Holy Land of Jordan

Madaba is a city with a great memory. It is a biblical city, mentioned six times in the Old Testament.
From here comes Ruth, the young Moabite who became a widow chooses to follow her mother-in-law Noemi to Israel and will be the great-grandmother of King David. It is also the land of John the Baptist, who lived and preached in the surrounding areas and died on the Macheron, a fortress of King Herod which was located a few kilometers from the city. Ever since we arrived here, the emotion of being called by the Lord to inhabit his land, the land where he lived, where the history of salvation has been fulfilled has been very great. Each time this thought makes God's words resound within me to Moses about Horeb: "Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing on is holy ground" (cf. Ex 3).
However, it is not always easy to remember all this, to live the present within this living memory to discover it and see it as holy, as much a place and time in which God manifests himself and seeks us.
I remember the first time I went to Macheron with our young volunteers, I had a great emotion in my heart and eyes, in front of us the promised land, in the background the shadows of the houses of Jerusalem ...

One of the girls comes over and says to me, “I really can't figure out how you like all of this so much ... It's just old rocks and sand. You come from places much more beautiful than this ». How often our stories also appear to us as an accumulation of large dusty stones without a great sense.
A few days ago I was returning to Madaba accompanied by our driver, from the airport road there is a point where you can see Madaba all lit up, every time I see it from there it reminds me of the crib. While I'm thinking about this the driver tells me: «Look how beautiful Madaba is from here.
Then you get closer and you notice everything that doesn't work, everything is not so in order ». I smile. After all, not even in Bethlehem when the Lord was born was everything perfect. But Jesus was there. And with him Mary, Joseph ...
And thanks to that being there silent and without clamor the light has pierced the darkness of the night.

Taking care of your memory is remembering your own story, remembering you have a story ... Not perfect but to live in.
A story that asks us to be present in order to continue to be hope in the world. We are here in Jordan for this too. To take care of the memory we live, together with those who stay with us, those we welcome and those who pass by the Arsenale, in a holy land that wishes to continue to be holy, through us, the love we live and give, the good that overcomes efforts and difficulties. just as John the Baptist did, as did Ruth and so many others. So that those stones that are memories of the past continue to be alive. And this makes many want to stay. Even when it's not easy.
Stay to keep a living memory. To remain so that this holy land continues to be holy forever, a land of pilgrimage, of journeys ...
Land of encounter with God.
Where do we start from? Ernesto often repeats it to us: «We are here to make a child smile». So be it. Not only here, but all over the world.

Chiara Giorgio
Focus
NP January 2022

The city of Madaba in Jordan has a very ancient history dating back to the Iron Age.
The Bible mentions it as a Moabite settlement, conquered by the Israelites after the events narrated in the Exodus.
In the Hellenistic period it was first taken by Alexander the Great and then ruled by the Seleucids.
Roman dominion starting from the 1st century AD, Madaba experienced a great development under the Byzantines who made it an important trading center and bishopric. Evidence of the prosperity of that period are the precious mosaics that adorned the palaces of power, including the first map of the Christian Holy Land (see top of this page).
Conquered by the Persians and then by the Arabs, it was destroyed by a terrible earthquake in 749. For 1,100 years Madaba was just a memory.
At the end of the nineteenth century a small group of Christians returned to live there, thus making it reborn and giving rise to the recent history of the city.