Latest / 4-Freedom Podcast / 215. A Talk with Father Kelly on Magdala
Transcript
- 0:00For freedom, you set me free. Not for change, not for guilt,
- 0:03not for Pharisee. Bracelet the flame, Now I'm
- 0:07puffing peace cigars and victory Justified released.
- 0:12Welcome to the For Freedom podcast.
- 0:15This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for
- 0:18everyday Christians with everyday issues.
- 0:21I ain't. Saved by dress codes, not by
- 0:23what I eat. I'm covered in the
- 0:25righteousness, washed from head to feet.
- 0:27No tally of tradition. No man made code.
- 0:30Blood bought my freedom. Now I ride that road.
- 0:32They clutch pearls when they see smoke rings rise.
- 0:35But my prey still ascends past the legalist cries.
- 0:38Christ plus nothing. That's the real math.
- 0:40So miss me with your fence laws and your extra path.
- 0:44He sat with sinners. I'm sitting with Saints, sipping
- 0:46grace from the bottle. No room for face.
- 0:48I like one for liberty. Toast to the king.
- 0:51Every ash of sermon. Death has lost its sting.
- 0:55For freedom He set me free, Not for change, not for guilt, not
- 0:58for Pharisee Grace let the flame now puffing, peace, cigars and
- 1:02victory justified released. For freedom, he set me free.
- 1:07Not for change, not for guilt, not for Pharisee.
- 1:10Grace, let the flame now puffing peace, cigars and victory
- 1:14justified, released. Let Grace begin.
- 1:17For freedom. Let me free, not for change.
- 1:20Not for guilt. Not.
- 1:21For Pharisee grace, let the flame.
- 1:24Now here are your hosts, Victor James, Seyfried and Brett
- 1:27Martin. Welcome back to the podcast.
- 1:32We are so excited to have Father even Kelly here with us and he
- 1:38is in Magdala in Israel. And me and Brett, we got to meet
- 1:42him and we were so excited about lining up this interview to be
- 1:45able to share his story and what he's doing there in Israel and
- 1:49how can be an encouragement to you.
- 1:51Welcome to the show, Father Kelly.
- 1:52Will you share your background, your calling into the priesthood
- 1:56and what what led you to serve in the Holy Land?
- 1:59Give us an intro to that. Thank you so much, James, for
- 2:04having me on the show with you guys.
- 2:06And Brett, I missed part of it there.
- 2:10The piece of outer has taken off my head to see out there
- 2:13touring. No worries.
- 2:17Yeah, well, I was raised on a farm in the West of Ireland,
- 2:23milking cows and shearing sheep and castrating calves.
- 2:27You can cut that piece out if you need to.
- 2:29And I was delighted to be there. We were.
- 2:33We didn't have electricity and we didn't have a telephone, and
- 2:36that wasn't by choice as much as by the fortune of where we were.
- 2:41And in a way, we didn't miss it. It was interesting when we
- 2:45needed to get a vet for a car or something they gave me 6 penny
- 2:50piece and I ride my bicycle for 3 1/2 almost 4 miles to the
- 2:55Nortons to make a phone call from there and she died on the
- 3:00phone and then the post office answered and then to connect me
- 3:05to the number in Canvara for the vet.
- 3:07Now two hours later the vet showed up.
- 3:11And so that was that was the life in the farm making butter
- 3:14at home. And then I was blessed to be
- 3:17raised and to be born into a family that practice the faith
- 3:22practice in the sense of believing and also believing in
- 3:28God and praying in the family. And we didn't miss church on
- 3:33Sunday unless there was somebody really sick.
- 3:36We cycled 3 1/2 miles to church when we were little and we had
- 3:41to school also. So I was held back for a year
- 3:45until I was able to. My little sister, my next sister
- 3:48was, she was 5 1/2, I was 6 1/2 and we cycled 3 1/2 miles to
- 3:53school. So that in itself, through the
- 3:55nature in the rain and the wind, we didn't have much snow.
- 3:59The second year we were in school, there was a huge freeze
- 4:02over and I remember we had to break ice on the little, small,
- 4:07little season, the lake we had in order for the cows to get
- 4:10water. And it was that kind of life on
- 4:14the farm. So we didn't go to school that
- 4:16month and there was that total freeze over and that was
- 4:20unusual. And all the memories of the
- 4:22neighbors, the nearest neighbors were almost a mile away.
- 4:24So, I mean, daddy never said be quiet, the neighbors will hear
- 4:27you. For this countryside, we didn't
- 4:32have a tractor or a car. We had a donkey, an old horse
- 4:35that was kind of lazy. And they're in the countryside
- 4:38growing up. And we were blessed with the
- 4:39largest size farm, lots of cows and calves and sheep and lambs,
- 4:45a little bit of tillage. The land was very rocky, a
- 4:47little bit like what you see in the back of the picture here in
- 4:49Mount Our Bell. It's a limestone formation.
- 4:51That's what we had. But we were living more on the
- 4:53flat land with limestone. And we did have hills behind us,
- 4:56more or less the size of Mount Our Bell.
- 4:58And so we, it was just a marvelous way to to be begin
- 5:06growing up and then went to school, grade school, high
- 5:11school. In high school, it was quite
- 5:13demanding and I wanted to quit after three years in high school
- 5:17to be a farmer. Then that's a whole other story.
- 5:20We could talk about that at length, but the of course, the
- 5:27set of circumstances that would need more time to recount.
- 5:32I decided to go back to high school instead of staying at
- 5:35home working with my dad and the farm.
- 5:37I would inherit the farm and I wouldn't be here talking to you
- 5:39now and then. So I went and finished high
- 5:43school and in that course of that, I really got fell in love
- 5:46with physics and sciences and and math.
- 5:50And that was my big, big hobby. I still helped out a lot on the
- 5:54farm, but there was a lot of school work to do.
- 5:56We, my sister and I, were in the same class since we had started
- 5:58out that early together and she's now a doctor.
- 6:03And so she was also very academically motivated.
- 6:06And that was an environment then of great mutual stimulation.
- 6:11And so the environment was also healthy in our time.
- 6:15You know, we had a three day retreat in the school and there
- 6:18was a visiting priest camp to do the retreat.
- 6:21And some of the bad boys were out in the shed and they smoked
- 6:23a cigarette in the bicycle shed. But most everybody of 240 boys
- 6:27kept silence in the school. It's amazing.
- 6:29You know, it wasn't forced. It was, it was enforced in a
- 6:31way, but it wasn't, it wasn't pressurized.
- 6:34It was people wanted also that we were motivated to pray and at
- 6:39least a lot of the people, I think.
- 6:41And then priest showed up in the school once, and I still
- 6:46remember that it was September 1973 and was our beginning of
- 6:50our last year of high school. And he was from Mexico and he
- 6:55spoke about a personal passionate love for Jesus, spoke
- 6:59about winning the word for Christ.
- 7:02And he spoke about studies to be able to speak to a world that
- 7:05didn't want to hear about God. But it was very agnostic,
- 7:09materialistic atheism was very strong in the Western world at
- 7:12that time. And I just thought, wow, I
- 7:16wanted to study physics. Maybe this is the way to get
- 7:18into a top physics university. And I just put down sending more
- 7:20information. But it's funny when years later
- 7:24I was telling the story to two of my sisters, my next two
- 7:27sisters, that I have a brother and a little sister, or there
- 7:29were five of us, and my second sister piped up and she said, I
- 7:35remember that evening very much. And you never stopped talking
- 7:39about this Mexican priest. You were turned on.
- 7:41So somehow the Lord had had hooked me, you know, for this
- 7:46vocation to leave everything and follow Christ with no other
- 7:50expectation than Christ himself, which is the greatest
- 7:52expectation. And then the year went by and
- 7:57academic studies and there's a lot more than little pieces to
- 7:59tell the story there. We'll skip over that for now.
- 8:02And so then in the summer came around, I finished the exams, we
- 8:05did a second set of exams, some of us for a better ranking to
- 8:08get into universities. And I had a place for the
- 8:11university study physics and everything.
- 8:13But my decision was made. I was going to be a priest.
- 8:17And so I joined the innovation in Dublin two years of a little
- 8:21bit like Paul went going into Arabia after his conversion to
- 8:24soak up the great gift he had received, the grace he had
- 8:28received to do that complete reorientation of his mind from
- 8:33persecuting Christians to be a such a great apostle for Jesus.
- 8:37And after two years we make our vows poverty, not to own
- 8:41anything chastity to dedicate our heart consecrated completely
- 8:45to the law of Christ in his church.
- 8:47And then obedience, which is the toughest one, because that's
- 8:51concerning our will to lay down, our will to do whatever the
- 8:54church wants me to do, the whatever position, whatever
- 8:57ministry they I've been required to do.
- 9:00And then to follow Christ who was obedient unto death for our
- 9:04salvation. And so that's the logic of that
- 9:07and living in a community. And so that those two years were
- 9:09about getting into that new mentality.
- 9:13And then following that, I was studied a year in Salamanca and
- 9:19Spain and humanities, especially Latin and Greek, which I
- 9:22already, I already had Latin in high school and then Tasiger
- 9:27Greek, and then also rhetoric and writing for this, preparing
- 9:32the mind and the abilities, the talents from ministry and then
- 9:36also learning Italian to be ready to go to study in Rome.
