Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” [John 6:35, NRSV]
[L] The octagonal church and archeological site of St Peter’s house. [M] The interior of St Peter’s Church [R]View of ruins from inside the Church.
Friends who have recently returned from their Holy Land pilgrimage shared enthusiastically with us their many stories of the trip. Once again, these conversations brought to light a few items that are persistently recurrent in regard to misinformation, non-connection, and a lack of reflection, at least at some interesting sites such as Saint Peter’s house and the ancient synagogue next door. So we thought it might be useful to do a bit of clarification.
1. Peter’s House
Capernaum [Kefar Nahum in local language] at the north-western shore of the Sea of Galilee became an important city for Jesus after he left Nazareth. There, he dwelt and began his Galilean ministry [Matthew 4:12-17]. On the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he called his first four disciples – Peter and Andrew, James and John.
Peter and Andrew’s house is very close by the synagogue in Capernaum. For some inexplicable reasons, pilgrims and travel agents and even their local tour guides alike, so they tell us, speak in unison as they insist that the house in Capernaum marked by archeological ruins was the house of Peter’s mother-in-law. That is not correct. That house was Peter and Andrew’s. Perhaps the confusion came in on account of the episode of Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law in that house. But Scripture is explicit about this: “Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew” [Mark 1:29]. And if we google Saint Peter’s house in Capernaum, we will see the right description of ownership. It was Peter’s house, not his mother-in-law’s.
2. Saint Peter’s Church
In 1990, a modern looking octagonal church was built on top of the ruins of St Peter’s house. The octagonal shape of the church was inspired by the ruins of the 5th-century octagonal Byzantine church on the site. It is a great pity that for some groups, neither did their tour guides arrange for Mass to be celebrated in the church, nor did the members even walk up the stairs and enter the church! Had they gone into the church, they would have at once noticed its simple beauty and the glass window cordoned off in the centre which gives a clear view of the archeological ruins of St Peter’s house. And, if they had, like our own group several years ago, celebrated Mass in that church, they would have enjoyed, amongst other things, the brilliant acoustics of the church which needed no public address system. Furthermore, if the group had selected the right Simon-Peter-related Scripture reading for this spot in the itinerary, the wonderful ambience could very well contribute to a meaningful reflection for a spiritual pilgrimage.
3. The Synagogue in Capernaum
This ancient synagogue of Capernaum, it is good to know, was the very synagogue Jesus used during his Galilean ministry.
The ruins that we see today point to a magnificent and complex building. Constructed at the end of the fourth century A.D., the principal building materials were white limestone imported from elsewhere.
[L] Remains of the 4th-century Capernaum synagogue. [M] The ruins of the synagogue of the Roman times of Jesus. [R]
In contrast to the white limestone of the later synagogue, the synagogue of the Roman times of Jesus was made of local black basalt rocks. It is immensely useful, in our reflection, to remember that this earlier synagogue was the centre of activities where Jesus did much teaching and healing. Recall St Mark, for example:
- They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. [Mark 1:21-28, NRSV]
Concerning this ancient synagogue, however, there is something else which has captured our attention. And this has to do with what we once read about Pope Paul VI’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1964. The caption on the photograph showing the Pope praying at the archaeological site of the earlier synagogue noted that he prayed “emotionally”.
Pope Paul VI praying at the ancient synagogue site
As to why the Pope was “emotional” praying at the ancient site, there is simply no resource available that offers an explanation. We are thus left with our own reflection, which tends towards the following direction:
- As head of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope was naturally interested in Jesus’ discourse on the bread of life [John 6]. That highly controversial discourse was taught in this very synagogue [see John 6:59]. However, this “I am the bread of life” revelation did not go down well with the Jews who began to leave him. Could the Pope be thinking what a great difference it would have made to the Christian faith if “the Jews” had accepted Jesus’ teaching?
- And after the masses had gone, and Jesus was left with only his skeletal group of disciples, he asked even of them whether they too would also wish to go away, for he wasn’t going to change his teaching. Upon that question, Simon Peter, who obviously could not possibly understand what Jesus meant by giving his flesh and blood for the people to eat and drink, nevertheless made one of the most memorable utterances in Scripture: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the holy one of God” [John 6:68-69]. Would not a recall of Jesus’ sense of abandonment, and the words of blind trust uttered in this very synagogue by the first Peter, have caused a twentieth century successor of Peter, to be emotional?
Whatever your own reflection may be in this regard, a visit to this place would be so much more enriched if we factored in an explicit connection between this ancient synagogue and Jesus’ discourse on the Bread of Life in John 6.
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, April 2014. All rights reserved.
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