On Tuesday I had the absolute privilege to travel to two beautiful places. One an old Roman ruin, and the other the Virgin Mary's final house. Both steeped in history, both had tangible effects on my heart and my soul.
We left Istanbul very early, our transfer bus picked us up a little after 5am. Usually this wouldn't be too bad, but there were a few cordials shared at a local establishment with some excellent friends made on our ANZAC tour. Our eventful taxi trip, where we were expected to pay a figure five times as much as we paid the night before, still hung in our minds. We held our own and eventually settled on the correct price. These proceedings only happened a few short hours ahead of our pick up. However with a few brain cells missing and a little lost sleep we headed on our new journey.
We had a short flight on an airline that made Jetstar look 5 star. This was fine as we were only in the air for forty five minutes. We landed in Izmir airport and started our journey to the ancient town of Ephesus. Once there we were instantly in awe of the history of this place. We met up with our tour group and guide "Atar". For the hundredth time on this journey I stated that I was not American, I really do need to stop wearing tramping shoes with shorts and lose more weight, and informed our guide that we are from Australia but are Nz'ders. This confused a lot of people, but it truly shoes our ANZAC relationship.
Atar took us to the top of the ancient city of Ephesus. We walked through ruins that were built in the 10th Century BC. It was amazing to think of the history that these ancient walls and pillars had seen. We toured through the ruins and stopped to talk about important facts. A few really amazed and challenged my view and understanding of the history of humans. One was the fact that a Roman statue was commissioned in the oldest most central part of Ephesus. This statue had a human figure, that of Trajan a Roman Emperor, standing with one foot on a spherical object. Historians believe that this object was an image of Earth. If this is to believed, then the Roman civilisation knew that the world was round centuries before Galileo who was born in 1564. I was amazed at that. However, there might be a reason why this knowledge had not been passed on through the subsequent centuries. The Library of Celsus that stood on the site, burned down after an earthquake in 262 AD. This library showed the passion that the Romans had for knowledge and understanding. The library held at its capacity before the devastating fire 12,000 scrolls. These scrolls contained information on technology at the time as well as the history of their period of humanity. With this fire, it effectively burnt the history of their time and we had to start again to gather this lost archive of information.
There is so much Christian history tied into this ancient city too. St Paul came to Ephesus to proclaim the news of Jesus Christ and to convert them to Christianity. To stand where he stood was an intense experience. St Paul tried to convert the city, the city expelled him, as they had built their entire city to the Pagan Gods and they were artists who created images of their Gods like Artemis. However St Paul proclaimed that there was one God and they shall not make images of false gods. This led him to be expelled from the large theatre. He worked with the congregation here in Ephesus to lead missionary activities. St Paul wrote the first letter to the Corinthians from Ephesus and he also wrote his letters to the Ephesians from his jail cell in Rome.
St John one of Jesus’s most trusted Disciples visited this area too. With him he had the Virgin Mary as she was entrusted to him after Jesus death. So when St John was on his way to Asia to proclaim the news about Christianity, Mary went with him. St John never made it to central Asia. He spent the rest of his days in Ephesus. There in Selcuk a few miles from Ephesus St John is buried. In the 6th century a basilica was created to entomb his tomb. There it stood for centuries. What remains now is a well cared for set of remains.
However, the Virgin Mary’s final home and resting place is lovingly cared for and a very sacred space. At the beginning of the 19th century, Anne Catherine Emmerich, a bedridden Augustinian nun in Germany, reported a series of visions in which she recounted the last days of the life of Jesus, and details of the life of Mary, his mother. Emmerich said “Mary did not live in Ephesus itself, but in the country near it. ... Mary's dwelling was on a hill to the left of the road from Jerusalem, some three and half hours from Ephesus. This hill slopes steeply towards Ephesus; the city, as one approaches it from the south east seems to lie on rising ground.... Narrow paths lead southwards to a hill near the top of which is an uneven plateau, some half hour's journey.”
After this was published, a French priest found this house in 1881. Then came about the restoration and archaeological dig to preserve this house. Nowadays this house is visited by Popes and other pilgrims from around the world. You cannot take photos inside the house but you can around it. This site is very well protected by Christians and Muslims alike. As the Virgin Mary is mentioned at length in the Holy bile as well as the Koran.
When I entered her house you could feel that you were in a very special place. You could feel the tension from other visitors as they all looked overawed by the sense of being close to Mary. You were able to move around her modest house and look at the adornment around the walls. The artwork and Images of Christ and Mary is amazing. As much as I would have loved to take detailed pictures inside this place, you knew deep within that that idea was not great. I went in as an excited and slightly intimidated individual and came out as a very emotional man who felt the connection of the location. in one room you could read the handwritten messages from Pope Benedict as well as a message from Pope Pius. I took the opportunity to take a candle and light it in honour of the loved ones in my life. I still cant get over the amazing experience it was to be in there.
Upon leaving the chapel/house you walked past taps of blessed Holy Water, I said a prayer and made the Sign of the Cross with the liquid and continued walking along the path down hill from her house. I stopped along the way to view the prayers left for Mary along a large wall made from ancient stones. Again it was quite an over powering moment. This was a true highlight of my journey.
To conclude, I have seen many different ruins from three major Roman/Greek/Ottoman cities this week. What I have truly appreciated is that Australia and New Zealand has very little non-indigenous history. TO stand in places that have witnessed the dawns of civilisations, the destruction of civilisations and the life and death of Christ has really imprinted something on my heart and psyche. Issues that affect us in the contemporary age are only a blip on the course of humanity. I think I need to stop and enjoy life more and think about the actions that I am responsible for. For as long as our Earth keeps turning we keep living. If a theatre can be preserved 2500 years after it was built, then what are we doing to stamp our mark on this part of our human story. Are we the humans who worked ourselves to the bone just to survive? or are we going to be the humans attributed with ruining the fine eco-logical balance that we delicately survive in? or are we going to be remembered as the humans who helped develop our young ones to be the true leaders and guardians of our history? I know that I want Lachlan and Brodie to grow up in a world where their life can be led in a safe way free from persecution, free from those who wish to control them and in a world where they feel empowered to make the best choices available to them and their future. I want our generation or humanity blip to be remembered as the ones who helped develop the new age of humans, our future generations, where they have rectified mistakes of the past and make choices to grow into humans who flourish and will be remembered in another 2000 years.
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