Walking the streets of the old city of Jerusalem, one can’t help but be aware of the presence of the three great faiths which take their origin from Abraham, and of the history of suffering and hope that seems to be present in the very stones of the city. Yet people come to Jerusalem in spite of many centuries of suffering and tragedy because they still look to Jerusalem as a place where God has done wonderful things. Although terrible suffering can often close up the human heart, when it doesn’t it opens it wide to God.

Reflecting upon these things - the history of the three monotheistic faiths, the city and country they divide, the spaces they claim with their holy sites, the identities they project, of struggles over holy things with no room for compromise, of competing hopes tied to individual religious sites - I thought of hearts of stone, closed to one another by undeniable suffering and legitimate fear. But in contrast I have seen also the faces of people with eyes soft with empathy, open to the vast horizon of God.

It is this very allegiance to the God which demands love of neighbor that is the only cure from self pre-occupation and excessive fear of others. In order to care for the common good, and not just for the good of our own, in the face of powerful impulses to protect the group and enhance its power, the God of truth, justice and love must claim us.

My hope for this nation and the greater world at large is that our fear of the the other would one day be usurped by our fear of God and that the fear of the Lord - a common and similarly understood Lord - might be a fountain of life as Jews, Christians, and Muslims strive to live together not only in Israel, but in a larger world that has become much like the divided Jerusalem itself.