{"id":113464,"date":"2026-04-06T08:37:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/?p=113464"},"modified":"2026-04-06T08:37:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:07:29","slug":"the-word-of-god-resounds-louder-than-any-silence-basilica-of-the-holy-sepulchre-jerusalem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/?p=113464","title":{"rendered":"The Word Of God Resounds Louder Than Any Silence: Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jerusalem; April 2026<\/strong>: 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. Easter does not begin with a proclamation of victory, but with listening to a story: a story that confronts death to reach life\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 the morning of Saturday, April 04th, in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre.<\/p>\n\n\n\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\n\n\n

\u201cThe 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\u201d, Cardinal Pizzaballa began, adding that in this very place \u201cthe Word of God resounds louder than any silence\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cGod did not choose an escape route\u201d, he said, \u201cbut 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\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\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. This is the \u201cheart of a passage that shakes the whole world: a stone removed not by human strength, but by divine power\u201d, he underlined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt this moment,\u201d the Patriarch continued, \u201cit 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: \u201cWho will roll back the stone for us?\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a question \u201cat the heart of every search for hope when it seems there is nothing left to do\u201d. The Cardinal insisted that \u201ctoday, this question is raised throughout the Holy Land, and from every place in the world marked by violence. And the answer 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\u2019s love, which is stronger than death\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same question echoes in \u201cthe 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\u201d. 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\n\n\n

\u201cGod 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\u201d but rather \u201cit is the foundation that makes every effort possible\u201d, the Cardinal emphasised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf 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. Not 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 seems to tell us otherwise, we are the ones who have seen the stone removed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\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 cf. Mt 28:5, he highlighted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEntering this empty tomb\u2014even without fellow pilgrims, alone, despite the war\u2014means coming face to face with the mystery of life that is renewed. 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\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the heart of Easter: God does not erase our history; he transfigures it, by bringing it into the light\u201d and that \u201creality itself can be transformed by the power of God\u201d, the Patriarch insisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\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, and today by so many divisions, becomes the place where life is proclaimed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\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\n\n\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\n\n\n

In particular, he urged them to remove \u201cthe stone of resignation, of resentment, of mistrust\u201d. He concluded his homily with an \u201cEaster message\u201d from the Holy Sepulchre: \u201cDo not stand still before the stones of the world, but let us become as much as we are able \u2014 \u2018living stones\u2019, signs of reconciliation, artisans of hope, witnesses to a life that death can no longer extinguish\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Maverick<\/strong>,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jerusalem; April 2026: 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. Easter does not begin with a proclamation of victory, but with listening to a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":113465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[81],"post_format":[],"flags":[],"class_list":["post-113464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113466,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113464\/revisions\/113466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/113465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113464"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_format&post=113464"},{"taxonomy":"flags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fflags&post=113464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}