EDITORIAL

Shared faith for the common good in the Holy Land

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The keys to the Tomb of Christ are in the hands of Muslims, literally. For more than five centuries, the physical keys to the doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem have been handed on, generation after generation, through the members of one Islamic family. This church encompasses the traditional site of Jesus’ execution and burial. Every day, members of the family unlock the church before sunrise, one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in the Holy Land. The oversight and operation of the church itself is a joint responsibility of the Roman Catholic Franciscans in a collaborative with the Armenian and Greek Orthodox churches.

Although we often hear of the fighting, wars and insurrections surrounding the Holy Land, during the holy seasons of the year it is important to remember that religions should not just tolerate one another but must also come together around the holiest events of faith. It is appropriate that the tomb of Christ and the place of his crucifixion is what brings public enemies together. As is the case with most of the holy sites in Jerusalem, responsibility for which is shared by Muslims, Jews and Christians, what is held in common is the significance of God’s action in our world, in the place where his divinity met our humanity.

There are active movements within the extreme Muslim communities to take full control of the holy sites in Jerusalem. What must be maintained, as a witness of true faith of the world, is not just the joint responsibility of physical places but also an understanding of joint responsibility to the spiritual works of our God in our world. No religion has a right to total control over the lives of others — be they places of worship or the rights to worship at all.