Question What about the Egyptian Christian who wanted to go to Israel?
A question:
Another question, what about the Egyptian Christians who wanted to go to Israel? [1]
The Answer:
You mean to go to the holy places in Israel, I think this is a question. They are disobedient Christians. And if they want to have blessing from the holy places in Jerusalem, for example, I say to them, we have many holy places in Egypt. Because Egypt is the only country in the whole world visited by the Holy Family. When our Lord Jesus Christ and Saint Mary and Saint Joseph came to Egypt and stayed some years in Egypt and blessed many locations in Egypt, on which we have many ancient churches on the locations visited by the Holy Family.
Also, Egypt was visited by Abraham, the father of fathers, and the great prophet of the Old Testament.
Egypt also had the privilege of having Moses, the prophet, born in Egypt. And it is written in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles that Moses was instructed by the very wisdom of the Egyptians. And also, Jacob and the twelve tribes lived in Egypt and many other prophets.
So, Egypt has many holy places. If any person wants to have the blessing of holy places, they may come even from Israel and from Jerusalem to take the blessing of our holy places. And in Egypt also, the most ancient monasteries in the whole world were built in Egypt.
I think I say to you for something amusing. Once a person came to me from Israel or Jordan, I don’t remember. And he said to me, as our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized in the River of Jordan, we will prepare some bottles filled with the water of the Jordan River in order to be sold in Egypt. I said to him, all right. Our Lord Jesus Christ drank water from the River Nile for many years. Although He was baptized for some moments, He drank for many years from the River Nile. We can fill some bottles from the water of the River Nile in order to be sold in Israel.
[1] A question answered by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III in a lecture entitled “Religious Brotherhood and National Unity – A Lecture at the American University” dated April 26, 1995.