- 9:39And there I was, did a degree in philosophy and then I was sent
- 9:42to Michigan and I was in youth ministry in Michigan and
- 9:47teaching religion in a high school, freshman, sophomores,
- 9:50and the feeder schools also doing programs for the other
- 9:53kids, junior high kids. And then I was four years, and
- 9:56that was supposed to be 3 originally with the
- 9:58circumstances made at 4:00. And then I was asked to do
- 10:00another job to look for some funds for the seminaries and for
- 10:04the work we're doing with the Maya Indians in southern Mexico.
- 10:07And so I was an extra year there.
- 10:09So I had five years there in the States and I was sent back to
- 10:12that was all over the country. Then I went to Rome to to my
- 10:15theology, and I was. Already in the Priest in 1980. 7
- 10:18So that's 38 years ago, that's Christmas when I'm 52 years in
- 10:22the congregation, in the community, living my life for
- 10:25Christ. Never got a paycheck for me.
- 10:28We lived a shared life and where everybody has everything in
- 10:33common. And it's a great way.
- 10:35Even this, like this shirt, nobody is going to use it, but I
- 10:40don't own it. So it's for my youth, for my
- 10:43ministry. And the only thing I own is
- 10:45actually a cross, the crucifix to remember what Jesus did, the
- 10:49love he had for me. That's the only position I have
- 10:51on this earth I have with a lot of books and nobody's going to
- 10:53use my underwear. But it's just, it's like, uh,
- 10:58keep training the mind to be in love with Christ.
- 11:01So this is first of all my path. And then I was assigned after my
- 11:05ordination actually to the US, but there were some issues with
- 11:09the visa, getting it all processed.
- 11:10And I'm kind of a restless guy. So I ended up starting our work
- 11:13in Central Europe and I was in Austria, Germany, Austria and
- 11:16Hungary doing a lot of work all over that here, region, Central
- 11:20Europe. I was when the communism fell
- 11:21down, broke down. And so I was going from
- 11:25Amsterdam to Budapest and Hungary.
- 11:26And I even organized a group of kids from Moscow to Rome for a
- 11:29pilgrimage. And so it was an incredible
- 11:32time. Also in Europe.
- 11:33There was a whole new springtime of liberty and also a huge
- 11:36challenge to spread the gospel because Europe has been very
- 11:40developed and also sometimes very far away from Jesus and
- 11:43certain aspects of the life and the culture.
- 11:46And then the next thing that happened was, umm, I was called
- 11:50back to the US and then I was in New York.
- 11:54That was my base headquarters. And I used to hear confessions
- 11:57in the Twin Towers. So I knew a lot of people on
- 11:599/11. I was three days on the streets
- 12:02with people in New York and Manhattan.
- 12:03It was an incredible, it was an amazing experience.
- 12:06You know, you have such diversity in a place like
- 12:08Manhattan, so many extreme, so many different types of
- 12:11populations. And that those days you could
- 12:13say that everybody was a brother of everybody else in the system.
- 12:16Everybody else. It was just like a leveling
- 12:19moment. You know, you have Shakespeare
- 12:20with a Shakespeare who writes a savage about death.
- 12:22The leveler. Maybe it wasn't Shakespeare.
- 12:24Who was it? We did that one in high school,
- 12:27and that event of 911 was a leveler.
- 12:30Everybody was in the same boat, and it was an amazing age.
- 12:34We could do a podcast just about that.
- 12:36And then the next thing that happened, I was assigned to the
- 12:39youth work in the Ohio Valley through adult ministry for youth
- 12:43work. And I was chaplain, Northern
- 12:45Kentucky University, and my boss was a Baptist pastor.
- 12:47Why? Because he was the longest
- 12:49standing pastor there. And I was new and there were
- 12:52about 6 or 8 different types of pastors there.
- 12:54And so he was the coordinator of our team also in relation to
- 12:58getting interest pushed with the administration of the university
- 13:00and so on. And then I was called to come
- 13:02here to the Holy Land in 2006. And I probably got the
- 13:06assignment 20 years ago in May. And the Hezbollah war broke out
- 13:11in July. So they said don't come, there's
- 13:13nothing to do, there are no pilgrims, stay there and do
- 13:15something useful. And then I got assigned to a
- 13:17parish in Phoenix, just outside of Phoenix and Queen Creek.
- 13:21So I told people I was up the Creek with many paddles and I
- 13:25was there for until January. And I got here in January 2007.
- 13:28And the Phoenix experience was a marvelous experience because I
- 13:30had never done parish ministry. And I work obviously with a lot
- 13:33of priests who come here for renewal, for a treat.
- 13:35And it's good to have had that experience.
- 13:38And also the experience of living in the desert of the
- 13:39Saguaro cactus out in Arizona, hiking in the desert numerously
- 13:44every week. It was just absolutely an
- 13:46amazing, delightful. It just opened up a whole other
- 13:50world that I wasn't familiar with.
- 13:52So then why was I called to the Holy Land?
- 13:55Because our community was entrusted with the major
- 13:57responsibility for a guest house in Jerusalem, which the Vatican
- 14:01has stepped in to fill a gap in administration, and they need
- 14:04somebody to do this. Our community was assigned to
- 14:07that role as a third generation of responsibility for that.
- 14:11And then I was hopped into that position and they asked me to do
- 14:16it. And there I was in Jerusalem
- 14:19learning this 20 years ago, almost 19 years ago this past
- 14:22January, and learning this whole milieu and getting familiar with
- 14:27it and being totally surprised. I'd often drink, you know, maybe
- 14:30sometime when I'd be 25 years or a day that get to come here for
- 14:34a week to have a pilgrimage. You know, I ended up being here
- 14:37already a number of years each time I got my 25th anniversary.
- 14:41So it's amazing the how Providence works in our lives.
- 14:45Just what Jesus said, you know, Peter said to him, we've given
- 14:48up everything for you. What do we get?
- 14:50And he's. At a hundredfold.
- 14:51In this life and eternal life and a life to come and I can
- 14:54honestly say that I have experienced that goodness of
- 14:57God, that generosity of God, that absolute delightful
- 15:04company. And it doesn't mean that we're,
- 15:05there were no problems or difficulties even today,
- 15:08challenges, the biggest challenges are sometimes inside
- 15:10our own selves, struggling, wrestling with things, and it
- 15:14cannot. There can also be difficulties
- 15:15in the environment and even in the community, different issues
- 15:18that have to be dealt with that aren't easy.
- 15:20You prefer that they don't exist.
- 15:21But that's part of where God is also molding us and shaping us
- 15:25and forming us in all of these challenges.
- 15:27So here I am talking to you today, talking to some Baptists.
- 15:31That's amazing. Isn't the Catholic priest
- 15:32talking to Baptists? I love it.
- 15:34That's great. Yeah, Yeah.
- 15:36Well, Father Kelly, I'll tell you your presentation, your talk
- 15:41with our group was many people's favorite part of our trip.
- 15:46I know it was like right up there at the top of my list.
- 15:50We thank you for taking the time with us.
- 15:52My favorite, favorite part was whenever you got onto my wife
- 15:55for talking, I was like, I was like, I was like, yeah, get her
- 15:59brother, get her. And but that was.
- 16:01What was that? I didn't understand what you're
- 16:02saying there. You get you got onto my wife for
- 16:05talking and I was like. Yes.
- 16:08Like you said, you said I'll, I'll, I'll start talking when
- 16:12you get done because what you're saying is more important than
- 16:15me. And I was like, yes, get her,
- 16:17she needs it. I said with a small little bit
- 16:20of nuance. It was a little bit more finesse
- 16:22Now, the way you're reporting in breath, I hope no ladies are
- 16:25listening to that the way you. I always say that I love to hear
- 16:28the marvelous scenes the others are saying and I wouldn't like
- 16:31to miss them, so I won't be talking while they're speaking.
- 16:34But if if they ever notice that I am not speaking, it's because
- 16:38people like your wife have very important things to see and I
- 16:40wouldn't want to miss that for the world or.
- 16:42Exactly the gentle, for you were rebuking, reproving and
- 16:48correcting. No, no, no.
- 16:49No, no, no. No, no, no.
- 16:51I was expressing my extreme appreciation and admiration for
- 16:54such incredibly profound thought that was so valuable to the
- 16:56whole group. Yes, yes, I love it.
- 16:59Well, Amen. Well, let me ask you what what
- 17:01drew you an amygdala to working on the Sea of Galilee?
- 17:05What does that mean to you? How does that?
- 17:07How was that journey evolved over the years?
- 17:10Thank you, Brad. By the way, it's when it's
- 17:13necessary, I can also give a public apology to your wife even
- 17:15here on the, on the, on this program.
- 17:21So we honor women here in Magdalene in a very special way
- 17:25because of Magdalene, Mary Magdalene.
- 17:26So it's one of our priority program points that women here
- 17:30are treasure. They're front and center.
- 17:32And this is important because without woman, we wouldn't be
- 17:37here without my mom, without my grandma, 2 grandmas, my grand,
- 17:40my dad's mother's passed away when he was two years old.
- 17:43So I never knew her, but still I owe her so much.
- 17:46And my dad doesn't remember anything because she died in the
- 17:49great flu of 19/18/1919. She was two years old.
- 17:52And so, you know, it's, it's amazing the what women have done
- 17:56in our lives. And then my three sisters,
- 17:59they're amazing, amazing, amazing people.
