Rocks of ages: a pilgrim's progress.

Thousands of Muslim pilgrims streamed through the narrow Jerusalem streets hurrying to worship at the Dome of the Rock. On this particular Friday in Ramadan, buses from all over Israel had brought the faithful to the third most holy shrine of Islam. Undeterred by the crowds, my friend and I pushed through the tide determined to follow the Via Dolorosa and visit the crusader church of Saint Anne.

On the opposite side of the Old City, Jews gathered at the Wailing Wall, men praying in one area, women in another. Friday evening, Orthodox Jews flowed in through the Jaffa Gate to celebrate the Sabbath, wearing ear locks, fur hats, and black suits.

Friday fell on January 1, a Marian feast day, so bells rang out from the Old City's Christian churches. A sense of celebration and tension wafted through the air. At least a hundred Israeli soldiers with machine guns were deployed on the roofs overseeing the crush of Muslim pilgrims. You cannot visit the Wailing Wall or the Dome of the Rock without going through security checks. Too many fanatics - Christians, Muslims, and Jews - have opened fire on their fellow sons of Abraham. The week we were in Jerusalem, fourteen American cult members were arrested for planning acts of violence at the millennium which, they believed, would bring on the end of the world.

Still, Christian pilgrims come. We too threaded the twisting cobbled streets of the old city and dutifully waited in line to stoop and creep into the rock tomb of Jesus in the shadowy, cavernous Holy Sepulchre Church. In Bethlehem, we inched down narrow steps into the grotto (also dark, bedizened and candlelit) where a metal star placed on a rock marks the spot of Jesus' birth. Later we traveled up through the Jordan valley to visit Capernaum, to see the rocky remains of Peter's house on the shore of the gorgeous Sea of Galilee.

What do pilgrims seek in these journeys? I'm not quite sure. A rock is a rock is a rock; whether it's the one in Jerusalem's great mosque where Mohammed ascended to heaven or one in the remaining wall of the destroyed Temple or one that rests in a Christian shrine. As a believer, I'm afraid I found the holy places to be too much like empty stage sets. Is this la belle indifference perhaps a betrayal of the incarnational principle? I don't think so, because I was deeply impressed by the people and their faith.

In the mosques, fasting Muslims meditated and knelt in prayer, touching their heads to the carpet. Jews rocked back and forth at the Wailing Wall, reciting their prayers. Huddled together on the floor in the cramped Bethlehem crypt, Franciscan friars meditated in rapt adoration. By following a chanting group, we chanced upon a Benediction service in the Holy Sepulchre. A group of French pilgrims were completing the Way of the Cross. Kneeling on the stones and singing with the company brought tears to my eyes. Prayer and human hearts lifted up to God make the Holy Land holy.

All right, I'll also admit that walking through the stage sets can help you reimagine the words and deeds of the actors in past dramas. I bought and read two wonderful books (With Jesus through Galilee according to the Fifth Gospel, and With Jesus in Jerusalem, both, Corizan) by Bargil Pixner, a Benedictine archeologist who melds history, geography, new archeological evidence, and Scripture to describe Jesus' birth, ministry, passion, and death. Pixler loves the land and sees it as revelatory. But his gift to me was to illuminate social history. He provides a picture of Jewish life at the time of Jesus and fleshes out the social-political context of the gospel events. Pixner explains the influence of the Essene and Pharisee sects upon Jesus, and describes the Romans and pagan inhabitants.

The villages of Galilee where Jesus lived, taught, and performed his miracles come alive. Today they are gone, just as the ruins of the nearby Hellenistic cities like Sepphoris and Scythopolis lie buried. By the by, skeptics should note that new excavations and research on ancient texts often validate certain oral traditions, while discrediting others.

The traditional Way of the Cross is not accurate, but Mary may have actually lived near the Temple and the Bethsaida pools next to Saint Anne's. Pixler thinks that the Essenes influenced the Davidic clan of Mary and Jesus, and that the Essenes had centers in Bethsaida, Bethany, and Jerusalem's Mount Zion, as well at their main monastery at Qumrum. A rented Essene guest house on Mount Zion was probably the site of the Last Supper. Jesus' Passover meal that year followed the Essene sun calendar rather than the later date of the Temple's official calendar, following the moon. The high priests wanted to get rid of this troublemaker before the Passover feast brought volatile crowds to the city.

The arrest of Jesus, his different trials, the floggings, abuse, and final crucifixion are harrowing when given in historical detail. In Pixler's view, if Jesus had not performed miracles and risen from the dead he would be forgotten - just one more victim of oppression. His public ministry lasted three years and he never wrote a word.

But new research shows that Jesus lived in a more sophisticated milieu than we used to suppose. As a builder in Nazareth he may have worked with his family in Greek Sepphoris, spoken Greek, and perhaps even have gone to the theater there. Jesus sees Antigone?! He certainly would be acquainted with pagans, including the centurion of the border guards stationed in Capernaum. These soldiers were even furnished with a traditional Roman bath.

Most remarkable were Jesus' journeys by foot, four-day trips back and forth to the feasts in Jerusalem, and a trip through Tyre, Sidon, Caesarea Phillippi, and the Golan Heights. After the murder of John the Baptist, Jesus had to escape to friendly towns outside the territory of "that fox," Herod Antipas, the tetrarch.

The complex politics of the time included rebel movements, eventually leading to the great Jewish revolt in A.D. 66. The Zealots were gaining followers and Judas may have been one of them. His betrayal may have been his way, much like today's millennium cultists, of forcing Jesus to a messianic overthrow of Rome. Again we meet the perennial human faith in violence.

Still the gospel comforts. With the Resurrection of Jesus we know that embodied persons live eternally. And what points to this good news most effectively? Healthy babies and children beat out landscapes, ruins, and rocks. Everywhere in Jerusalem, Arab and Israeli madonnas walk with their beautifully dressed infants and toddlers in tow. Did we see the actual spot where Jesus reproved his disciples and took the little children into his arms? If not, no matter. In the end, love of God and love of neighbor transcend place. The pilgrimage of the heart continues always and everywhere.