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Bethlehem: Icon of Our Lady Who Brings Down Walls


Icon of Our Lady  - a sign of hope in a bleak landscape

Icon of Our Lady - a sign of hope in a bleak landscape

Graffiti painted along the Separation Wall, between Bethlehem and Jerusalem - from Banksy's Peace Dove to poems and inscriptions - is increasingly becoming a form of protest against Israel's occupation - similar to the art which burgeoned on the Berlin Wall in the 1970s and 80s. Near the Emmanuel Monastery in Bethlehem, an icon of the Mother of God can be seen on the eight-metre high concrete wall - revealing with its beauty the failure of communities to love one another. Made at the request of local Christians and some internationals, the icon of Our Lady who Brings Down Walls was written on the Separation Wall in 2010. The purpose of their request was clear: an icon that could bring hope that the wall would come down some day.

According to Ian Knowles, the iconographer who wrote the icon, the inspiration behind Our Lady originated from a speech Pope Benedict XVI gave at a special assembly on the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops in 2010. During the assembly, Pope Benedict referred to chapter 12 of the book of Revelation and talked about a woman who is clothed with the sun and gives birth with a cry of pain. He linked how this chapter in the Bible is a prophecy about the suffering of Christians in the Middle East.

"That gave me an image of Mary, who is pregnant, clothed with the sun chased by the beast that wants to devour her child", Ian said.

Before the visit of Pope Francis to the Holy Land in 2014, graffiti of a giant serpent eating babies, was painted along the wall that leads to the icon of Mother of God.

"It is quite prophetic to see this serpent near the icon of Our Lady. In the Book of Revelation, the woman is chased by the beast, which wants to eat her child" Ian said. "Once the image was complete, it was as though it called out the hideousness of the wall."

Describing the icon, Ian said: "in the icon of Our Lady, we can see that her hand is touching her forehead as if she has an intense pain in her head. The suffering of Christians is something that Mary embraces in her maternal heart so her relationship to Christians here is like the mother who suffers. Also, the fact that her arm and cloak are held open as a place of refuge and safety is an important part of this image."

Almost 85% of the Separation Wall, which began being constructed in 2003, is built inside the West Bank not on the border with Israel. The route of the wall breaks international law and as building progresses, it continues to annex more and more fertile lands for settlement expansion - as well as depriving Palestinians of basic human rights, including the freedom of movement.

Historically the Jews were forbidden to live or enter Jerusalem in the year 135 AD, by Roman Emperor Aelius Hadrian - after the revolt led by the Jewish leader Bar Kokhba. In his book Ecclesiastical History, Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea wrote that the Jews were not even allowed to see the land of their fathers from a distance.

These days, the Palestinians are suffering a similar punishment. Palestinian Christians living in the West Bank are granted permits to go and pray in Jerusalem only during Christmas and Easter. Christians in Gaza face many more restrictions.

Amid the wars, conflicts and injustice that are wreaking havoc in the Middle East and on both, the Palestinian and Israeli sides, resistance, that uses humanity as its anchor, is a right and a responsibility for those who seek an alternative resolution. "In the art of the church, you show humanity with real beauty and grace. The resistance in the icon of Our Lady lies in exactly that. It's a beauty that exposes the ugliness and evil of the wall," Ian explained.

The hope of those who requested the icon is seeing that the Mother of God is involved in the agony of those who are suffering. Hope doesn't mean accepting and surrendering to oppression but rather resisting it and looking forward to living a better future. Israeli and Palestinian peace campaigners with their international supporters hope and pray that the Separation Wall, like the Berlin Wall, will one day come down.

Prayer to Our Lady Who Brings Down Walls

Most Holy Mother of God,

We pray to you as mother of the Church, mother of all Christians who suffer.

We beg you, through your ardent intercession, to bring down this wall, the walls of our hearts, and all the walls that generate hatred, violence, fear, and indifference between people and between nations.

You who crushed the ancient Serpent by your Fiat, gather and unite us under your virginal cloak, protect us from all evil and open forever in our lives the gate of Hope.

Bring to birth in us and in our world the civilization of Love that sprang forth from the Cross and Resurrection of your divine Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns forever. Amen.

Source: Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem/DB

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