- 18:02And so it's, it's a great gift. So we're very happy to put women
- 18:07front and center in Magdala. It's God put us here.
- 18:11And this is, this is a great deal.
- 18:13And tell me your question again, I got off track.
- 18:16What drew you in a Mangala and working on the Sea of Galilee
- 18:19and how has that evolved over the years?
- 18:21Well, it was a bus that drew me, but not like a tractor and a
- 18:24trailer. I was sitting up on a SO, So I
- 18:29was 10 years working in Jerusalem, officially at the
- 18:33vice director of Notre Dame Jerusalem Guest Center.
- 18:36Maybe some of your listeners have had a meal up on the
- 18:38rooftop restaurant. That's a view out over the city
- 18:40of Jerusalem, a magnificent place with a lot of history, a
- 18:43lot of wonderful service there. But the whole time I was also
- 18:46working on this project together with Father Juan Solana, who was
- 18:49spearheading it. And then at some point, I will
- 18:53tell you the exact story. I often did a lot of trips,
- 18:55especially to the US, to rouse awareness and support for Magda
- 19:00level. And at one point, about 10 years
- 19:03ago, there was this consultant who came by and he said, you
- 19:06know, you guys, I'm watching what you're doing.
- 19:08But I think why are you? Going around the world to drill
- 19:11up support when you're already getting thousands here every
- 19:14month. And nobody's talking to them.
- 19:16So then I stopped flying around the US and was the time for a
- 19:19rethink how we're going to be here.
- 19:20So I started living here because of that.
- 19:23To take care of all the surge of pilgrims that were coming here
- 19:26to meet them, to encounter them, to guide them here, to be
- 19:29available for them when they come, to answer their questions,
- 19:33to give them encouragement. All the work with pilgrims as
- 19:35you, as you, as you go along, you know.
- 19:39Love. It that was the main thing that
- 19:40brought me here. If if that's helpful.
- 19:42So maybe the question also begs another question earlier
- 19:47previous questions, why do we end up in Magdala as a
- 19:49community? And that question is connected
- 19:52to the we were first of all, our community was kind of they twist
- 19:55our arm to come to do this because it wasn't our line of
- 19:57service. We're very much into long term
- 20:00accompaniment of people developing their talent to be
- 20:03great. Ambassadors of Christ in the
- 20:06world, wherever they are, in the, in the workplace, at home,
- 20:08the family and the community. And we figured that just being
- 20:12with people for a week in the pilgrims in the Holy Land was
- 20:14just too short a time for doing continuous work.
- 20:18But then when we were kind of pressured into here and that
- 20:21great principle of obedience, you know, the, the our church
- 20:25superior said, we need you to come and help.
- 20:27So our community said yes. Then they send me a letter and
- 20:30say, you come and help, OK, I come and help and then hear, you
- 20:34know, through different voices that even that consultant, that
- 20:36was a very important moment because he brought clarity to
- 20:39the discernment that we needed to make at this new moment of
- 20:43development. So when we got to Jerusalem,
- 20:45first it was just Notre Dame, but then it was very quickly to
- 20:48learn that the Galilee was super important for pilgrims.
- 20:52And right now you're looking out at Galilee here behind me.
- 20:55This is Mount Arbell, and this over here is the Sea of Galilee.
- 20:58That blue there in the background, that's the Sea of
- 20:59Galilee. And actually Magla's right
- 21:02behind my head there, if you cut a hole through that stone would
- 21:04be Magla. And so, and we realized that we
- 21:09needed to be here because this is where Jesus finished his
- 21:11public life. This is get Nazareth.
- 21:13It's only 20 minutes by car if there's no traffic from here.
- 21:16And that's where Jesus been 30 years of his life.
- 21:18And that's where the Annunciation happened.
- 21:20The Angel Gabriel comes and asks that little teenage girl, hey,
- 21:22do you want to be the mother of, of the Son of God?
- 21:25You know, the big deal. And then this is Canaan is here
- 21:28and Capernaum is here, the core of Jesus life.
- 21:30So we realized very soon that we needed to come here.
- 21:34And then the, the concept of Notre Dame is very interesting
- 21:37because everybody goes to Notre Dame.
- 21:39And so all the Christian spectrum goes there.
- 21:41And it's, it's a wonderful place, historic.
- 21:44It's about 140 years old now. And then even Muslims and Jews
- 21:49go there and all the Christians. So then we figured maybe the
- 21:55concept we could do in Galilee was to develop a place that
- 21:58would be open to everybody and especially to all the Christians
- 22:05to stay here. And then when we started to
- 22:09develop Magla, we found a synagogue from the time of
- 22:13Jesus. So now we had something, an
- 22:16extraordinary treasure for the Jewish people that turns out to
- 22:19be an extraordinary treasure for us Christians.
- 22:23Those who follow Jesus also have a connection to Jesus.
- 22:25So this became then a kind of a bridge.
- 22:28And then all the workers here, it's amazing.
- 22:31It's like a cross section of workers.
- 22:34We have Arab and Jewish Israelis working here, and the Arabs
- 22:39break down into Druze, which is a different religion than Islam.
- 22:43Muslim workers and Christian Arabs were Israeli citizens and
- 22:50thanks. And we have Jewish people
- 22:51working here and atheism, agnostics as well.
- 22:55And so there, there's a marvelous spirit here, living
- 22:59together and working together. And that in itself is a
- 23:01wonderful testimony, this type of community that's living for a
- 23:06higher ideal. So why do I, why do we come here
- 23:11then? Well, because of we had this
- 23:13idea to develop the centre, then the Lord blessed it with so many
- 23:16things that we could never have imagined.
- 23:17So it's clear that the Lord had this plan at the end of the day,
- 23:20say, why do I come to Manly? Well, because the Lord wanted
- 23:22it, but not because he sent me a WhatsApp message or a fax or an
- 23:25e-mail, but just through the providential development and
- 23:29discernment of our service here, how we could best serve the
- 23:33pilgrims who come to know Jesus better, to walk in Jesus
- 23:35footsteps, to be there where he taught.
- 23:39Uh, This is why we follow these steps.
- 23:42And so in a certain sense, we didn't plan them.
- 23:45They're God's Providence in our lives.
- 23:47Like what happens when a couple gets married and they didn't
- 23:50plan that the child would be this way or that way that you
- 23:53don't tell when the child is in the womb.
- 23:54That's going to go to Harvard or MIT or and become a Carpenter.
- 23:58There's so much you wait for a Providence to unfold in your
- 24:01lives. It's like a little plant growing
- 24:02and then it flowers and then it bears fruit or process of
- 24:06ripening. So in that sense, it's like life
- 24:08itself, you know? That's great.
- 24:11So Magdala, an ancient city, an ancient place.
- 24:15We, we know it's in scripture in two different locations in
- 24:19Matthew 15. And then Mark, I believe it's
- 24:22Mark 5, Mark 8 it is and it's, it's recorded in history.
- 24:27Josephus Flavius talks about Magdala, but for years, you
- 24:31know, we, we didn't know where it was at until just a couple of
- 24:34decades ago. How do you explain the
- 24:38historical, the spiritual importance to someone who's
- 24:42never been here? How do you begin to say, listen,
- 24:45this is this is where Jesus was at.
- 24:47We know he came here. We Mayor Magdalen's from here.
- 24:49He went to all the the region and taught in the synagogues all
- 24:53across the region of Galilee. But people never been there and
- 24:57the vast majority of probably our listeners may never get a
- 25:00chance to go there. How, how do we talk about the
- 25:02importance of Magdala in in that sense?
- 25:07Well, in a way it's important and it's a way, in a way of I'm
- 25:10just like shooting myself in the foot.
- 25:11It's not that important. You know, you say, how do you
- 25:15explain colors to a blind man? Like the difference between red
- 25:20and green and turquoise and yellow and Gray?
- 25:25You know, what's the guy imagining?
- 25:26He can't even tell us what he's imagining because we don't know
- 25:29how he is interpreting those realities.
- 25:31So and a blind man can still be a great St. a great scholar, a
- 25:36great human being who does a lot of good because he's missing 1
- 25:39little thing. So in one sense, I would just
- 25:42put things into perspective. The most important thing is that
- 25:45we learn to love God with all our heart and all our soul and
- 25:48all our strength and all our mind.
- 25:50And then if we're blessed with the grace of knowing Jesus, then
- 25:53to follow Jesus, to love him and.
- 25:56We can do that anywhere. Every time, every day,
- 26:00everywhere, with every person. And this is really the core
- 26:04stuff. So then to come to the Holy Land
- 26:08has great value. I think Americans could relate
- 26:12to going to the Super Bowl or to the Hall of Fame for football
- 26:17would even be better. And then you go through all the
- 26:19history and you are, you go to the home of Abraham Lincoln or
- 26:24George Washington or Martin Luther King or, you know, you
- 26:28say, wow, and you've pondered their life and they have great
- 26:31significance for the history of the US.
- 26:34But then you come to and going to the place where Jesus was
- 26:38walking around where, where he called the first disciples,
- 26:45where Mary Magdalene had a lot of issues.
- 26:48You know, 7 demons is a big big big topic and and she's
- 26:52delivered and she becomes the 1st.
- 26:53Witness of the Resurrection. And this is the reason why we
- 26:58emphasize Magala so much in the the women's part of Magala.
