At the Easter Vigil Mass in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre Cardinal Pizzaballa says that "Jerusalem, a city marked by the memory of death, and today by so many divisions, becomes the place where life is proclaimed.”
By Beatrice Guarrera “Easter does not begin with a proclamation of victory, but with listening to a story: a story that confronts death to reach life.” With these words, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, recalled the passage through darkness necessary to reach the Resurrection, in his homily for the Easter Vigil celebration that he presided over on Saturday, April 4, in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. Given security restrictions, only a few people took part in the liturgy, including the Franciscan friars of the Custody of the Holy Land. They live in the convent of the Holy Sepulchre, called by local Christians “the Church of the Resurrection.” God takes upon himself all dimensions of the human existence “The doors are still closed. The silence is almost absolute, broken perhaps by the distant sound of what war continues to sow in this holy and torn land,” Cardinal Pizzaballa began, adding that in this very place “the Word of God resounds louder than any silence.” The Cardinal explained that the faith of the Christian community in the Holy Land is “a fragile faith that has been tested, perhaps weary… yet still standing,” not because of their own strength but “because Someone sustains us here.” “God did not choose an escape route,” he said, “but decided to enter the human condition in its most profound reality, taking upon Himself all the dimensions of human existence, including that which we unfortunately experience often today in a violent way: pain and death.” “Who will roll back the stone for us?” The Patriarch noted that the long Liturgy of the Word led the faithful, step by step, to the Gospel of Matthew, where the angel of the Lord rolls back the stone after a great earthquake. This is the “heart of a passage that shakes the whole world: a stone removed not by human strength, but by divine power,” he underlined. “At this moment,” the Patriarch continued, “it seems there is no one who can roll away the stones from the tombs of suffering continuously dug up by war. But precisely for this reason, we listen with greater urgency to the question the women carried in their hearts: “Who will roll back the stone for us?”.” This is a question “at the heart of every search for hope when it seems there is nothing left to do.” The Cardinal insisted that “today, this question is raised throughout the Holy Land, and from every place in the world marked by violence.” “And the answer,” he continued, “is not an empty proclamation, but an actual occurrence: the stone has been rolled away. Not by our own strength, but by the power of God’s love, which is stronger than death.” God does not wait for our wars to end to restore life The same question echoes in “the cry rising from our homes, because around us stones have been put back in place. And yet, today we are here: in a tomb that has been opened once and for all.” The Cardinal emphasized that the stone was removed while it was still dark, when no one yet believed it possible, and that this is the first Easter proclamation. “God does not wait for our wars to end before beginning to restore life. He begins in the darkness. He begins in the silence. He begins in the tomb that is still sealed.” “Easter is not the result of our efforts to achieve peace, however necessary they may be” but rather “it is the foundation that makes every effort possible,” the Cardinal emphasized. “If the tomb is empty, then nothing is truly said and done. No land is forever in dispute, no wound is forever incurable, no memory is forever captive to hatred,” he said. “Not because it is easy – we know how difficult it is – but because the direction of history has changed. We no longer walk towards death: from this tomb, death is behind us. And even when war seems to tell us otherwise, we are the ones who have seen the stone removed.” In the empty tomb, the mystery of life renewed At the same time, the Gospel “seems to roll away another stone,” that of fear, as the first Easter message is simply and disarmingly “Do not be afraid”.”(cf. Mt 28:5), he highlighted. “Entering this empty tomb—even without fellow pilgrims, alone, despite the war—means coming face to face with the mystery of life that is renewed,” he said. “The empty tomb is not a void that erases history. It does not tell us that suffering does not exist or that it will cease. The risen body of Christ, as the Gospels remind us, is not free of the marks of the Passion. But those wounds are not signs of defeat: they are the seal of a life that has conquered death, by bearing it within Himself.” “This is the heart of Easter: God does not erase our history; he transfigures it, by bringing it into the light” and that “reality itself can be transformed by the power of God,” the Patriarch insisted. Where there was a definitive stone, now there is a threshold, Cardinal Pizzaballa said, adding that “Jerusalem, a city marked by the memory of death, and today by so many divisions, becomes the place where life is proclaimed.” Hope is a step to be taken Referring to the Gospel passage “He is going before you to Galilee” (Mt 28:7), the Cardinal explained that for the Holy Land, Galilee corresponds to “the courage to begin again, to believe that another path is possible. And if the Risen One ‘goes ahead,’ then hope is not a feeling: it is a step to be taken.” Christians, therefore, are called to bear “the sign of an empty tomb: a sign that does not deny history but opens it to hope.” In particular, he urged them to remove “the stone of resignation, of resentment, of mistrust.” He concluded his homily with an “Easter message” from the Holy Sepulchre: “Do not stand still before the stones of the world, but let us become— as much as we are able —“living stones,” signs of reconciliation, artisans of hope, witnesses to a life that death can no longer extinguish.”