XII. Al-Bireh
Motherly Worry

In Al-Bireh or Beerot (Jos 9:17), situated less than ten miles (sixteen km) north of Jerusalem, can be found a well which served the caravans on their way from Jerusalem to Galilee. The Hebrew as well as Arabic translation of Al-Bireh simply means well.  According to tradition, Joseph and Mary took a break at this well on their return from Egypt. (see our feature: The Flight to Egypt)  Without doubt Joseph taught his son during their long journeys which prepared him for his mission as a twelve-year-old in the temple.

After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Luke 2:43-46

The biblical story tells of an enormous maturity of the child Jesus. According to the law a thirteen-year-old had the same obligations as an adult. They had to recite the Schema Israel (Hear, O Israel Dt 6:4f) three times daily; they had to fast on the prescribed days and had to participate in the customary pilgrimages (Dt 16:1-16). Jesus was a Bar Mizva, a son of the law, which means that as a five-year-old he had to read the Bible; as a ten-year-old he needed to learn the mishna; as a thirteen-year-old he had to observe the commandments; as a fifteen-year-old he was obliged to study the Gemara and as a twenty-year-old to strive. (Mishna Avot V, 21).
 

Jesus, 12 years old teaching in the Temple.

XIII. Cana in Galilee
Jesus’ First Miracle

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine."
"Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied, "My time has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." Jn 2:1-10

Detail from The WeddingFeast  at Cana Julius Schnorr vonCarolsfeld Hamburg (1819)

At the Wedding in Cana Jesus worked his first sign upon the prompting of his Mother. The indicated day (on the third day) would be Tuesday which still today is the customary wedding day in the Holy Land reminiscent of the third day of creation when God repeated twice that what he had done was good (cf. Gen 1:10; 12).
The wedding of a young woman [first time virginal bride] took seven days while that of a widowed bride three days. Thus it I not surprising that a couple could run out of wine. We are not sure of the exact location of the wedding event. The Book Josua (19:28) speaks of a Cana. Since the seventeenth century Franciscans settled in Kafr Kenna (Village of the Daughter in law). The similarity between Cana and Kenna may have led to identify the Franciscan settlement with the location of the biblical miracle.

The Franciscans built the “Wedding Church” in 1879 on the ruins of a mosque which had been built on the foundation of a synagogue of the fifth century. The painting in the crypt of the church focuses on Mary’s intercession so that the couple would be spared the embarrassment. The paintings in the Upper Church depict the sanctification of marriage through Jesus’ participation in the wedding ceremony, the institution of the state of matrimony (Gen 1:28) and the exemplary marriage of Tobias and Sara.
The New Testament Cana was about five miles north of the Galilean capital Sepphoris known today as a hill of ruins called Khirbet Kana. Excavations have shown that Cana was located on the top of the hill. The first pilgrim to mention Cana is the Anonymous from Piacenza (570 AD): “Then after three miles we arrived in Cana where the Lord attended the wedding.” Bishop Willibald of Eichstaett, Germany (724/26) writes about an old church. “On its altar stood one of the six jars of water which the Lord asked to be filled and which he then changed into wine.” The crusaders situated Cana “in loco Batuf” as part of the Nazareth diocese. Medieval pilgrims still visited this place.
 
The Dominican Burchard of Mount Zion from Barby/Elbe (1290) described Cana at the slope of a mountain. From the seventeenth century on this place lay in ruins with only the well from which the water was drawn, left.
 
On the feast of Epiphany three events are celebrated in Cana: the adoration of the three kings from the Orient, the Baptism of the Lord and the first sign of Jesus manifested at the wedding at Cana. The Coptic Church celebrates the Miracle at Cana on January 21.
 

XIV. Nazareth
Mary’s Anguish

And he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked. Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.' " "I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy[a] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian." All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. Luke 4:21-30

This episode took place in the synagogue of Nazareth. Jesus spoke about the Old Testament passage in Isaiah 61 and portrayed himself as the Messiah. Moreover he compared himself with the prophets Elijah and Elisha which to his Jewish listeners was a stark blasphemy and needed to be punished with death through stoning (cf. Lev 24:16).

South of Nazareth close to the Poor Clare Monastery and at the hill leading to the cloister Dair al – Banat stands the small Franciscan Church “Our Lady of Anguish” which was built in 1876 to commemorate the place from which Jesus was supposed to be thrown from the cliff. According to medieval rendering Mary imagined her son lying crashed at the bottom of the cliff.

The crusaders believed that Dschebel al-Kafze or mons saltus Domini (Mountain of the jump) was the place of the event described above. The oldest rendering of Dschebel al-Kafze as the cliff from which Jesus was supposed to be thrown hails from 808 in the Commemoratorium de casis Dei which holds that a monastery and church honoring Mary were built at the place. The Italian Franciscan Niccolo of Poggibonso (1346) writes: “When the crowd descended the cliff, the Virgin Mary was worried to death for her beloved Son so that she … languishing full of fear leaned at a grotto of the mount which offered her enough space to hide. The crowd walked past her and nobody noticed her. One can still see the place, i.e. its alcove which the mount offered her. In its place is now a beautiful convent and a church which is called Mary’s Anguish.”

XV. Magdûsha by Sidon
Mary’s visit in Magdûsha

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  Mt 15:21

Mt reports that Jesus and his disciples were in the region of Tyre and Sidon where he fulfilled the wish of a Canaanite woman to heal her daughter who was demon-possessed. According to local tradition his Mother Mary accompanied him.

A mile south of Sidon close to the village Magdûsha we find the Marian pilgrimage place Sayidat al-Mantura, Notre dame de la Garde,. Near this village is a grotto where Mary supposedly stayed during this time. It was turned into a shrine honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary by Empress Helena. Jesus also supposedly visited his mother there before he returned to Galilee.
Due to the invasion of Islam this shrine had been neglected until the eighteenth century when pilgrims began to visit this place again. The altar and icon of Our Lady were discovered and were brought to the church of the village. However, the icon miraculously returned to its place of origin. This icon – supposedly painted by Luke – is still venerated by Christians and Muslims alike who make pilgrimages to this shrine and offer candles, hair and oil for the lights burning before the image of grace.

XVI. Via dolorosa in Jerusalem, Encounter between Mother and Son

"This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears.
No one is near to comfort me, no one to restore my spirit.
My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed." …
What can I say for you? With what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion?
Your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you? Lamentation 1: 16;2:13

Via dolorosa, Jerusalem

The fourth station of the cross commemorates the encounter between Mother and Son. The devotion of the Via Crucis was initiated after the crusades. In the thirteenth century it consisted of only three stations: 1. Jesus is condemned to death. 2. Jesus meets his Mother, 3. Jesus meets the weeping women (Lk 23:27f). At the beginning of the eighteenth century the number of stations increased to eleven with the fourth station being Jesus’ encounter with his mother. It was situated in the former Jehoshavat Street. Around 1855 the fourth station was commemorated at Valley Street where an Armenian-Catholic patriarchate and the Armenian-Catholic Church of Mary’s Dolors was erected in 1881. In its crypt is a mosaic from the seventh century showing two feet pointing north-east. Along the street is a small chapel called the fourth station. At its door a bust shows Christ and His Mother; it was sculpted by the Polish artist T. Zieliansky.