- 27:01She is, she's related here, the first witness of Jesus arisen
- 27:05from the dead, and he sent her to go to the other apostles.
- 27:09And the word to send in Greek is apostolain.
- 27:12And somebody who has sent in a misery, an ambassador, is called
- 27:17apostolos in masculine and apostola in feminine.
- 27:22So Jesus, since heart, the breaking news, have you ever
- 27:27heard of breaking news that morning?
- 27:29That was the ultimate breaking news for humanity.
- 27:33There was no breaking news ever like that that he rose from the
- 27:36dead. Maybe the other one that would
- 27:38match it would be Pentecost. Maybe also the Angel Gabriel
- 27:41telling Mary she's going to be the son, but the mother, her son
- 27:44is going to be the eternal word of God, the Son of God.
- 27:47You know, that's breaking news that this is the center of
- 27:50history, man. Yeah.
- 27:51So then you come here and, OK, you get excited as Americans
- 27:55maybe going to something historical, the Statue of
- 27:59Liberty or those places that were so meaningful for so many
- 28:04families arriving from poverty to the shores of America, and
- 28:07they get checked in. It's in Long Island to some big
- 28:12office place there for immigrants.
- 28:14And so the the great grandchildren go back and check
- 28:16it out. But to come here and say, wow,
- 28:182000 years ago, you know that in today we're now 26.
- 28:22So in seven years we'll be celebrating the second
- 28:25Millennium of Jesus work of salvation and and you know, 2000
- 28:32years. I remember this morning I was
- 28:34sharing with the group here about a coin we have near the
- 28:37megalastone. Maybe I did that for you guys
- 28:40and the coin was mentioned in the year 29 and you asked them
- 28:42who was alive in the year 29. And then the coin is written
- 28:46Tiberius, Tiberius. Tiberius is 4 miles from here
- 28:51just South of us. And then the other part on the
- 28:54other side of the coin is written Hirodu Tetra who?
- 28:57Herod the Tetrarch. So Tiberius and Herod the
- 28:59Tetrarch and who was alive at that time.
- 29:02And you're here for all of that John the Baptist.
- 29:04And he clips off his head. You know, you're here where all
- 29:08this, this story unfolds. You're here where Jesus calls
- 29:12all of his disciples, where he's walking across Galilee, a
- 29:15crisscrossing Galilee the whole time.
- 29:17And you know, the teachings are very important in the gospel and
- 29:21all the words, but actually you've to also ponder.
- 29:23What's going on? While he's teaching, No, sorry,
- 29:26while he's walking. And there's one story that I
- 29:29love to tell. Did you see the mosaic map we
- 29:31have here with 1.6 million storms?
- 29:34It's a, a big circle in the just between the Duke and Altom and
- 29:39the restaurant we're building. And it's and maybe you didn't
- 29:42get to see it because there's so much to see.
- 29:44And if you have an hour, you don't get to see it at all.
- 29:47Well, in this map we also have it extended beyond Galilee, up
- 29:51to Tyre and Sidon in Lebanon. And we have it extended to
- 29:56pointing towards Jerusalem, to the Golanitis, which is the
- 30:00Golan today, to the capolis, which is down as far as
- 30:03Philadelphia. Doesn't do it all, just a piece
- 30:05of it. And it says in the Gospel that
- 30:08Jesus remember the time the lady with the crumbs under the table,
- 30:11her daughter she wanted healed or crudely liberated.
- 30:14And it says in 3 or 4 words, Jesus went from there and his
- 30:18next moment is in the Decapolis and he has to cross all across
- 30:21Lebanon. All across Galilee.
- 30:23Down into the Decapolis, who knows how far down and there's
- 30:28no more, nothing more is said about that.
- 30:30But what happened in that trip in terms of contacts between the
- 30:34disciples, fights they had, tensions they had, and just
- 30:38watching Jesus, the way he was keeping his calm and then they
- 30:41were being transformed. It's like kids, you know, on a
- 30:43trip, three day trip across America with the kids and
- 30:46they're fighting in the back of the car and when are we going to
- 30:48get there? That whole that, that whole is
- 30:51that's formational for the kids. They have to learn patients.
- 30:54They have to learn to survive in moments that aren't
- 30:57uncomfortable. They would like to get out of
- 30:58the car. No, we just have to keep driving
- 31:00for another 3 hours. You know, it's the, the
- 31:03practical daily life. And to come here and to realize
- 31:05this is where all this happened. The disciples get up in the
- 31:09morning, they can't find Jesus. They're out in the hills looking
- 31:12for him because they realize that he looks for a lonely place
- 31:14to pray. And now they're out there and
- 31:16we're walking those places here. You know, it's, you're touching
- 31:22it, you're, you're seeing it. And that much changed here in
- 31:24the topography since Jesus. And this mountain didn't change
- 31:27much. Maybe there was a bit more
- 31:29eroded with the rains and the storms, but it's basically the
- 31:33same mountain. Jesus saw what you're looking up
- 31:35right behind my head there. The Sea of Galilee didn't move.
- 31:42The Mount of Olives didn't move in Jerusalem.
- 31:44So it's it's a big deal. Yeah, in the excavation in
- 31:49Magdala, the the first sister synagogue, that's there where
- 31:53the Magdala stone is AT and the Magdala stone, I think that's
- 31:57important as well. How did those two things shape
- 32:00the site and shape the importance of this region?
- 32:05He had told a story while we were there about, I think it was
- 32:09some philosopher that said, you know, there were no synagogues.
- 32:12There was no such thing as a synagogue.
- 32:14And then now we have 12 of them. So hear that a little bit, and
- 32:17then Brett's going to transition to another talk about Mary
- 32:21Magdalene a little. Bit sure.
- 32:23So the, the discovery of the synagogue was very important
- 32:28because we actually in that place had planned a Chapel where
- 32:35we could have be shared by all Christians, you know, the
- 32:39goodwill attitude. So any Christian group could
- 32:42come and have a place to pray, open hospitality.
- 32:45Therefore pray Chapel hospitality, right?
- 32:48And that's where we found the synagogue.
- 32:51So let's say we have goodwill and we're listening to Jesus
- 32:54Prayer, the Last Supper. May they all be one Father as
- 32:56you and I are one, so the world will believe.
- 33:00That's that's wonderful. And it's a fantastic motivation
- 33:04as Jesus living word that's pushing it today.
- 33:07But then we we come and we find a synagogue from the time of
- 33:10Jesus. And a lot of guides say that
- 33:13Jesus was in the synagogue. I never say that because we lost
- 33:15all the videos. But then the probability is
- 33:21huge. Jesus walks through this area.
- 33:26He teaches in the synagogues and every Shabbat we found a second
- 33:29synagogue 100 and 63170 yards away from this synagogue.
- 33:33So we have two synagogues which are contemporary from the 1st
- 33:36century before temple destruction in in Galilee.
- 33:39So until the 1990s, as you're mentioning, James, there was a
- 33:43theory by a bunch of professors that there were no such things
- 33:47as synagogues until after temple destruction.
- 33:50Now if there are no synagogues on the laughter temple
- 33:52destruction, that raised a huge credibility question about the
- 33:56gospel because the gospel claims that Jesus taught in synagogues
- 34:00every Shabbat, every Saturday and healed the sick there and
- 34:05then. By the time we found ours, ours
- 34:08was number 7. And now there are 12 at least,
- 34:13which are recognized by the Israeli Antiquities Authority as
- 34:17synagogues and their pre temple destruction, their 1st century
- 34:21synagogues. And so this is a pretty
- 34:24significant discovery because when you see these kind of
- 34:27facts, you can't argue against it.
- 34:29So the synagogue still exist. And then another thing is our
- 34:31synagogue is very beautiful. By the way, when is the first
- 34:34time in your life, James, that you ever heard the Catholic
- 34:37precinct, our synagogue? Never.
- 34:41Think about it. And now if you meet some Jewish
- 34:44folks on the street there in North Carolina and you're get
- 34:47talking, you may be having a coffee together or something, a
- 34:49nice conversation. And then you say, oh, by the
- 34:52way, I was in Galilee recently. Oh, by the way, hey, Mr. Jewish
- 34:55person, have you seen our synagogue?
- 35:01You know this. This changes the conversation
- 35:03and the Jewish. Guy looks at you and say what?
- 35:05Do you mean you're, you're a Baptist, you're a Christian?
- 35:06What's going on here? And it starts the whole
- 35:09conversation about shared spaces.
- 35:12There's no question about that. Our synagogue is one of the
- 35:15greatest treasures that has been uncovered recently of Jewish
- 35:18culture, Jewish history. But on the other hand, it's also
- 35:22a treasure for us because Jesus spoke and healed the sick in the
- 35:26synagogues of Galilee. That's extraordinary.
- 35:30And to be able to have to witness that, to be there, just
- 35:36look in the seats there to think you're sitting down in the
- 35:38synagogue and your family's there with you.
- 35:41And maybe Jesus just came into the synagogue and there he is
- 35:45teaching. And then by little he's engaging
- 35:50all the people there. Eye contact.
- 35:53And then the next moment you realize he's looking at your
- 35:56eyes and you're looking into Jesus eyes for the first time in
- 35:59your life. And maybe you notice a question
- 36:02arising in your heart and you know the question is coming from
- 36:08Jesus and then the question simply is what would you like me
- 36:14to do for you now? So the very fact of having a 1st
- 36:20century synagogue on site, which is very unusual.
