Jerusalem represents the shining hope of humanity, the sacred citadel, the holy sanctum of beloved community, the longed-for city of peace. It is the shining hope of humanity, the sacred citadel, the holy sanctum of beloved community, the longed-for city of peace. It is symbolic of the longing in the heart of humanity to live harmoniously in the grace of creation. Jerusalem is at the heart of the global quest and challenge of how to live in peaceful co-existence.
Jerusalem has been conquered and reconquered throughout the centuries in the quest to own its sacred atmosphere and to control the strategic land-bridge between Northern Africa and the Middle East, where the Jerusalem hills hold high ground.
While the land can be bordered and walled, the sacred can never be owned, conquered or exclusively possessed.
It can be possessed in the heart of charity, compassion, justice, peace and love, but that possession is not exclusive to any one religion, or any one nation. It is all of ours. The sacredness of Jerusalem is all of ours, just as the eco-system of the Earth is all of ours.
The dilemma of humanity is that we have yet to learn how to share what is really all of ours to share.
Jerusalem is symbolic of the grand dilemma of humanity, where our desire for power and control, to conquer, own and dominate overwhelms and precludes our quest for charity, justice, love, and peace, and we wind up in a continuing spiral of enmity, violence, retaliation, and war.
How do you find your Jerusalem? How does the challenge of Jerusalem call to you for a response that helps move us all a little closer to that day when our prayers and expressions for peace, in the city of peace, that place of peace within us, is realized?
This is the challenge of humanity, reflected in the challenge of JPP.
