HOLY LAND - OUR INHERITANCE I have a very special idea for you. You know, when God created the world, he prepared his whole world with love. The God we know is so good. When God wanted to create the world, he made the world as beautiful, rich, full of surprises, really fascinating, so that even as the years and the centuries would go by, people could discover more and more richness in the world. God had a great plan. This is an idea of the Franciscans, that God made the world as a garden where his Son would come one day, and pray and walk the earth and get to know people, and finally, sacrifice his life for the people, for his friends. When Jesus Christ came in the world, he did not go just any place, but in a very special place in the world. Before God sent his Son, he chose a people. He chose the family of Abraham , made to Abraham the promise that through him there would be descendants, countless, like the sand on the seashore or the stars in the sky. In time he made a promise to David, that out of his family would come the Messiah. Because God chose Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and Solomon, he chose to send his Son in Palestine, so that Palestine, for centuries, was a very special country. It was special in the plan of God, because that's where his Son would come in the world. Just think of Jesus Christ, sent by the Father, as he tells us himself. He was sent by the Father and he came in the world in Palestine. That's the country that he chose as his country. We have to understand, as followers of Jesus Christ, this place is sanctified by the life, the miracles and the death of the Redeemer. They are the sacred patrimony of Christianity and form the legitimate inheritance of all the followers of the gospel. This idea of inheritance is very rich. In 1 Peter 1:3-5, St. Peter tells us: "Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ he who in his great mercy gave us new birth; a birth unto hope which draws its life from the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; a birth to an imperishable inheritance, incapable of fading or defilement, which is kept in heaven for you who are guarded with God's power through faith; a birth to a salvation which stands ready to be revealed in the last days." When Peter speaks of this imperishable inheritance, it is clear that our inheritance is in heaven. Jesus said: I am going to prepare you a place. Part of that inheritance is the Holy Land. The land of Jesus is our land. You know how people like to go and see the land of their ancestors, to see where they were born, where they lived, like searching for the roots of their family; Today a number of people are searching for their roots, where they came from, to have added meaning in their lives. In the same way I would like you to really want to look for your Christian roots. As we look for that, we have to look at the land of Jesus. Through these pages, I want to bring you to Holy Land. Pray, so that I will be able to help you to discover this land that we have inherited because we believe in Jesus Christ, because we have accepted Jesus, then his land is our land. The Sea of Galilee is called the Sea of Jesus (the Lake of Jesus), Capernaum is the Town of Jesus, where we find the house of Simon Peter by the sea, with the Venerable Room. Do you believe in Jesus? Do you love Jesus? Then, that's your lake, the town of Jesus is your town, because when we accepted Jesus, when we fell in love with him, all that belongs to him we love. This is going to help you understand the Bible better. When you hear certain passages or read certain things, they are going to come to you with more clarity than before. You will get to know Jesus in a new way. As with the disciples of Emmaus after they went back to Jerusalem said: "How our hearts were burning inside us as he opened the scriptures before us," I hope that you can say the same thing: "how our hearts were burning inside us" when we read abut the Town of Jesus, about the Sea of Jesus, about Bethany where the birds were singing and the cocks crowing.