- 36:24Did you guys stay here with us or did you just come to visit?
- 36:27We just can't visit. Yeah, but we have many Baptist
- 36:31groups staying here for two or three days and then let's say
- 36:33they have a little insomnia because of jet lag or whatever.
- 36:35They take their Bible to go down, to go down beside the
- 36:39synagogue and they open their Bible and pray a Psalm right
- 36:42there where, you know, where people were there 2000 years
- 36:47ago. So there's a there's a gift in
- 36:50that. There's a gift that a lot of
- 36:52people are plagued in our culture by a type of skepticism,
- 36:57culture of doubt, questioning. And it's OK to question and it's
- 37:04OK to have doubts. And it's you can be skeptical,
- 37:07but when you come here to the holiday and say, wow, this Sea
- 37:09of Galilee. You should put.
- 37:10Your finger in it gets wet. It's real.
- 37:12It's not plastic, it's not painted.
- 37:14It's for really this, this the volume of the Sea of Galilee,
- 37:18the like the space it occupies. That's for real.
- 37:21Capernaum has archaeology for real.
- 37:23This synagogue is for real. There are houses, there are fish
- 37:26crossing infrastructure according to the theory of the
- 37:28archaeologists. We've discovered ritual baths
- 37:31that we've discovered. This is a village.
- 37:34This is like almost a city. And this is where real people
- 37:38who came in and out doorways that are still there today at
- 37:41thresholds, colors painted on the wall, somebody painted that
- 37:45mosaics and the floor in the synagogue, somebody did that.
- 37:49So it becomes like you're in the living room of the people of
- 37:532000 years ago, their community living room, that's their
- 37:55synagogue. That's where they're studying
- 37:59Torah. That's where Jesus went on
- 38:01Saturdays on Shabbat to, to teach the word of God, to
- 38:05proclaim the Kingdom is near, the Kingdom is among us, it's
- 38:09here, it's already started, the king is here.
- 38:12So if the king is here, the king is here.
- 38:16One of the things that I really love about the Pilgrimage Center
- 38:21is its focus on women and the role of women in God's plan in
- 38:26Scripture and the Gospel. I'll tell you one more story
- 38:29about my wife. A good one you.
- 38:34You brought her up to point the finger and take the picture by
- 38:41the woman who touched the hem of Jesus's garment and took that
- 38:45picture of her and prayed that prayer.
- 38:48And that meant a lot to her. This past Sunday morning we had
- 38:51a reflection service of for our people that went on the trip.
- 38:57And in her portion she played, she played that prayer that she
- 39:02prayed over her and that meant a lot to her.
- 39:04And in fact, she wanted me to tell you this, that recently, in
- 39:08the past few days, she had a medical procedure that she was
- 39:13very nervous about. And she prayed the prayer that
- 39:17you prayed, and it comforted her and it meant a lot to her.
- 39:22And so we want to thank you for that.
- 39:24Which brings me to the next question, What role does the
- 39:28story, And you touched on this a little bit already, but what
- 39:30role does the story of Mary Magdalene play in the life and
- 39:35identity of this place? Well, I would say let's look at
- 39:40Mary Magdon in Scripture, first of all.
- 39:43And so you have lots of stuff in people's heads nowadays because
- 39:46of Dan Brown and all his writings and other people's
- 39:50theories about Mary Magdon. But let's look at the
- 39:52scriptures. And I find that there are like 5
- 39:54statements that we find in the gospels about Mary Magdon.
- 39:58First statement. She had a lot of issues.
- 40:00Just say it like that, a lot of difficult issues.
- 40:04You can. I'm just leaving the seven
- 40:06demons in whatever forum they were active.
- 40:09If you're angry with somebody and you want to get revenge, are
- 40:13you going to sleep well at night if it's a very serious deal that
- 40:16you're angry about and want to do revenge for?
- 40:20And so that's the that's not a good spirit inside of you.
- 40:22And this is just doing a minimal approach to this text, OK.
- 40:26And then all the other major issues that we can have of envy,
- 40:31of jealousy, of insecurity, of anxiety, of impatience, so, so
- 40:38many things that can plague. US.
- 40:40And make our family life a wreck and wreck.
- 40:43It can wreck our work environment, can wreck our
- 40:46society, especially if people are in leadership and they have
- 40:48these issues. So Mary Baggin had major issues
- 40:51#1 #2 she finds in Jesus the solution for her issues.
- 40:58They're resolved. She is freed, liberated #3 she
- 41:07is forever grateful. And this shows up that she is
- 41:13faithful even to Calvary when most of the guys are gone.
- 41:20Before this, she has been generously supporting Jesus,
- 41:23men. So she's the top of the list of
- 41:25the supporters and all these women are supporting Jesus.
- 41:30Luke chapter 8, verse 3, they're supporting Jesus from their
- 41:34treasure, from their substance, from their means, from their
- 41:36wealth. And after what we found in
- 41:40Magda, you can't say there wasn't wealth in Magda.
- 41:43And there's a lot more connections.
- 41:44If you look at the gospel in Luke chapter 8, verse three, it
- 41:47says that's Jesus going around Galilee with the 12 and with the
- 41:51women who are freed, liberated, or healed.
- 41:53And among them it says Mary Magdalene, Suzanna, Johanna, and
- 41:57many others, many others. That's a lot of women and these
- 42:01women are supporting Jesus from their wealth.
- 42:04And one of the people is Johanna and she's the wife of Chusa and
- 42:07Chusa is the head manager of Herod Antipaths.
- 42:10That means Herod is very busy with all the ladies he has to
- 42:13take care of and all the parties he has to run.
- 42:15So he has this guy Chusa in charge of all.
- 42:18He's like his Prime Minister. And this guy, it's wife is a
- 42:21disciple of Jesus. So Jesus reaching the top level
- 42:23of society. But Mary man was always listed
- 42:25before her. So Mary Madam is a very
- 42:29significant date in the society and she's giving everything she
- 42:33can to support Jesus community to be she's already being an
- 42:37apostle of the community. And then we go from there to the
- 42:41crucifixion and she's faithfully there at the cross.
- 42:46And so it's no wonder then that Jesus calls her.
- 42:48It is, it's still a wonder, but it's amazing that Jesus calls
- 42:51her to be the first witness. Providence has heard a role as
- 42:55the first witness for the resurrection and Jesus sends her
- 42:59makes her an apostle to the apostles to send as apostolate
- 43:03and I mentioned this nothing already to send her to be an
- 43:06apostle to the apostles. This is extraordinary.
- 43:09This is amazing and so and we can say these things about.
- 43:14Mary Magdalene, She had Major. Issues she found in Jesus.
- 43:17Her solution we could say in more pious language for Savior,
- 43:21but we just say her solution issues like I'm speaking secular
- 43:25language just to make it accessible for everybody.
- 43:28She finds in Jesus the solution. She's forever grateful and she
- 43:32shows that in the support for and building up the community
- 43:34because you know this is going to bless so many people.
- 43:37And then she is faithful when the times get tough and going
- 43:42gets rough and she's faithful through Calgary and she's still
- 43:45faithful after Calgary because she's going to the tomb for the
- 43:47anointing. So like it's the worst of the
- 43:50worst is the dead end of the street and she's still there.
- 43:54And then Jesus surprised her and then sends her with the joy of
- 43:59the resurrection, the the first Hallelujah of Easter to the
- 44:04apostles and they can't believe her.
- 44:07And it's just absolutely mind boggling.
- 44:09It just there's people have commented about the glass
- 44:13ceiling that women have to breakthrough.
- 44:15That was it. That was the ultimate glass
- 44:18ceiling and that has still that still ricochets to this day.
- 44:22It still. Vibrates resonates to this day.
- 44:27This is Mary Magdalene. And so it's no wonder then that
- 44:30this is a great place since in our times, in the last century
- 44:34and quarter century and a half, the issue of women has come very
- 44:38much to the fore. And that's very important.
- 44:41And sometimes it's been driven and written by ideologies that
- 44:45not necessarily are looking for the best of the woman, but
- 44:47they're using that to advance other causes.
- 44:50And the gospel message is truly liberating in the we encounter
- 44:54with Christ. Christ is the Lord, but he
- 44:57doesn't dominate people. He sets them free.
- 45:01He sends them out to change the world, to be the salt of the
- 45:03earth and the light of the world.
- 45:05So this is what Mary Magdon experiences.
- 45:08And what a model, what a message, what an example, what a
- 45:12delight. And very difficult in that time
- 45:14because the the male dominance of the cultures of the time in
- 45:20the Roman society, in the Greek society, in the Jewish society
- 45:24was Jesus was also breaking ceilings at that time, glass
- 45:28ceilings and cement ceilings. Yeah.
- 45:31Absolutely. You know, as we are watching the
- 45:35clock as well, making sure you have plenty of time.
- 45:37So we're. We're going down to #8 on the
- 45:40question there, but out me and Brett, we both been twice to the
- 45:44Holy Lands. We've both been twice to Magdala
- 45:47and various different regions and seen a lot of things.
- 45:49And you can definitely say that people's faith has been
- 45:53deepened, grown. I shared last night with our
- 45:55church my trip and shared all the photos and had a question,
- 45:59answer time and just a wonderful time of sharing how the Lord
- 46:04deep in my faith by walking where Jesus walked and open my
- 46:07eyes more than just a book or a Bible study can do.
