Happy Easter!
Dear Families, benefactors, Volunteers and Friends of our Carmel in Jerusalem
We would like to share with you the homily of our Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa on Easter Sunday. It echoes with our daily reality here: our suffering, our Faith, and our joy in the Hope of the resurrection even in our daily life.
Extracts of the homily of our Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa on Easter Sunday
In this terrible time, marked by so much violence in our Land and throughout the world, are we still able to accept the proclamation of life, love and light that Easter brings?
(…)
The Pope has invited us to be "lamps shining in the night." And really, as we have already said many times, this night of violence and war never seems to end. Everything seems to be shrouded in distrust. The only strong and decisive voice seems to be that of weapons. In vain have been the many attempts to cease hostilities. Useless seem to be the calls for cease-fire, which tried to resolve the conflict in a different way than with weapons. Well, did the prophet Jeremiah say of us, "If I walk out into the field, look! those slain by the sword; If I enter the city, look! victims of famine. Both prophet and priest ply their trade in a land they do not know." (Jer. 14:18).
This tremendous crisis has marked all our lives, without distinction. Different reasons from each other, yet everyone has been deeply hurt by this tragedy. One feels alone, abandoned, perhaps even betrayed. Grief engulfs everyone and we cannot understand and interpret the times. However, one thing we begin to understand: it is time to begin again. There will be a need for resurrection, for new life. In personal relationships, in interfaith dialogue, in political life, in social life, we will not be able to go back to living as if nothing had happened. We will need a new spirit, a new momentum, a new vision, where no one is excluded.
(…)The Passover of Christ, which we celebrate today in mystery, we will also need to celebrate in the life of this Church of ours and of the entire Holy Land! Meaning, we will need to make bold choices, capable of responding to the expectations of all. We will have to make a serious commitment so that words like "hope, peace, truth, forgiveness and encounter" become meaningful again and are perceived as credible by all of us, and we should do so placing gestures in the territory that little by little rebuild the trust so deeply wounded. Just now, in the beautiful sequence, we sang, "Mors et vita duello conflixere mirando: dux vitae mortuus, regnat vivus" (Easter sequence): “Death and life have fought each other, and the Lord of life, who was dead, now reigns alive”. We, the Church, are the Place where this Kingdom persists, were Christ reigns alive. And alive our community is called to be. To live Easter today, and to be men and women of the resurrection, means having the courage to defend the dignity of every life, not to fear the looming night, remaining still and fearful, locked in our cenacles. Today's Gospel asks us to abandon our securities, to go out despite the night, like the women of the Gospel, to meet the Risen One. In the duel between night and day, between death and life, we want to be those who choose life.(…)
Meaning, we want to be those who have the courage to bet on peace, to continue to trust our neighbour, to not fear betrayals, to be capable without tiring, of starting over each time and build relationships of fraternity, moved not by the expectation of success, but by the desire for goodness and life that the Risen One has placed in our hearts.
We ask here for the grace and gift of a heart capable of discerning the signs of the Risen One, of the Living One in our midst, of a concrete, consoling, tender presence. Only love can conquer death and surpass the boundaries of time. Therefore, let us ask for the gift of discerning love in the life of our community, which we have celebrated in the liturgy of Holy Week.
And so, in the spirit of the Risen One, we want to be the leaven that ferments the whole dough (1 Cor. 5:6), “lamps shining in the night” and “seeds of goodness in a land rent asunder by conflict”. (Pope Francis' letters to the HL Catholics), the little remnant that does not give in, does not retreat, but with enthusiasm and courage, having conquered all fear, goes before Him. In Galilee, in our homes, in our Churches, where man is lonely or lost, there we want to go, to say once again, that the Lord has visited us, we have seen him. The Risen One is still here among us, and everywhere he goes before us. And he is waiting for us.
Happy Easter!
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