Christians dare to hope despite conflict, violence and blood: Patriarch of Jerusalem
(April 13, 2009) The head of the Latin-rite Catholics of the Holy Land praised the
Christians of the region for daring to believe in the joy of Easter despite being
surrounded by conflict, violence and blood. “It has to be said that we Christians
sure do have some nerve,” noted Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem in his homily during
Easter Sunday Mass at the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, the church traditionally
believed to mark the site where Jesus was crucified, buried and then resurrected on
Easter Sunday. “We dare to talk about Easter, joy and the victory over death while
at the same time the count of the victims of war, of disease and of natural catastrophes
goes up, while each day we are bombarded with new images of violence and conflict,
and in Gaza the Holy Land is cruelly bathed in blood,” said the patriarch, archbishop
of Jerusalem. He said that Christians are aware that “Christ, the one who has promised
us victory and peace, knows what suffering is in his heart as well as in his body.”
“It is in the midst of failure, physical and moral suffering, periods of solitude,
doubt or abandonment, and even as we face death itself that the unheard of announcement
of the Resurrection meets us,” Patriarch Twal said. “The resurrection is at work
each time we choose to give succour and to love Jesus in our neighbour; it is there
each time we prefer His forgiveness to hate, each time that we allow love and peace
to claim a place among men,” he said. This was Archbishop Twal’s first Easter as
Latin-rite patriarch of Jerusalem after assuming office in June last year following
the retirement of Patriarch Michel Sabbah.