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ARCHBISHOP BELTRAN

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September 14, 2008

The Good News...

...Sacred Ground

This article of mine will be printed in the Sept. 14 issue of the Sooner Catholic, our archdiocesan newspaper. I titled it “Sacred Ground,” for on that very day, Sunday, Sept. 14, I will celebrate Mass in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem.

On Friday, Sept. 5, a group of 36 people, mostly from Oklahoma, will accompany me on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We plan to visit the shrines and historical-religious sites of  our  Judeo-Christian  heritage.  Above all, we are eager to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. We will commemorate many of the religious events narrated in the Bible and faithfully observed in the practice of our Catholic faith.

Weeks before we departed from Oklahoma City, I met with these    pilgrims as part of our preparation.  For most of them, this was their first opportunity to make a Holy Land   pilgrimage. They were excited to be preparing to travel to the place where Jesus was born, where He lived, suffered and died. They were thrilled as they realized they would visit the Holy Sepulchre where Jesus was buried and where He rose from the dead. In anticipation of all this, they were indeed happy because they know that each of these shrines has been built on Holy Ground and we would actually tread on these sacred places.

In the course of our meeting, while not diminishing the uniqueness of the shrines in the Holy Land, I reminded these pilgrims that they must not look at sacred places in a magical or superstitious way. Indeed, where Jesus walked, where He lived and died, are very, very sacred and holy grounds. However, in reality, all of creation is sacred. Everything that God made is good. We are greatly blessed and fortunate to enjoy the sacramental Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. By His own design and institution, Jesus planned to stay with us. “This is My Body,” He said, “Take and eat. This is My Blood, take and drink and you shall have life everlasting.”

The altars in our churches are specially consecrated and the tabernacles blessed to hold the Sacred Body and Blood of Jesus. Our churches are therefore sacred places.  There we stand on Holy Ground! We who have been created in God’s Image and Likeness, we who are redeemed by Jesus, we are invited to communion with Him. “Take and eat.  Take and drink.” Through Him we are sanctified. With Him, wherever we are, we stand on Sacred Ground.

During our days in the Holy Land, we pilgrims will be reminded over and over about the goodness and love of God who came here to be with us, to save us, to sanctify us.

Like my 36 pilgrim companions, all people of faith are on a pilgrimage. We are all pilgrims walking to the real Holy Land, the truly most sacred ground, the place we call heaven. Is it really a “place?” Is it ground or land, sea or sky? Does it take up space? Have dimensions?  What exactly is heaven?

For as far back in history as we can determine (actually to Adam and Eve), human persons have been pilgrims  seeking  answers  and  direction to life.  In each age we learn much but we also forget much. In the midst of our confusion, Jesus came and proclaimed the Good News that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Then He told us that He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

When we, in God’s time, enter into the fullness of life that Jesus promised, then our pilgrimage will be joyfully completed.  Then we will be in heaven, in God’s presence, where we will see Him as He is.

In the meantime, we, the Oklahoma pilgrims now in the Holy Land and you, the Oklahoma pilgrims now in our Archdiocese, must continue to walk confidently because all of us live now, not by sight but by faith. Faith in the person of Jesus Christ, who is our Lord and Savior.