- 46:11I mean, you're walking and and seeing and touching exactly what
- 46:14Jesus did, but you've seen the over the course of your 20,
- 46:18almost 20 years there in Israel and in Jerusalem and Magdala,
- 46:23thousands of pilgrimages, thousands of people come through
- 46:26there. Is there a story or are there
- 46:29stories that sort of stand out to you maybe in the event that
- 46:33happened that that you'd want to share?
- 46:35And if not, that's fine. I just an idea that I haven't as
- 46:38we're walking through that. Sure, Actually just two days
- 46:41ago, a few days ago, I'm not sure that Christian once the
- 46:45group was leaving and you remember the Chapel, the jars
- 46:48Chapel where the a daughter usually puts her hand into Jesus
- 46:53hand beside the little girl, the daughter of Jairus.
- 46:56And we say that prayer. Thank you Jesus, for holding my
- 46:58hand. Keep my hand in your hand
- 47:01always. Never let it go, Jesus.
- 47:03And then we do a prayer for the parents and the grandparents,
- 47:05the uncles and hands. Jesus, thank you for holding our
- 47:09daughter's hand, our granddaughter and our niece's
- 47:11hand and so on. Fill her with life, Jesus, Like
- 47:15one day you filled the daughter of Jairus and his wife with
- 47:18life. And when her greatest day comes,
- 47:21Jesus, fill her with the fullness of everlasting life,
- 47:25with all the angels and Saints and glory.
- 47:29I can't tell you how many people have come to me.
- 47:31So just a few days ago, a couple shared with me that their
- 47:35daughter had a very tragic news just two days before they left
- 47:40from here. Her boyfriend ended her life
- 47:44with a revolver, ended his life with with a revolver.
- 47:50And so they were leaving for the Holy Land and she had other
- 47:54friends around her as well, but they came with that heavy load.
- 48:00And then they, the Lord consoled them.
- 48:04And I had no idea they were in that situation.
- 48:07Maybe most people in the group didn't know.
- 48:09I'm not sure if they shared it with anybody else.
- 48:12And so they know that today. I know that and I know who this
- 48:19couple is, and I don't have the contact information or anything,
- 48:23but I know who they are. And so they shared that story
- 48:27with me. They wanted to release that news
- 48:30they had, and they said how significant it was.
- 48:32There was another, the same Chapel with the same prayer six
- 48:36or eight years ago. There was a lady who was weeping
- 48:38at the end of that moment, and she said to me, I have to share
- 48:43this with you. For years I was fighting God,
- 48:46why my daughter, why our daughter needed to die.
- 48:51And she said, I've been released from that pain, from that
- 48:53struggle, from that wrestling with God.
- 48:55I, I, you know, it's a grace she received.
- 48:59So I remember once I got an e-mail from a guy, I think he
- 49:04was from Mississippi, and he had a picture of when I took a
- 49:07prayer with his hand upon Peter's hand, Jesus pulling him
- 49:10out of the water, you know, walking on the water Chapel, the
- 49:13storm of the sea. And he said, I can have to tell
- 49:17you how important this moment was for us.
- 49:20He said I had special prayer there.
- 49:23And that was like 9 or 10 months ago.
- 49:27But in the summertime, our grandchild, 12 year old
- 49:30grandchild was on a rafting camp in Alaska and he lost his life
- 49:35in the raft in the whitewater. When we got the news, the first
- 49:39thing that came to my mind was the picture was the prayer that
- 49:44I spoke at that place. And I went to the computer and
- 49:46looked for that picture. And I want to share with you
- 49:50that a few months ago when we had went through this tragedy,
- 49:52that this was a moment of great blessing.
- 49:55So the things that we're doing here is really not our doing.
- 49:58It's God's doing. And sometimes, you know, the
- 50:02Lord is trying to reach us and we don't get reached.
- 50:05But there are moments in life, and it doesn't have to be the
- 50:07Holy Land. It can be in your own room.
- 50:11The Lord touches our hearts. It can be a true sickness.
- 50:13It can be true news of an accident.
- 50:16It can be a good thing or a bad thing that happens.
- 50:18But the Lord can get our attention and give us a grace
- 50:21that we need, and we're aware of it.
- 50:23And I would say that. Everybody's blessed in the Holy
- 50:25Land. Some people only find out years
- 50:27later, like that gentleman found out about 5 months later why God
- 50:32gave him that moment of prayer preparing him in the middle of a
- 50:35stormy sea, withholding Jesus, holding his hand in rough waters
- 50:40because the WAVY waters there and his son, he's imagining him
- 50:43in the white water. He would just wish he could have
- 50:44been there and save his grandson in Alaska.
- 50:47It didn't happen. So he's now with Jesus again and
- 50:50Jesus holding him so he doesn't sink in the waters of sorrow and
- 50:54grief and so many other things. There was this lady, an American
- 50:58lady, and for some reason she ended up in the Soviet Union
- 51:01years and decades ago. And she ended up being very,
- 51:05very abused and unimaginable abuse and for a long time.
- 51:11And she finally was able to escape back to the US and
- 51:14rebuild her life. And then she came to Magdala,
- 51:17and this was with my sister and was working here, and she was
- 51:22down in the Encounter Chapel and she had that moment of prayer
- 51:27there. And she said, Jesus restored my
- 51:29dignity. So she had terrible assault to
- 51:34her own personal dignity, that she was worth nothing because
- 51:38the way she was treated. And here in this moment of
- 51:40prayer, Jesus restored her dignity.
- 51:44So there are different types and areas of help.
- 51:49We've heard many things about different types of healings, but
- 51:52that's not, you know, unique to this place.
- 51:55The Lord can the biggest probably healing that we all
- 51:57need is a strengthening of our faith to realize that we're
- 52:01always in God's presence that he never leaves us he never
- 52:04abandons us that they strengthen our virtue of hope that we're
- 52:09anchored in Christ and there's nothing that can overcome us and
- 52:14that we're strengthening our love that we're able to grow in
- 52:19that level of patience we need for life's challenges and
- 52:22difficulties that we're able to grow with that forgiveness that
- 52:25we need to receive or to share with others and that we're able
- 52:29to grow in that service, putting our lives at the service and so
- 52:32many people serve a lot. They serve at home their
- 52:34children their children are sick.
- 52:36They serve at the gas station because that's where they're
- 52:38working. They serve in the supermarket.
- 52:40Check out that's where they're working they're and and to grow
- 52:44in the for that. That's not just a drudgery, but
- 52:46it's actually being in Christ and serving Christ and also come
- 52:50to check out their groceries in the supermarket.
- 52:52There's so many ways to live the faith, the hope, the love and
- 52:57that's what we really need that is other events that I told you
- 53:00about OK, they're very sensational.
- 53:01They're sensational, they're very dramatic, but since the
- 53:04ordinary. Life that we all need to be
- 53:06renewed. And I would say the pilgrimage
- 53:08helps a lot of people in that way.
- 53:12It gives them a renews. It's a moment of grace.
- 53:14It's a moment of prayer. It's a moment of God's action in
- 53:18our lives where we let him happen, let him do this work in
- 53:21our lives. Amen.
- 53:25One of the things that amazed me when I was there, Father Kelly,
- 53:29was the interfaith dynamic that you have to navigate.
- 53:33Magala attracts so many people of so many different faith
- 53:36backgrounds and. Yeah.
- 53:42And Baptists and Jews and things like that.
- 53:45And so hearing you tell stories of these different groups.
- 53:48So I want to ask you, how do interfaith experiences shape
- 53:52your work and the understanding of witnesses?
- 54:00I think somehow I was blessed by the Lord since I was a child in
- 54:04this way. And in Ireland, growing up in
- 54:06the West of Ireland, it's like it was 99 Percent Catholic.
- 54:10And at least in on the cover, OK, who knows what everybody's
- 54:14heart was or the difficulties they were having or whatever.
- 54:17But in general and the respect my dad had, there was a guy who
- 54:21used to deliver the gas cylinders for us because that
- 54:24was our extra energy besides the wood and the farm for, for
- 54:28burning and for cooking and so on.
- 54:30We had a gas oven as well. And the man was Methodist and my
- 54:38dad would say God bless the poor man.
- 54:40So we were learning to respect and love, cherish what we had as
- 54:48a gift of our faith in the church.
- 54:52And somebody was different. My dad, he had worked in England
- 54:56a lot as a young man, as a Carpenter.
- 54:58And so he had been exposed to a lot of people.
- 54:59But we, I received that in my home.
- 55:02And then there was a grand uncle of ours who was looked after by
- 55:04a lady who wasn't Catholic and she used to come to visit
- 55:07sometimes from England. He had been working in the civil
- 55:10service in England and she wasn't Catholic.
- 55:12But the respect and love that my parents received them within the
- 55:16home and didn't make an issue out of it for us.
- 55:21Like the marker was to go to Mass on Sundays, right?
- 55:24So obviously this lady didn't do that.
- 55:26And so, but we never had a critical judgment about her.
- 55:29We never called her out. It was give her the maximum love
- 55:35because she had taken such care of our grand uncle when he was
- 55:38very sick. And then, you know, the work I
- 55:43did in the States was an exposure to a lot more were in
- 55:49Catholic because Catholics are a minority in the States the years
- 55:51I was there. But the majority of my work is
- 55:53among Catholic. Then I went to, I was signed, I
- 55:54was working in Germany, like I told you, for 11 years, and
- 55:57sometimes I showed up at a retreat organized by young
- 55:59people. I'd encourage them to organize a
- 56:01retreat. And half the kids were Lutheran.
