It was a much more relaxing day today. We began by taking the short walk to the pier and boarding one of the wooden boats built in the same shape as the boats used in the first century. We were ailing across the Sea of Galilee. It was a very photogenic opportunity with lots of scenic views. Tony shared with us some of the geological and historic aspects of the area: lake is formed by the Jordan river, Jordan means loud voice, the river is formed by the joining of three smaller ones into one (trinitarian tie in), the shape of the lake is similar to the shape of an uterus, and the waves (because of the shallowness since it is only 150 feet deep) can get up to 5 meters high.
After getting off of the boat, we piled into the bus to the site of the Church of the Beatitudes where Jesus preached the sermon on the mount. It is an octagonal shaped church which ties in well with the 8 beatitudes. Its construction was paid for by Benito Mussolini. As Tony said,"if he built it in form of reparation instead of attempting to bribe God, then it is not a bad thing."
It would have been a beautiful spot to sit and prayerfully reflect on the beatitudes while grading ourselves on their application to our lives. There were stained glass windows at the top listing each, a beautiful garden, and multiple posted "silence this is a place of worship signs", but the different groups there just couldn't keep quiet long enough. The nun posted to sell postcards and other items kept having to announce to all to keep quiet. I wandered the complex trying to find a spot to sit and pray in silence, but to no avail. It was really a shame. I did find something that everyone else in our group seemed to miss. Bothe Popes Paul VI and John Paul II visited the site and have left stoles after using them. There were pictures of both while there adjacent to their stoles. The pictures of JP2 were especially moving as his visit was in the year 2000 well after his health had already deteriorated. It was touching to see him, cane in hand and weak body, in such a deep prayerful meditation.
We headed next for Capernaum, Jesus' home base during his three years of ministry. Tony pointed out that the true name is PharNahum which means the city at the border. It was located along the same major trade route Via Maris that we had traveled the day before. As Father Mark said during his homily later, "Jesus was a PR genius." Not only did he have the truth of God, but chose as his home base the perfect location to help facilitate its spread across the known world. Being on the border also explains Matthew's presence as the tax collector, he was charging exit taxes.
Tony pointed out that the poor actually ended up paying more in taxes than the rich. The tax collector would stop the travelers, search them and take 10% of their possessions. The poor would have their entire life savings since they would have no where to leave them. The rich, on the other hand could afford to hire someone to guard their possessions and only take what they needed for the journey. So when searched, the poor would get hit even harder.
There had been tradition of one site which was thought to be St Peter's home, but there was no way to confirm it until the 1980s when a mosaic was unconvered listing Jesus and Peter's name. There was a room believed to be used for worship, since it had multiple layers of smooth plaster (something not found in other homes) and it contained no household artifacts. Those two combined to lead archaeologists to believe that it had to be the earliest church. We had time and silence enough at Capernaum to be silent, prayerful while still learning a lot of history. Mass was particularly beautiful as we had it outdoors at a covered area with an altar right at the beach close to St Peter's home.
Lunch was at a Lebonese restaurant with tasty St Peter's fish with Turkish coffee and dates for desert. It was very tasty and perfect since Maria and many others do not eat meat on Fridays.
We headed next to Tabgha, the site of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. It can be identified beacause of the black rock placed their by the early Christians to identify it. The site was covered by a Byzantine era church which still has beautiful mosaic floors. The designs include images that are not local (peacocks, ducks, pillars to measure flood levels of the Nile). That lead scientists to belief that it was a Coptic Christian from Egypt who did the work.
Tony shard one intriguing aspect of the two different multiplication stories that I did not know. In this location, the leftovers were 12 wicker baskets, 12 referring to the 12 tribes since the multiplication occurred in Israel. The other had 7 basket of leftovers and occurred in pagan lands. The seven referring to the seven principal pagan cities.
He also shared how the name Bethlehem came about. It was not because of the bread produced there. It was rather due to the fact that the town grew wheat. Because of this it was dedicated by the Romans to Pane, the goddess of bread. The Jews weren't going to call it Casa di Pane and refer to a pagan god, so they hebrewized the name to Bethlehem, house of bread.
We headed back to our hotel after with time to relax before dinner. Many spent the time swimming, but I chose to take a nice nap. I knew with 3 World Cup matches that evening I might not get a full night's sleep. The matches started at 7 PM, 10 PM and 1 AM! Our plan was to walk back to the bar and meet our friends from Miami to watch the match, but those plans were foiled by the sabbath. The sun went down at 6, and neither one of the bars was open by the time we walked to them. We ended up watching the first game as a group at the hotel. The atmosphere wasn't as nice, but still watching in a group is fun. Unfortunately, as soon as Mexico won, all of te others started to disappear to go to bed. I was by myself in the lobby, so I gave up and watched from my room. It is just not the same to watch a game that way! Hopefully, for tomorrow's game when Colombia plays, we will be able to watch in a better location.