Homily of His Beatitude Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa for the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” 2023

You can find below the Homily of His Beatitude Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, on the occasion of the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” 2023.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Most Reverend Excellencies,

may the Lord give you peace!

This year, we are all enriched by the many suggestions proposed by the Word of God during this week of prayer for Christian Unity. Even though its general theme, “do good, seek justice” (Is 1:17), is challenging – especially here in our Holy Land – it is every day accompanied by other passages that make it more concrete; “Who is my neighbor” (Lk 10:25-36), or the passage of the rich young man who wants to obtain eternal life (Mk 10:17-31), as well as many other strong suggestions. Today, this week of prayer invites us to reflect on a particularly painful and difficult theme from the Beatitudes, which we have just heard: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Mt 5:4). It can be linked to Ecclesiastes 4:1: “Again I saw all the oppressions that take place under the sun: the tears of the victims with none to comfort them! From the hand of their oppressors comes violence, and there is none to comfort them!”

We are thus invited this evening to reflect and put on the horizon of our prayer the theme of violence, of the injustice brought by violence, and especially of how to stand in the face of the evil that is before our eyes. We are invited to ask ourselves from the proclaimed passages whether “the tears of the victims” (Eccl. 4:1) have no one to comfort them, as Ecclesiastes states, or whether they will instead be consoled, have a voice that will take care of them, as the Gospel says.

These are subjects that have an immediate political connotation, both internationally and, of course, in our experience here in the Holy Land, which is marked by violence and injustice in a variety of contexts. But it is not only political life that is involved here. Violence, oppression, pain, and injustice are first found in our own souls, in the lives of many families, in our own communities, and more generally in human relationships, as well as in our relationship with creation.

The Divider, or, in other words, the Devil, has not ceased his action. We know that the world and mankind have been redeemed by Christ’s Passover, but we also know that we will always have to deal with the presence of evil within ourselves and in the world, as well as with its consequences on our personal, civil and social lives. Divisions and conflicts will always be part of our daily lives, and there will always be a cry of pain to be heard somewhere. But that cry will however also always be mixed with the voice of those who work for justice; those who nurture peace within themselves and build it in their life contexts, whether religious or political, with patience and perseverance, and heedless of persecution and loneliness, because they have been won by Christ, who knows how to give a peace that differs from the way the world gives it (cf. Jn. 14:27).

It is therefore the characteristic of Christians, of those who have encountered Christ and have experienced salvation, not to be shocked or disturbed by the evil in the world, but, on the contrary, to be committed to justice, freedom, dignity, and equality among all people, created in the image and likeness of God. This is a constitutive commitment of the Christian faith; it is the Christian way of being in the world, because the encounter with Christ has opened our eyes to the life of all. We suffer from the evil in the world, but we do not allow ourselves to be shocked by it.

We cannot understand this perspective though our human eyes alone, and if our hearts are not open to the great newness that Jesus brings, if we are not willing to be converted. Before giving the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus traveled through Galilee asking us to return to Him (Mt 4:17) – that is, asking us to change our way of thinking.

Jesus is our consolation, and only in Him will we find the strength to “encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God” (2 Cor. 1:4). He does not exempt us from the pain we experience in the face of violence, oppression, and injustice. But His presence in us, in the Church, will not allow evil to find fertile ground and take root. Evil, as I said, will always be present, but it will not find a home in the hearts of believers, as they will already be inhabited by the cross of Christ.

It will be a path that is never linear, because the liberation from evil and its consequences, which occurred with Christ’s Passover, will be fully completed only in the heavenly Jerusalem, in whose construction we Christians are called to collaborate, working for justice and coming to the aid of the oppressed (Is 1:17).

I often wonder, as I reflect and pray, where I stand in relation to all this. Am I with Ecclesiastes, which sees oppression but not consolation, or am I with the Gospel, which can find consolation even in tears? Am I locked in my grief in the face of oppression, perhaps with anger and resentment, or do I cooperate as a Christian in building the heavenly Jerusalem?

Despite the many conflicts that have plagued the Holy Land for generations, the Churches here are very active in the building of the heavenly Jerusalem. Schools, hospitals, homes for the elderly, for children, for the disabled, and much more, are a constitutive part of our identity as outward, and not inward, looking communities. They are our way of doing good here in the Holy Land, of working for justice, of opening our eyes to pain and oppression. Referring to Ecclesiastes, which we heard in the first reading, it is our way of being among those who comfort. We do not say this to boast, because we see every day the limitation and weight of our work, but to acknowledge a reality.

Consolation, however, needs not only welcoming gestures, but also words…

This homily was originally published on the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Please click here to read the full text.