Pope urges ‘peace in the Holy Land', noting some 'seeds of good' even amid the conflict
The tragedy of war in the land of Jesus (and "martyred Ukraine") are the focus of the Holy Week general audience. Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan, Israeli and Palestinian fathers who lost their daughters in the war, are among those present. “They don't look at the wickedness of the war," the pontiff said about them. In a letter, he also expresses his closeness to the Catholics of the Holy Land, grateful to them for their “ability to hope against all hope”.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – “May the Lord give us peace,” said the Holy Father in his greetings in Italian at the end of the general audience. Scheduled for St Peter's Square, the meeting was held in the Paul VI Hall because of heavy rain battering Rome today.
"May the Lord give peace to everyone," Pope Francis said a second time in his greetings to Italian-speaking pilgrims, “as a gift of his Pascha,” urging the faithful to experience the coming days "in prayer, to open ourselves to the grace of Christ the Redeemer, the source of all mercy.”
The peace the Bishop of Rome hopes for includes "battered Ukraine, which is suffering so much from bombing," but also Israel and Palestine. "May there be peace in the Holy Land," the pontiff insisted.
At the end of the reading of the catechesis, which is part of the cycle dedicated to "Vices and Virtues", the pontiff put aside his prepared text and delivered an unscripted address on the topic of patience, starting with the Apostle Paul's Hymn to Charity,
“Patience” means “knowing how to bear troubles,” Francis said. “And here today, in this audience, there are two people, two fathers. [. . .] an Israeli and an Arab. Both of them have lost their daughters in this war, and they are both friends”.
The two men were seated a few metres from the platform, Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan; their daughters, aged 10 and 13. They met the Holy Father this morning in the Hall, exchanging hugs and gifts.
Aramin and Elhanan represent the Parents Circle Families Forum, an association of Israeli and Palestinian families who believe in coexistence, and the possibility of lasting peace.
“[T]hey do not look at the wickedness of the war, but they look at the friendship of two men who care about each other and have experienced the same crucifixion,” Francis said. This is a "very beautiful" testimony, casting light onto the deep darkness of a conflict that has caused the death of more than 30,000 people since 7 October.
The two men “have suffered the war in the Holy Land in the loss of their daughters,” Francis noted before thanking them.
Today the pontiff also released a special Letter to the Catholics of the Holy Land.
“Now, on the eve of this Easter that for you is so overshadowed by the Passion and, as yet, so little by the Resurrection, I feel the desire to write to you and to tell you how close you are to my heart. I embrace all of you, in the variety of your rites, dear Catholic faithful living throughout the Holy Land,” the letter reads.
“In a particular way, I embrace those most affected by the senseless tragedy of war: the children robbed of their future, those who grieve and are in pain, and all who find themselves prey to anguish and dismay.”
“Thank you,” he added, “for your testimony of faith, thank you for the charity that exists among you, thank you for your ability to hope against all hope.”
“In these bleak times, when it seems that the dark clouds of Good Friday hover over your land, and all too many parts of our world are scarred by the pointless folly of war – which is always and for everyone a bitter defeat – you are lamps shining in the night, seeds of goodness in a land rent asunder by conflict.”
During the audience, the pontiff spoke without any obvious sign of fatigue – walking on his own, albeit with his cane, the short distance to sit in his chair in the Paul VI Hall. For last week’s Wednesday audience, he had delegated the reading of the catechesis to Fr Pierluigi Giroli, and had skipped delivering the homily this Palm Sunday.
Today, as soon as he started speaking, he explained that the change in venue to the Paul VI Hall was motivated by weather conditions. “It is true that you will be rather crowded, but at least we will not get wet,” he told the faithful present.
The theme of patience was explored during the catechesis, moving from the passage about the Passion of the Lord, read last Sunday.
“[I]t is not a coincidence that patience has the same root as passion. And it is precisely in the Passion that Christ’s patience emerges, as with meekness and mildness He accepts being arrested, beaten and condemned unjustly,” Francis said.
In light of this, it is important to focus on the fact that patience, even that of Jesus, is not “a stoical resistance to suffering, but is the fruit of a greater love.” And Saint Paul speaks of this in today’s reading (1 Cor 13:4a-5b.7), closely linking “love and patience,” the pope explained.
What for Paul is the first characteristic of God's love, is, in reality, “the first trait of every great love, which knows how to respond to evil with good, which does not withdraw in anger and discouragement, but perseveres and tries again.”
The best testimony of Jesus’s love can be found in the encounter with a "patient Christian”. Yet, “think of how many mothers and fathers, workers, doctors and nurses, the sick, who every day, in obscurity, grace the world with saintly patience!” noted the Holy Father.
Patience is an "essential vitamin" necessary for life, and more, it is also a calling. Indeed, “if Christ is patient, the Christian is called to be patient. And this demands that we go against the tide with respect to today’s widespread mentality, dominated by haste and wish for ‘everything straight away’.”
During the reading of the text of the catechesis, the pope called on the faithful to heed his various urgings.
“[I]t will be good for us to contemplate the Crucified One to assimilate His patience,” he said, and “take to Him the most bothersome people, asking for the grace to put into practice towards them that work of mercy so well known, yet so disregarded”.
Likewise, it will be good as well to "broaden one's gaze" without closing oneself within one's own "troubles", leaving a door open to listening to the suffering of others.
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