At a time when thousands of Christian visitors were hoping for peace in Bethlehem during the Christmas season, they were greeted to a fight among some priests. The fight had nothing to do with terrorism, which often plagues the area; it was a scuffle among Christian orthodox priests.
Bemused visitors looked on as 100 priests fought with brooms while cleaning Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders to clean the walls and ceilings of their part of the church. However, the ladders encroached on space controlled by Armenian priests. For about fifteen minutes bearded and robed priests laid into each other with fists, brooms and iron rods. A Bethlehem police officer saw it as a trivial problem, in that fights among priests occur every year. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured and no one was arrested "because all those involved were men of God," said the police.
The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is one of the oldest continuously operating churches in the world. The 1,700 year-old-church was built over the cave that tradition marks as the birthplace of Jesus. The church is administered jointly by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic authorities. Clashes among Orthodox priests which share the administration, have often been sparked by perceived territorial encroachments.
In reporting the story, AlJazeera News reminded readers that Christmas is traditionally a time for putting disagreements aside. "But peace and harmony were put aside at the Bethlehem Church." Honestly, if these fights are mild, according to the police, then why should the story generate such interest in the media around the world?
Firstly, the behavior is so inconsistent with what the Church of the Nativity represents. If the location is correct, this is where the angel announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. In reporting the story, Luke quoted the angel: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests" (Luke 2:14).
In addition, the behavior of the priests was not consistent with the teachings of Jesus. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave clear guidelines as to how we should relate to those with whom we differ (Matthew 5:43-48).
We cannot avoid meeting people who differ from us and even hate us. Some share differences of opinion in politics, in sports and more so in religion. For the Orthodox Churches, their differences go as far back as the fifth century. In 1852 custody of the Church of the Nativity was granted to the Roman Catholic, Armenian and Greek Orthodox Churches. Unfortunately, the rivalry among these churches extends even to Jerusalem, at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Church of the Resurrection). It is believed that this church was built on the spot where Jesus was crucified.
When confronted with a history of rivalry, what is the best course of action to break the curse? At such times we need to establish boundaries to determine what actions we would take from what we would not take. In addition, our actions must always be consistent with who we are and for what we stand. We must never forget that people will remember us more for what we do than for what we say.
Sometimes it is so easy to judge the priests in Bethlehem but overlook the ongoing bitterness we cause in family and church encounters. Like the priests, we maintain generational hurts by transferring bitterness to our children, and ultimately to the next generation.
History is replete with stories of pain that could have been avoided. One such story comes from the eleventh century, when Pope Urban II launched the first crusade against the Muslims. Agreed, the Seljuk Turks were wrong when they took control of Jerusalem and prevented Christian pilgrimages. Here we are, 1,000 years later, and some historians still throw the excessive reactions of eleventh century Christians in our faces.
Interestingly, Pope Urban II had access to the non-violent words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. So did the Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi, when he studied law in London. Gandhi practiced the words of Jesus and became known as the father of non-violence. The Christian leader, Pope Urban II did otherwise.
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