A Run for Peace

Earlier this week, some 500 pilgrims ran some 7-plus miles from the city where Christ was born, Bethlehem, to the city where He died and rose from the dead, Jerusalem. From a historic and spiritual standpoint alone, that is awesome. But add in the political angle, and this story gets all the more amazing.

You see, the runners included both Israelis and Palestinians. For most of the last decade, this race would have been impossible, as Jews weren’t allowed in Bethlehem, which is under Palestinian control. But this year’s Bethlehem-Jerusalem Peace Run included runners of all faiths, including a large contingent of Catholic pilgrims there under the auspices of the Vatican pilgrimage organization, Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, which organized the event in cooperation with the Italian Olympic Committee. (You can see a video from the run here.)

The “mini-marathon,” as it is described, is part of the JPII Games 2010, named, of course, for the late Pope John Paul II — a champion of sport, peace, and the power of the former to foster the latter. The games also included a cycling event to inaugurate the new Gospel Trail, which begins in Nazareth, and was followed by Holy Mass offered in five boats anchored on the waters of the Sea of Galilee!

“The Games aim to continue the legacy of Pope John Paul II,” says this news story, “by promoting pilgrimage to the Holy Land, peace, brotherhood and inter-faith cooperation.” And it seems, by God’s grace, that they’re already bearing good fruit.

John Paul II, pray for us!