Many years ago, as a graduate student, I spent a summer with a Christian Palestinian family in Bethlehem. It was my first visit to the Holy Land, and, as it does for many new pilgrims, it rocked my world.
One thing struck me immediately. Throughout the Holy Land, you can see the word hic inscribed in various locations, like churches and alleyways. This simple word, Latin for “here,” was written as a reminder to the believer that the events recorded in the Gospels all happened in those places.
They were true, historical events. They occurred on the site of this church, or in this passageway, or upon these stones. To find yourself in the place, in the “here,” where God’s self-revelation unfolded can be supremely moving. Even the strongest of believers can find themselves with a profound new sense of the realness of the sacred events.
I certainly had my own hic moments during my time in Bethlehem, where my patient and gracious host family lived. They guided me to the popular and not-so-popular holy places throughout the city. After the initial tours, I spent most of my days at my desk researching historical items or walking around the city trying to absorb the day-to-day reality of the Palestinian Christians.
On good mornings, I’d walk the two blocks from my host family’s apartment to the Church of the Holy Nativity. I’d go down to the grotto of the church and pray in front of the spot where the Lord was born. I’d trace my fingers along the fourteen-pointed star that marked the spot.
Those fourteen points of the star represent the generations of waiting for the coming of the promised Messiah: the fourteen generations from Abraham to David, the fourteen generations from David to the Babylonian Exile, and the fourteen generations from the exile to the coming of the Christ. The fourteen-point star is a message of promises made and promises fulfilled; a symbol of God’s faithfulness, in the events of the real world, to his people.
Although I was in Bethlehem for some time, every such morning at the grotto was like the first time. Each visit, I could hear my soul say, “It really happened. And it happened right here. God became a man for us. He became a man for me. He came to save us; he came to save me.”
Not every Christian will be able to make such a pilgrimage and experience the hic moments in that direct, present way. But all of us are able, invited, and indeed called to deepen our understanding and conviction of the historicity of God’s saving words and deeds. Not all believers will visit the Church of the Holy Nativity, but every believer can encounter and adore Jesus Christ in the creche of their homes. Not all believers will make it to the holy city Jerusalem and touch the stone on Mount Calvary or pray in front of the Edicule—the small chapel built over the site of Jesus’ empty tomb, but every believer is summoned to recognize, meditate upon, and defend the historical reality of the Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection.
Our faith must be grounded on the historicity of the gospel. It cannot stand merely upon the emotional satisfaction derived from uplifting, well-intentioned myths or fuzzy moral lessons. The gospel only has real power, is only worthy of our complete devotion, if it’s connected to what God really said and did. Right here.Hic.
Have I fully realized the historical nature of the gospel? Do I study and seek to have a strong knowledge of the revelations of God? Do I ground my faith on the historical reality of the gospel and not my own sentimental or emotional fulfillment?
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