| On Mount
Carmel we read the story of Elijah's contest with
the 450 prophets of Baal. When the rain fell,
ending a three-year drought, Elijah "proved" that
the God of Israel was not a local god, but king over
the entire universe. From Caesarea on the
Mediterranean coast, the disciples and the Apostle
Paul spread the Gospels around the gentile world.
Caesarea, the second largest city in Judea after
Jerusalem, was where Peter baptized the first
gentile -- Cornelius the Roman centurion.
Peter was summoned to Caesarea from Jaffa where he
was residing in the House of Simon the Tanner with a
seaside view.
In Jaffa we retell the tale of Jonah who boarded
a boat heading west to avoid the assignment of
preaching in the east -- to the inhabitants of
Nineveh, a wicked bunch. Jaffa was an
important port from the time of Jonah through the
20th century, with the vast majority of pilgrims
making their first steps in the Holy Land on its
soil. |