- 56:04So I had to change my whole part how I will do the retreat
- 56:09because I want to be an encouragement for all the
- 56:13Lutheran kids that were at the retreat without offending them
- 56:20and also without depriving the Catholic.
- 56:22So finally, the common denomination square, what can we
- 56:25build on together? And if we're doing some things
- 56:27that are specific to Catholic, to do it in a way that's also
- 56:30going to be helpful for them so they can understand what we're
- 56:33doing so that we can understand and learn to respect each other.
- 56:37And then being assigned here, it was very special in that way.
- 56:42Also, the work in New York, because I did a lot of work in
- 56:44New York, in Manhattan, and met a lot of Jewish people.
- 56:47They really didn't know much about the Jewish faith actually.
- 56:50And it was an interesting time having conversations with them.
- 56:53But here then it's the maximum of that peak of encounter every
- 56:59day. Like I just told you about our
- 57:00employees. All our employees here are
- 57:02Jewish, Muslim rules. We have better ones.
- 57:06That's an ethnicity. Christians and atheists and
- 57:10agnostics, and it's just an incredible mix.
- 57:14We had 240 Israelis living with us for 16 months during the war.
- 57:19They had to be evacuated from their homes and the needed.
- 57:22Places for, you know, they're coming from kibbutz.
- 57:25So they're not they're religious Jews and they wouldn't be going
- 57:28to synagogue very much at all. And so, you know, does it's all
- 57:33the time of continuing education and you're responsible for a
- 57:35synagogue and for ritual baths of the Jewish people from 2000
- 57:39years ago. So all of that works on you.
- 57:41So I think the first thing is that we ourselves are stretched
- 57:44in our heart to make space for others.
- 57:46That's a beautiful line that Saint Paul appeals.
- 57:48I think to the. Philippians, I'm not sure who he
- 57:50appeals to and says, stretch your hearts.
- 57:52Make space for me like I make space in my heart for you.
- 57:55And for us Christians, sometimes we can fall into a trap of being
- 57:59very judgmental. And since we are very convinced
- 58:03that we have the right thing, and probably most human beings
- 58:05think the same way, we're very judgmental, easily judgmental.
- 58:09We can fall into that very easily of others.
- 58:12And there are whole lots of scripture and doctrine to talk
- 58:15about. But we can have a lot of
- 58:16prejudice without getting to know the person.
- 58:20And sometimes there was an atheist man working here and I
- 58:22had quite a few conversations with him and he was a marvelous
- 58:25man. And he was teaching his kids
- 58:281214 year olds not to hit the Muslims at the beginning of the.
- 58:31War after October 7th 23 I was. Fascinated by that man and there
- 58:36was a man that didn't have a religious dimension, but he was
- 58:41teaching his kids that they shouldn't learn hatred and how
- 58:46to deal in that environment. There'll be plenty of people
- 58:48that would express hatred and express vengeance and revenge.
- 58:52Thoughts. But.
- 58:54He was teaching his kids to have a bigger heart, to have
- 58:57understanding. I was fascinated by that man.
- 59:01So I think that the fact of learning about the others with
- 59:05our cardinal here, Pizza Bala released a very similar he's 10
- 59:09years younger than me, but he was from northern Italy.
- 59:12And he said when he came to study at Hebrew University was
- 59:15the first time people questioned his Catholic faith because
- 59:18nobody questioned his northern Italy.
- 59:19Everybody was Catholic and then he said through those
- 59:22conversations, he learned a lot about his own faith because of
- 59:25the questions they would ask. So to meet the other who's
- 59:28different, it's actually an it's a very can be very enriching
- 59:32experience. We shouldn't be nervous about
- 59:35it. We should have great respect for
- 59:36the others. God respects me.
- 59:38He respects you. He respects us Christians.
- 59:40He respects every human being and even in the Bible says he
- 59:43brings the rain down the fields of the good and the bad alike.
- 59:46So he doesn't even make distinctions because he wants
- 59:48everybody to have a blessing that he's still there providing
- 59:51so that when they're ready to come back, the doors open.
- 59:53Like the prodigal son finds the door open, not just open.
- 59:56He finds a party or join him in over 1 center.
- 59:59And somehow we can be very judgmental and we can be very
- 1:00:02harsh with our fellow believers and with those who don't believe
- 1:00:07exactly like we do or who believe something completely
- 1:00:10different. And I know there are huge issues
- 1:00:13in all this field, so we wouldn't do it just in 5 minutes
- 1:00:16here, but I think that we wouldn't be making a mistake to
- 1:00:19enlarge our hearts to make space for others without judging them.
- 1:00:24And we can pray for them. We can say, Lord, show them and
- 1:00:26show me also the great truth of your love, because I'm still
- 1:00:30discovering God's love. And I think in heaven, we will
- 1:00:32not just go in and have it all in one moment.
- 1:00:34We're forever. We're going to be growing in
- 1:00:36greater capacity to understand the the Infinity of God's love.
- 1:00:40I mean, if he made they can't count the number of stars, who
- 1:00:44can count the number of atoms and if we're human beings aren't
- 1:00:48able to do that. That's just the smallest shadow
- 1:00:50of the incountability. If you want to use that word,
- 1:00:53the unfathomability of God's reality and it's just the the
- 1:01:00gift that God has, like he said to the woman at the well Jesus
- 1:01:03did. He said if you only knew the
- 1:01:05gift God has for you. She only knew the gift of God.
- 1:01:09If we only knew. We only.
- 1:01:11Knew the Saints God is making in other places with his Providence
- 1:01:16and that shouldn't allow us to go away from what the gift we
- 1:01:20have. We have a huge gift.
- 1:01:21The gift we have in Christ is immense.
- 1:01:25The eternal word God made flesh, who died on Calvary for us, Who
- 1:01:30rose from the dead, who poured out the Holy Spirit upon us from
- 1:01:34the Father and living God living inside us, inhabiting us.
- 1:01:38What more could we want? What more could we desire?
- 1:01:42And that's our whole life is trying to discover that it's
- 1:01:46it's finally being able to have enough of common sense to wake
- 1:01:50up and and accept this extraordinary pouring out of God
- 1:01:54into our lives. So this is something something
- 1:01:57really off the off the charts. You know, it's huge.
- 1:02:01And then that. Experience meeting the others.
- 1:02:03We don't have to do all the work.
- 1:02:04We only have a few minutes with people most of the time.
- 1:02:07Some people have 40 minutes with us here.
- 1:02:09Some people stay two or three days, but they're out all the
- 1:02:11day. You see them at breakfast maybe,
- 1:02:13or see them at supper. You give them a tour and there's
- 1:02:16a bit more contact because they can study you a bit better.
- 1:02:19They're there a couple of days, so they're watching you, they're
- 1:02:21watching the community. But it's it's amazing.
- 1:02:25I think we're going to be a lot of surprises in heaven.
- 1:02:28Absolutely. You know, that was that
- 1:02:31statement was said to me by one of our guys on the trip with us.
- 1:02:34He said we were talking to guy, our guide, and he said one of
- 1:02:39the largest groups of people because we noticed there were a
- 1:02:42lot of Chinese people that were there, Asian people.
- 1:02:45And he said the largest group of people that come and have a Holy
- 1:02:49Land visit is from China. And he said the underground
- 1:02:54church, they want to come and experience the Holy Land and
- 1:02:58more people come from China than anywhere else.
- 1:03:01And one of the guys looked at me and he said, I think we're going
- 1:03:03to be surprised when we get to heaven with who is there and
- 1:03:06who's not Like, hold on, China, like underground.
- 1:03:09This doesn't make sense in our mind.
- 1:03:12And I long for that day. It's good to be able to talk to
- 1:03:15you. We're going to ask you 2
- 1:03:16questions. I know we've got about 12
- 1:03:18minutes left. What are the next milestones for
- 1:03:21Magdala? What, what are things in the
- 1:03:24future? I know you've got a couple of
- 1:03:26projects that are going on. What's the next phases of things
- 1:03:30then Brett's going to ask the final question to let you close
- 1:03:33the final thoughts. So our big task everyday now is
- 1:03:39trying to look after our pilgrims.
- 1:03:41COVID came, we started a very strong outreach to social media,
- 1:03:45Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and I started a sunrise store and
- 1:03:49chat every morning at 6A and when the sun rises.
- 1:03:53And so we do a lot in that area, and a lot of things are
- 1:03:56beginning to mature in a certain sense.
- 1:03:58We have a lot of the infrastructure.
- 1:03:59We have some things still to do. We need help to build a
- 1:04:01restaurant. And we'd love the Baptist to be
- 1:04:03involved. We love every church to be
- 1:04:05involved. Because imagine if we could all
- 1:04:07build this restaurant together and we'd have a monument outside
- 1:04:11the restaurant where it says Methodist, Presbyterian,
- 1:04:14Baptist, sleepy Catholic, Anglican, Episcopalian, Orthodox
- 1:04:19Christians. We all build it together.
- 1:04:21The Pentecostals that we all build it together.
- 1:04:24People would come and say, wow, that's not possible.
- 1:04:26That didn't happen. Yeah, the guy's going to say,
- 1:04:28look here. It's written here in this stone.
