JERUSALEM (CNS) — Despite the violence and divisions in today’s world, it is still possible to see the signs of hope of the Resurrection, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, said in his Easter message.
“Easter is not just a word, it is not a slogan, but it is a reality that we can still touch and experience today,” he said in his message, released April 13. “We must believe it, we, too, want to say: ‘I believe, Lord; help my unbelief!’ (Mk 9:24). Because it is not true that in the world there is only darkness and violence and that we experience only death and pain. In the world there is also so much love, so many people who give their lives for others, who fight for justice, who work for peace.”
The political conflict in the Holy Land absorbs so much of people’s energy, in the repeated violent tensions especially flaring up recently, he said, and the situation can create mistrust, resentment, misunderstanding, suspicion and fear. But he noted that the signs of hope in the midst of the conflict can also be seen in the “continuous effort of our communities to build a normal life, which here is always wearisome and tiring.”
“I am also thinking of what is happening in Europe, in Ukraine, a country attacked by another brother country, creating human tragedies of enormous magnitude,” he said.
But as Easter approaches, the celebration is calling on faithful to become witnesses who, through their actions and prayer, continue to bring the light which “sprung from Christ’s tomb,” he said.
“Doing Easter means recognizing and celebrating Christ who, through courageous witnesses, in the Holy Land and throughout the world, shows us the power of love that truly still knows how to overturn stones and bring light into the lives of so many people throughout the world and also in our Holy Land,” he said.
Earlier, on Palm Sunday April 10, the patriarch emphasized the universality of the city of Jerusalem as a city for all and urged that Jerusalem become a place of healing for everybody.
“Today we affirm once again our love for this city and our desire for peace and unity for it, our desire for sincere fraternity for all its inhabitants, without distinction,” he said.
“The Church will always continue to be, in spite of everything, even in spite of ourselves, a church that wishes to be a source of unity, that seeks encounter and that will not surrender to the logic of division, hatred and contempt for the other. We will continue to love you always, because this is what our Master taught us,” he added.
People are tired of violence, hatred and revenge, he said, and called for prayers for justice and peace for peoples of the Holy Land but also elsewhere.
“Let us also pray for Ukraine and for all places in the world where wars and divisions tear apart the lives of millions, where the same logics of possession and exclusion that we know here create pain and death,” he said.
