Day 4

Beatitudes

Started the day on the Northern side of the Sea of Galilee as we visited Mount Beatitudes. The church was built in the shape of an octagon as each side of the church represented one of the beatitudes. The garden was beautiful and they had a separate garden for each beatitude.

We read about the Beatitudes in Luke and Matthew. Luke speaks about Jesus being on the shores of Galilee however Matthew describes it being on the mount. The area around the mount and shore acts as if it is an amphitheatre so keeping this in mind it not hard to imagine how Jesus could be on the shore but still be heard by all the thousands of people in attendance. The beatitudes tell us how to live our life, simply and humbly and our rewards will be great in heaven. 

 

After the Mount of the Beatitudes we headed to Korazim. He we saw the relics of a temple. Similar to the one Jesus would have visited.

A replica of Moses' Chair

Then we continued on to Capernaum were we visited the Church of the Multiplication. This church was built on top of the relics of another church. It was built in the 1980’s by the German benedictions. The mosaic shows the story of the loaves and fishes. There are only four loaves in the mosaic. If you read Mark 4:35-41 it talks about two fish and five loaves. This is not a mistake of the artist, as they believe that the fifth loaf is ‘communion’. That really spoke to me as it reminds us that Jesus continues to feed us and present us with more than we ever need every day of our lives.

There are many stories in the bible that refer to Jesus healing people, sometimes they speak of the bodies being presented to Jesus by entering from the roof. Many interpretations of this occurring show people high on the roof and lowering the person down, today in Tabgha it was explained to us how it was possible for this to occur. During Jesus’ time the houses were dug into the ground so by the time you were along side of it you were almost level with the roof. This allows us to understand how much easier and possible it was for this to occur.

The highlight of today would have to be Mass on the Sea of Galilee. Listening to Father Chris speak of Jesus calming the storm as we sat in the boat and gazed over the side towards the town Jesus taught in was an amazing gift and one I shall forever cherish.

During a drought some fishermen found some old nails and dug up a fishing boat, the relic is found on the shore of Galilee in a Museum. It would have been similar to the one Jesus was in during the storm and ones used by the fishermen at that time.