- 1:04:29They all built it together. And then we'd have an arch piece
- 1:04:32with John 172023 when Jesus saying, Father, may they all be
- 1:04:371 like you are in me and I am in you so that the world will
- 1:04:41believe that you sent me. And I think there's a beautiful
- 1:04:46gift happening already in that direction where Christians lose
- 1:04:50their prejudices and develop friendships with each other.
- 1:04:54We don't need to make it too romantic and poetic right now
- 1:04:57because it's a rocky road. It's not easy.
- 1:05:00It's a. It's a.
- 1:05:01Challenge of grace, transforming our own lives.
- 1:05:05If we get rid of our prejudice, we still have two major things.
- 1:05:08The difference we have reading the scripture, difference we
- 1:05:10have doing theology. But if we have prejudice, we
- 1:05:12shouldn't even bother talking because we'll just be
- 1:05:16aggressively more hostile to each other.
- 1:05:18We'll alienate each other more. We walk steps away from each
- 1:05:21other, but if we could do one step closer, overcoming our
- 1:05:25prejudices and building something together.
- 1:05:27So this is a big step we want to do right now.
- 1:05:32And we obviously have more infrastructure work, We have
- 1:05:34more excavations to do, although we're not in a big hurry to do
- 1:05:37it because we have such sensational discoveries that
- 1:05:39people are still discovering here in Magla.
- 1:05:42The biggest thing I think is what the ministry is going to do
- 1:05:44that's happening here. The friendships with pastors,
- 1:05:47with different churches, the I can't tell you how many pastors.
- 1:05:51We just are best of friends, the Pentecostal symbols of God
- 1:05:55Baptists all kinds of Baptists because there's a whole bunch of
- 1:05:57different Baptists. I just learned that we had
- 1:05:59Baptist pastors come here from Texas and from North Carolina
- 1:06:02two weeks ago with Methodist, with Wesleyan, with non
- 1:06:06denomination, with evangelical and they came here to see how
- 1:06:09can we build this together, one step closer, hospitality
- 1:06:12together and say so there's and the things that can come out of
- 1:06:16this with pastors with with churches.
- 1:06:19I think they're only the Lord knows the future.
- 1:06:22In that sense. I think it's called to surprise
- 1:06:23us. We wrote a principle when we did
- 1:06:27our our branding 10 years, 12 years ago now.
- 1:06:31And one of the principles was for the vision that Magus should
- 1:06:35be a catalyst for renewal and reconciliation worldwide.
- 1:06:39And we never imagined we will be doing this type of work with the
- 1:06:42different churches. So the Lord let this flower
- 1:06:46blossom and we saw more petals opening up with new colours that
- 1:06:50we didn't anticipate. And we don't know where the Lord
- 1:06:52will take it. I mean, we have an idea.
- 1:06:54And we then hopefully, I'd say pray for us that we will, our
- 1:06:58hearts will allow the Lord to do all he wants to do in our lives.
- 1:07:02And what he wants to bring out, the fruits he wants to bring
- 1:07:05from his blossoms, He's letting unfold these plants that are
- 1:07:08beginning to germinate and grow up.
- 1:07:11Also, the relationship between Jews and Christians is already
- 1:07:14being deeply blessed here, but it still hasn't found the
- 1:07:16concrete form, and I'm sure that's coming.
- 1:07:19It's a matter of time. It's a matter of fidelity.
- 1:07:21It's a matter of responding to grace and letting God heal.
- 1:07:25All these relationships that have sometimes been very deeply
- 1:07:28damaged in the past, like 30 years, war between Christians
- 1:07:31and Europe, all the horrible things that happened in my
- 1:07:34country, in Northern Ireland, but also the things that
- 1:07:36happened in the decadence of our own lives and the renewal we
- 1:07:39need tensions inside church communities that have left
- 1:07:43wounds that need to be healed. There's so much to do in all of
- 1:07:46this area. And the Lord is doing, if he was
- 1:07:49able to do with Mary Magnum and have her be the first witness,
- 1:07:51how many new first witnesses are going to come out for all
- 1:07:54sectors of society, for the Chinese, for Asia, for Africa,
- 1:07:58for Europe? Today needs a lot of work.
- 1:08:01The Lord is doing it. Yeah.
- 1:08:03Amen, Father Kelly, we want to thank you for coming on today
- 1:08:07and being a part of our podcast here.
- 1:08:10Thank you for taking up your time.
- 1:08:11Just as kind of a last question and kind of getting your final.
- 1:08:15Thoughts. What is your prayer for those
- 1:08:18listening today? Would they come to Mangala, they
- 1:08:20make the pilgrimage, or they take those ideas back to their
- 1:08:24communities? What's your prayer for those
- 1:08:27listening? Thank you.
- 1:08:31I would say, you know, you don't have to wait to.
- 1:08:34Come here to start. You can plan to come here.
- 1:08:40Put it high up on the bucket list.
- 1:08:41If you're a person that does travel, why let the whole that
- 1:08:44be the last? Thing you do.
- 1:08:45When you're 90, do it now so that it impacts your life.
- 1:08:49Earlier past the day we had just before I came over here, I took
- 1:08:51extra time with the family. The three little boys, they were
- 1:08:53also Baptist and you know, there were Lutherans and mom and dad
- 1:08:57and there was an older couple that weren't the grandparents
- 1:08:59with them. And I just gave them some extra
- 1:09:01time and, and the boys were the oldest was like 12 or 1313 and
- 1:09:07then the youngest fellow was probably 6:00 or 7:00 or
- 1:09:097:00-ish maybe. And just the blessing it was to
- 1:09:13see them and the way that family was so closely knit and so warm.
- 1:09:18And these kids are such potential.
- 1:09:19The Lord normally knows what's going to come from them.
- 1:09:21And that little encounter today, you know, the work that was done
- 1:09:24with that family and by the parents and their grandparents
- 1:09:27for the last 10/15/20 years. We're all sewing in God's
- 1:09:30vineyard. We're all sowing seeds.
- 1:09:33We're all and we ask the Lord to open our hearts to overcome our
- 1:09:38little limitations. And when we have limitations we
- 1:09:40can't easily overcome, to give us the patience that we can.
- 1:09:43We can plot along and resonate His love as much as possible to
- 1:09:48all those around us in gratitude and humility, asking for
- 1:09:52forgiveness, giving forgiveness, serving, being grateful, being
- 1:09:57grateful. If you want, they can check into
- 1:10:00the sunrise scrolling chat. You can put up some links for
- 1:10:02that and it's on Facebook and YouTube and Instagram.
- 1:10:06And I would love them to get involved with onestepcloser.org
- 1:10:10to get in there. And there's a bunch of Baptists
- 1:10:12getting involved with that. And I think we get a lot of
- 1:10:15Baptists that can be high up in the protocol there.
- 1:10:17And the participation in the in this restaurant.
- 1:10:21And the restaurant isn't about the restaurant.
- 1:10:22It's about giving witness to John 1720 to 23.
- 1:10:25May they all be one, Father, as you and I are one.
- 1:10:29So the world will believe that you sent me.
- 1:10:33That's an amazing word. And that's kind of a culmination
- 1:10:36of the mystery of salvation. It's antithesis to Babel, the
- 1:10:38Tower of Babel, completely all separated, broken up, the
- 1:10:42antithesis to Cain and Abel. It's the embrace of the other,
- 1:10:46despite they're not exactly made to my measure.
- 1:10:49It's the endorsement and information of all that God is
- 1:10:52doing, good and the other, even if he's a criminal today, even
- 1:10:55if he's a drug Lord, even if he's a corrupt politician.
- 1:10:58Our work isn't to condemn them. Our work is to provide the
- 1:11:00prayer, the encouragement, the healing of our society.
- 1:11:06Yeah. How long for the day where we
- 1:11:08can all be 1 together and one day that'll be true in heaven.
- 1:11:13And thankful that we can have a small part of that here on earth
- 1:11:16as we share the gospel with others, as we share the death,
- 1:11:19burial, resurrection of Jesus. And thankful for what you're
- 1:11:23doing there and the impact that you're having.
- 1:11:26And thank you so much for your time and spending an hour and
- 1:11:29some minutes with us. And listener, I hope this was a
- 1:11:32blessing to you. And hopefully we can maybe line
- 1:11:35up a a second episode and and talk through some of the daily
- 1:11:39life and theological portions of where you're at there.
- 1:11:43But thank you so much, Father Kelly, for coming on today and
- 1:11:46sharing your time with us. And we'll sign off, when to God
- 1:11:51be the glory. Great things he has done.
- 1:11:54Amen. Amen.
- 1:11:55Amen. And I want to thank you for
- 1:11:57inviting me. It's very gracious of you and
- 1:11:59may be blessed for everybody. Found my new name, Found that
- 1:12:04good grace, found that healing. And the tears fell down my face
- 1:12:10when I found my beginning. It has no ending.
- 1:12:12I found that second chance. Found my best friend, Found my
- 1:12:14forgiveness, found my happiness. I've been singing ever since I
- 1:12:17found my freedom. Thanks for listening to the Four
- 1:12:34Freedom Podcast. If you enjoyed the content of
- 1:12:37the podcast, please do us a favor by liking, subscribing or
- 1:12:42sharing the podcast on whatever podcast platform.
- 1:12:45You listen to.