacour included, to "Go see slides!" Four days passed and we had still not found a slide for Hannah. On the fifth day, late on a lazy Saturday afternoon, Father Chacour drove up in front of our dormitory and asked for Rudi, Hannah, and I. He had come to drive us over to the kindergarten so that Hannah could play on the slide and with the other toys. Not only did he open up the kindergarten, but he opened himself, playing ball with her and developing what will probably be a long friendship between Hannah and Abuna. (Abuna is Arabic for "our father")
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On most every evening of our eleven day stay at Mar Elias College, Father Chacour invited us to his home and we would sit in his backyard, surrounded by his rose garden, while we listened to him share his thoughts about Christianity and the Israeli/Palestinian crisis. Here are some of the thoughts that I recall:
"I was not born a Christian. My birth certificate says 'in the image and likeness of God, not more or less..."
"What we have to offer you here as Palestinian Christians is the empty tomb....a historical reality"
"God is love and this is realized by going to the hungry, etc., not be guessing about the millennium..."
"It is not true Christianity when you condemn others to hell....The absolute truth is God and we need to let ourselves be possessed by God and not let God be like us."
"God is like a pregnant woman, holding all of us within God's womb."
With regard to people who are not Christians, he says," I learn from Christ that they are lovable as they are, they are not a threat but a new opportunity to deepen the meaning of my life."
He told a story that illustrates his attitude in the midst of many challenges: "There were two bats. Someone turned the lights on and they were blinded and fell into a milk vat. One of the bats was pessimistic, thinking for sure they would die. The other was optimistic, planning to fight its way out. So the optimistic bat flailed his wings until he fainted from exhaustion. When he woke up an hour later, he was sitting upon a bowl of butter."
Father Chacour described a time when he was detained, as many Palestinians are, in the Ben Gurion airport. An airport authority took him to a secluded room and asked him to remove his shoes. Father Chacour refused, so the official told him he could just sit and wait. Father Chacour began reading the book he had with him, Anne Frank's diary. The official returned and demanded his shoes once again. Father Chacour asked for a pen so he could register a complaint. After the fourth time of being asked for his shoes, Father Chacour refused and received the pen and paper on which he wrote, in Hebrew, "I'm so sorry that all of Israel is fighting for my shoes." They gave him his suitcase and removed him immediately to the outside.
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