The Mass was celebrated in the church of the Latin Patriarchate, the Pro-Cathedral of Jerusalem. Joining Pizzaballa among the concelebrants was Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, who is currently on a solidarity visit to the Holy Land together with the Order’s Governor General, Leonardo Visconti di Modrone.
In his homily, the patriarch spoke about the “courage” and “madness” of peace: “Jesus did not solve any of the social and political problems of his time, but he did reveal a way, which is still the way forward for those who want to build contexts of peace, even here, today, in the troubled and conflict-ridden Middle East: encounter.”
The patriarch challenged Christians of the Holy Land to “make a difference.”
“I am more and more convinced that in this complex context, the main vocation and mission of the small Christian community is precisely this: to cherish the desire for encounter, to cultivate freedom in relation to all, to overcome ethnic, religious, and identity boundaries. It is my dream, and it is the madness that I would like to share with all this small and beloved church in Jerusalem,” Pizzaballa said.
The words that St. Francis embraced as a greeting are found in the Old Testament: “The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!” (Numbers 6:26).
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