11/25/12 – Capernaum and St. Peter's Spaceship

The ruins of Capernaum (aka Capharnaum) were a short drive down the road from the restaurant.  Capernaum is known as Jesus’ hometown and is also the place where he met Peter.  We toured the ruins and strained our imaginations to visualize how what remained of the town might have looked like 2000 years ago.  There wasn’t much to go on.  There were ruins of a 15^th century church, that was itself built on the house of St. Peter’s mother-in-law.  None of this is known for sure, but inferred through other archeological clues.  And on top of those ruins sits the modern day church that looks like a spaceship…seriously.  Amnon described it as being inspired by Noah’s ark, but the shape on the bottom was repeated on top giving the whole structure a certain “flying saucerness”.  Topping off the spaceship look was the ramp leading up to the entrance.  I was sure I had seen the exact same thing in a sci-fi movie and I suddenly had a strong urge to phone home.

Flying saucer church of Capernaum

We were scheduled to celebrate mass at 2:00, but as the minutes ticked by it looked like our priest wasn’t going to show.  Maria, a kindly old woman on her 6^th pilgrimage to the holy land suggested we pray the rosary and ask God to send us a celebrant.  I knew where this was leading.  If a priest showed up, it would certainly be because we had prayed for his arrival.  If he didn’t arrive, it would be because God knew that our faith was strong enough to proceed without one.  It was a win-win for the faithful.  A priest from Ghana who lived on site (“among the rocks” as he would later tell us) arrived to celebrate the mass, and not a moment too soon as dad had started to get drowsy from the group’s monotonic recital of the rosary.

With the exception of some Israeli fighter jets making several low altitude passes over nearby and the evangelical Nigerians chanting just outside the church, mass went off without a hitch…almost.

As we boarded the bus, Mike from Windsor – a deacon who had been assisting with the masses – said “I noticed you didn’t receive communion.  Why?”  I told him that there were a lot of reasons, but that mainly I was being respectful of the faithful.  Mike reminded me that I could always go to confession, but moments later apologized if he had been intrusive.  I told Mike to think nothing of it.  He was a thoughtful man and I recognize that a guy on a religious pilgrimage who doesn’t fully participate in the mass is bound to raise some questions.

 

Dad suggested the crab would be better than St. Peter's tilapia