{"id":421451,"date":"2026-04-05T14:03:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T14:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/421451\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T14:03:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T14:03:16","slug":"cardinal-pizzaballa-the-word-of-god-resounds-louder-than-any-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/421451\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinal Pizzaballa: ‘The Word of God resounds louder than any silence’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.\u201d <\/p>\n

By Beatrice Guarrera<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cEaster\u00a0does not\u00a0begin\u00a0with a\u00a0proclamation of victory,\u00a0but with listening to a story: a story that confronts death\u00a0to\u00a0reach\u00a0life.\u201d<\/p>\n

With these words, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, recalled the passage through darkness necessary to reach the Resurrection, in his\u00a0homily<\/a>\u00a0for the Easter Vigil celebration that he presided over on the morning of Saturday, April 4, in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cthe Church of the Resurrection.\u201d<\/p>\n

God takes upon himself all dimensions of the human existence <\/p>\n

\u201cThe doors are\u00a0still\u00a0closed. The silence is almost absolute,\u00a0broken\u00a0perhaps\u00a0by\u00a0the distant sound of what war continues to sow in this holy and torn land,\u201d Cardinal Pizzaballa began, adding that in this very place \u201cthe Word\u00a0of God\u00a0resounds louder than any silence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cardinal explained that the faith of the Christian community in the Holy Land is \u201ca\u00a0fragile\u00a0faith that has been tested,\u00a0perhaps weary\u2026 yet still standing,\u201d not because of their own strength but \u201cbecause Someone sustains us here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGod did not choose an escape\u00a0route,\u201d he said, \u201cbut\u00a0decided to enter the human condition in its\u00a0most profound\u00a0reality, taking upon\u00a0Himself all\u00a0the\u00a0dimensions of\u00a0human\u00a0existence, including that which we unfortunately\u00a0experience\u00a0often\u00a0today\u00a0in a\u00a0violent way:\u00a0pain and\u00a0death.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n The Easter Vigil in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre\n <\/p>\n

\u201cWho will roll back\u00a0the stone for us?\u201d <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

This is the \u201cheart of a passage that shakes the\u00a0whole\u00a0world: a stone removed not by human strength, but by divine power,\u201d he underlined.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this moment,\u201d the Patriarch continued, \u201cit seems there\u00a0is no one who can roll away the stones\u00a0from\u00a0the tombs\u00a0of\u00a0suffering\u00a0continuously dug up by\u00a0war.\u00a0\u00a0But precisely for this reason, we listen with greater urgency to the question the women\u00a0carried in their hearts:\u00a0\u201cWho will roll\u00a0back\u00a0the stone for us?\u201d.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a question \u201cat the heart of every search for hope when\u00a0it seems there\u00a0is nothing left to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cardinal insisted that \u201ctoday, this\u00a0question\u00a0is raised throughout the Holy Land, and from every place in the world marked by violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the answer,\u201d he continued, \u201cis not an empty proclamation, but an\u00a0actual occurrence: the stone has been rolled away. Not by our own strength, but by the power of God\u2019s\u00a0love, which is stronger than death.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Fr. Ibrahim Faltas, Head of Schools of the Custody of the Holy Land, reflects on how on the morning of Good Friday, 10 Franciscan friars were able to carry out the ancient rite of …\n <\/p>\n


\nGod does not wait for our wars to end to restore life <\/p>\n

The same question echoes in \u201cthe cry\u00a0rising\u00a0from our\u00a0homes,\u00a0because around us stones have been put back in\u00a0place.\u00a0And yet, today we are here:\u00a0in a tomb that has been opened\u00a0once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod does not wait for our wars to end before beginning to\u00a0restore\u00a0life. He begins in\u00a0the darkness. He begins in\u00a0the silence. He begins in the tomb that is still sealed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEaster is not the result of our efforts\u00a0to achieve\u00a0peace, however necessary they may be\u201d but rather \u201cit is the foundation that makes every\u00a0effort possible,\u201d the Cardinal emphasized.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the tomb is empty, then nothing is truly\u00a0said and done.\u00a0No land is forever\u00a0in\u00a0dispute,\u00a0no wound is forever\u00a0incurable,\u00a0no memory is forever captive to hatred,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot because it is easy \u2013 we know how difficult it is \u2013 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\u00a0seems to tell\u00a0us otherwise, we are the ones who have\u00a0seen\u00a0the stone removed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the empty tomb, the mystery of life renewed <\/p>\n

At the same time, the Gospel \u201cseems to roll away another stone,\u201d that of fear, as the first Easter message is simply and disarmingly \u201cDo not be afraid\u201d.\u201d(cf. Mt 28:5), he highlighted.<\/p>\n

\u201cEntering this empty tomb\u2014even without\u00a0fellow\u00a0pilgrims, alone,\u00a0despite the\u00a0war\u2014means\u00a0coming face to face with the mystery of life\u00a0that is\u00a0renewed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe empty tomb is not a void that erases history.\u00a0It does not tell us that\u00a0suffering\u00a0does\u00a0not exist\u00a0or that\u00a0it will cease.\u00a0The risen body of Christ, as the Gospels remind us, is not\u00a0free\u00a0of the marks of the Passion. But those wounds are not signs of defeat: they are the seal of a life that has conquered death,\u00a0by\u00a0bearing\u00a0it\u00a0within\u00a0Himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the heart of Easter: God does not erase our history;\u00a0he\u00a0transfigures it,\u00a0by\u00a0bringing it into the light\u201d and that \u201creality itself can be transformed by the power of God,\u201d the Patriarch insisted.<\/p>\n

Where there was a definitive stone, now there is a threshold, Cardinal Pizzaballa said, adding that \u201cJerusalem, a city marked by the memory of death,\u00a0and today\u00a0by so many divisions, becomes the\u00a0place where\u00a0life is proclaimed.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Cardinal<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, presides over the In Coena Domini Mass behind closed doors in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. He …\n <\/p>\n


\nHope is a step to be taken <\/p>\n

Referring to the Gospel passage \u201cHe is going before you to Galilee\u201d (Mt 28:7), the Cardinal explained that for the Holy Land, Galilee corresponds to \u201cthe courage to begin again, to believe that another path is possible. And if the Risen One \u2018goes ahead,\u2019 then hope is not a feeling: it is a step to be taken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christians, therefore, are called to bear \u201cthe sign of an empty tomb: a sign that does not deny history but opens it to hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

In particular, he urged them to remove \u201cthe stone of\u00a0resignation, of resentment, of mistrust.\u201d He concluded his homily with an \u201cEaster message\u201d from the Holy Sepulchre: \u201cDo\u00a0not\u00a0stand\u00a0still\u00a0before\u00a0the stones of the\u00a0world,\u00a0but\u00a0let\u00a0us\u00a0become\u2014\u00a0as much as we\u00a0are\u00a0able\u00a0\u2014\u201cliving stones,\u201d\u00a0signs\u00a0of\u00a0reconciliation,\u00a0artisans\u00a0of\u00a0hope,\u00a0witnesses\u00a0to a life\u00a0that\u00a0death\u00a0can no\u00a0longer\u00a0extinguish.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the Easter Vigil Mass in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre Cardinal Pizzaballa says that “Jerusalem, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,154384,13,14,6,188782,20477,13453,11,12,15,16,8820,5,32877,106707,7,8,1545,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-421451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-easter","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-holy-week","tag-hope","tag-jerusalem","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-peace","tag-pierbattista-pizzaballa","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-war","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116352477028340355","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}