A little time with Father Tom

MAY 13—Father Thomas F. Stransky is a Paulist priest who has worked very hard for a long time to build unity among Christians. He is a former rector of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute (1987-1999) and a long time resident of the Middle East. Tom is also very articulate and amiable—just the kind of man you’d like to spend an evening with. Lucky us. We got to.

Tom helped us to understand why life in this part of the world is particularly complicated and volatile. He compared it to a magnifying glass that concentrates the sun’s rays with enough intensity to start a fire. The Middle East has long had that kind of impact on world affairs.

“We’re dealing with long histories here,” he began. “When people refer to Iraq, they still talk about Persians as if Darius were about to appear on the horizon.” There are more than 3,000 years of history to deal with.

“The past is always present and it inhibits imagination for the future,” he explained. “We have piled up the past.” Long histories of strife are rarely forgotten. Whenever people begin to set aside the past and build creatively and cooperatively for the future, someone will say: “But remember.”

If history is a problem, so is space. The place is simply too small for all the peoples who lay claim to it. Things are built on top of one another. Encroachment is a way of life. Huge controversies erupt over orchards, property lines, water rights and a host of other space-oriented issues.

A third complicating factor is power. Power in this area is rarely exercised for what is actually in this place. Rather, it is to protect something somewhere else. The British, for example, wanted Palestine in order to protect the Suez Canal. Nebuchadnezzar was interested in the area as a staging point to attack Egypt and a buffer against it.

Each of these dynamics contributes to the complexity of life in Israel and its neighbourhood these days. And we can easily add a fourth: religion. It is the birthplace of the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and a holy land for all. This adds tremendous passion to an already combustible blend.

Father Tom had us look over the small valley to the town of Bethlehem, standing stoic behind a concrete barrier—a tall wall—just a short distance away. It has a long history. No one disputes the fact that this town has existed for 3,000 years.

And, Tom observed, “it’s the only place in the world with an uninterrupted Christian presence since the time of Christ.” Not even Jerusalem can make that claim. The Church of the Nativity in the heart of Bethlehem is the oldest Christian church in the world. And it’s not a relic. It is still a worshipping congregation—“a living church,” he said.