The custodian of the Franciscan order in the Holy
Land, said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had asked Pope Francis to borrow
the entire manger, but the pope decided to send a tiny portion of it to stay
permanently in Bethlehem.
One journalist believes that the return of the
relic by the Vatican was a spirit-lifting moment for the Palestinians.
Actually, young Palestinian scouts played bagpipes and the crowd snapped
pictures as a clergyman held the silver reliquary (container for relics) and
marched toward the church.
Personally, I would not be so naive to believe that
the interest of President Abbas and the Palestinians in the alleged wooden
relic from the manger of Bethlehem is a display of any personal interest in
Jesus Christ. This is nothing but a business opportunity. Christmas is big
business in Palestine.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims from around the world
are expected to visit Bethlehem this Christmas. What is hoped, is that the
large number of pilgrims that visited Rome to see the relic on display in the
Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, would now visit Bethlehem.
Last year, more than 10,000 tourists visited
Bethlehem around the Christmas season. Hotels were fully booked, and business
thrived, the best many had seen in years. With the return of the relic from
Rome, it is believed that business will be much brighter this Christmas.
The City of Bethlehem was once dominated by
Christians. Today however, there are fewer than 10% of Christians in the Muslim
dominated city of approximately 225,000 residents. Violence and economic
hardships have contributed to this major demographic shift.
With that backdrop, one can now understand the
sentiments of Amira
Hanania, a member of Palestine’s Higher Committee of Churches Affairs:
"To celebrate Christmas
with the presence of part of the manger in which Jesus Christ was born will be
a magnificent and huge event."
If an alleged relic of the
manger could make such a difference to one nation, try to imagine what a
difference the person of Jesus Christ could make. Actually, the relic is deemed
important, only because of the importance of Jesus Christ. Without Jesus, the
relic would have no value.
The process of finding relics or
artifacts in the Middle East has piqued much interest in the last century. Much
of this curiosity is because of Jesus Christ. Archaeologists continue to study
where he was born, where he grew-up and every place where he allegedly
preached.
In 1986, after a drought
depleted water levels in the Sea of Galilee, two brothers walking along the shore
found a submerged first-century fishing vessel. The wooden boat made headlines around
the world as an example of the type Jesus and his disciples would have used to
cross the lake. The Jesus Boat is on display at a Kibbutz on
the shore of the Sea of Galilee and is viewed by tens of thousands of pilgrims
each year. Like with the manger relic, people want to identify with Jesus.
Agreed,
Jesus encouraged people to identify with Him, but did he encourage the use of
relics to accomplish this? Jesus instructed his disciples to baptize believers.
In addition, he encouraged the practice of communion. Both ordinances relate
directly to Jesus.
However,
some historians contend, because of the rapid spread of Christianity among
semi-literate people groups, relics and icons were used to aid communication. Relics were the basic and often complex artistic forms and
gestures used as a kind of key to convey religious concepts and the visual,
auditory, and kinetic representations of religious ideas and events.
As
in so many cases though, we run the risk of studying and adoring the relics and
ignoring the Person who the relics represent. There are branches of
Christianity that defend the adoration of relics. Such Christians believe
relics aid worship. Other Christians believe relics undermine the exercise of
faith. These Christians believe relics are among the images forbidden in the
Ten Commandments.
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