Unholy Happenings in the Land We Call Holy
By: Sister Barbara Battista, Justice Promoter – Sisters of Providence Saint Mary-of-the-Woods
This piece was written in January of 2025.
Fifteen days changed my world, opened and broke my heart, and taught me about the resilience of the human spirit. Fifteen days of receiving amazing hospitality in the midst of such pain and grief. I left home on August 23rd and returned on September 6th. I was in Palestine those days, even though in preparing for my time abroad, my phone carrier and my map service didn’t recognize a place called Palestine. For those corporations, I had to claim my destination was Israel. It was as if there was no such place as Palestine. Prior to my arriva,l I was being introduced to the erasure of a people and of a nation. Here begins a brief reflection on my experience of the unholy happenings in the land many of us call holy.
Mine was a multi-faith delegation, mostly from the United States, organized by Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) and sponsored by Christians for Ceasefire and Rabbis for Ceasefire. Our in-country host was the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center (https://sabeel.org/) in the person of Omar Haramy. We were Rabbis, Catholic Sisters, Methodist & Baptist Ministers, Kohenets, theology instructors at Catholic institutions, journalists, Palestinian-American Muslims, a Hindu, and a Buddhist. For some of us this was our first time in Palestine. For others, this was just the most recent trip that was soon followed by a return trip.
Now, over four months since my return, and one week since Donald J. Trump was installed as our 47th president, I am struggling mightily. It is the United States government (our military to be more precise) that supplies the fighter jets and the bombs without which the slaughter, the genocide of well over 46,000 Gazans, would not have been possible. This democracy, my home country, supposedly in pursuit of supporting another democracy, has the blood of thousands of women, children, elderly, and other non-combatants on its hands. Make no mistake, both major political parties are complicit in this support. We have been at this for decades: the tension has only re-intensified after the events of October 7, 2023.
What are people of faith called to do? How are we to be in the midst of such disregard for human life? What is ours to do? The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. points towards an answer in his “But, If Not” sermon. Describing what happens to us when we choose to NOT speak out, stand up, support life, or protect our own job, he said: “You died when you refused to stand up for right, you died when you refused to stand up for truth, you died when you refused to stand up for justice.”
Claiming the inspiration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Archbishop Oscar Romero, St. Mother Theodore Guerin (foundress of my community), and so many faith-filled activists from students, to preachers, to those willing to practice non-violent resistance through protective presence via the International Solidarity Movement and other such groups, I cannot stay silent as our nation continues its decades-long support of Israel.
At this writing, the people of Gaza are experiencing a bit of a reprieve. A fragile ceasefire is holding. People are feeling safe enough to travel back to their homes to dig through the rubble looking for the remains – mostly now only bones – of their loved ones. Families are able to observe proper burial rites and customs for those who were killed months or even more than one year ago. Let that sink in. We have sunk so low as to name searching through the rubble for corpses of loved ones long deceased as a good thing, as something to, if not celebrate, at least be grateful for.
Our delegation experienced amazing hospitality wherever we went. We were in refugee camps, towns and farmland compounds, a kibbutz, and East Jerusalem. Some of our members were able to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque. We spent time in the Walled Off Hotel, designed by Banksy, and yes, facing a tall cement wall running the length of the street. This wall’s official name is the Israeli West Bank Barrier, though many call it the apartheid wall. It separates Bethlehem from the holy site of Rachel’s Tomb. Israel placed 440 miles of barriers throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem partially of concrete and the occasional observation/sniper tower, much like you would see at a prison compound.
The barrier’s concrete sections rise 30 feet high. The graffiti on these walls came to be a profound place of reflection and inspiration. Here the human spirit and determination to be free is expressed beautifully, and tragically – at least on the lower half! Images of George Floyd, assassinated press corps members, quotes from Archbishop Oscar Romero, and then “Guernica 1937” with “Palestine 1948 -?” underneath it.
Christians, Muslims, and Jews are taught that all creation is holy. All is blessed by the One who goes by so many names. What then do I do, what do we do now? Pray for peace, yes, yet we are called to do so much more. We can join a delegation, advocate locally for peace, educate ourselves and our faith communities, support FOSNA, and engage and advocate for elected leaders to stop arming Israel and to restore humanitarian aid to Palestinians. The list could be so much longer. I suggest we each must discern what is ours to do, and then do it.
Let us pray with these words excerpted from “Did Trouble Me” by Susan Werner:
When I closed my eyes so I would not see
My Lord did trouble me
When I let things stand that should not be
My Lord did trouble me
When I held my head too high too proud
My Lord did trouble me
When I raised my voice too little too loud
My Lord did trouble me
When I slept too long, slept too deep
My Lord did trouble me
Put a worrisome vision into my sleep
My Lord did trouble me
When I held myself away and apart
My Lord did trouble me
And the tears of my brother did move my heart
My Lord did trouble me
About the Author: Sister Barbara was born in 1957 in Indianapolis. She entered the Congregation in 1985, taking first vows in 1988 and final vows in 1993. Of her ministries, she has served as a Clinical Oncology Pharmacist and Family Medicine and Prenatal Care Physician Assistant, as well as ministering in occupational medicine. She also served as adjunct faculty at the graduate and undergraduate level and currently ministers as the Community Organizer/Justice Promoter for the Congregation.
Please note any views or opinions contained in this devotional series are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP).