Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Homily for First Sunday in Advent

Image: CBCEW/M Mazur

Source: Archbishops House

His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, preached this homily in Westminster Cathedral at a Solemn Mass for the First Sunday of Advent.

I greet, first of all, His Eminence, Cardinal Nichols, all the bishops present, the Knights and Dames of the Holy Sepulchre, the Knights of Malta, and all the priests, brothers and sisters, gathered here for this beautiful celebration.

I'm coming to the end of my visit to England, and I have had a lot of beautiful encounters - interesting, fruitful encounters - where I learned many things. I wanted to come to let our people know about the life of the Christians in the Holy Land. In this very difficult period we are living through, I have experienced a lot of solidarity, closeness, and prayer for our reality in the Holy Land.

First of all, I will speak about the Gospel. It is Sunday, we are in Church celebrating the Eucharist. Every reflection should start and conclude with the Gospel. It is the start of Advent and Jesus is talking a difficult language. He talks about signs in the stars, moon, and sun. There will be upheaval in the sky and also on the Earth. This creates a lot of tension and fear. If there is something which is stable in our lives, across all languages, it is the expression that the sun is always there, the moon is always there, the stars are always there - it's the foundation of our certainty. Every day we will see the sun rise, at night we see the moon and the stars. This is something stable, the foundation of our existence. Jesus is saying, with these expressions, that sometimes there are moments in our lives where what is certain, is shaken. This happens in our relationships, in our families, in our communities, in the Church, and in society.

I live in the Holy Land where almost nothing is certain. Jesus says there are moments where life becomes stormy. This upheaval creates fear. People are afraid. They faint out of fear, as it says in the Gospel. And fear paralyses, fear closes. When we are afraid of something, the first thing we do, is close the doors, the windows, to lock everything, to build barriers to defend ourselves. When we are afraid, we are afraid that someone can wound you. So fear closes and paralyses.

Jesus says the contrary. He says in this moment, 'raise your head'. He uses beautiful images. He says he's coming on a cloud. The cloud in the Old Testament is very significant symbol. The cloud is the symbol of the presence of God. In the Book of Exodus, when the people of Israel were on their journey, there was always a cloud - a companion. So Jesus says, even in this moment when life is stormy, raise your head to look at the cloud. Don't close yourself. Don't let fear determine your choices in these difficult moments. Raise your heads, stand up. When you are waiting for someone, when you receive someone into your house, you stand up. You don't remain seated. So when Jesus is coming, and Jesus is always coming, stand up and raise your head to look at the signs. To 'look' is not just a question of using your eyes, but a question of using your heart.

If you are full of life, you are able to see something positive, even at the most difficult moment. But if you are depressed, if you are negative, even the most obvious things become problematic. It is the heart, not the eyes. Stand up, raise your head, change your gaze on reality, and see that Jesus is coming - even in the most difficult moments of your life, the life of the community, of the Church, societies, and so on. But if the heart is occupied, busy with the worries of life, you are not able to see this. You need to have a unified life; make unity in our lives.

Sometimes we are so worried. Many things worry - families, children, parents - but we need to be unified as we look upon this reality. How do we do this?… Prayer. We have to pray in order to escape concerns, temptations, and so on. Be awake. Be awake and pray. Being awake means we are able to see reality. This is what I also reflect on in my thinking, and say to our community in the Holy Land. If we just look with human eyes, we see only destruction. Everything is destroyed, everything. From a material point of view in Gaza, there is not one house that hasn't been affected, touched by the bombs, by the war. More than two million people displaced. Even in the West Bank, the situation is very problematic.

Besides the material and physical effects of the war, there is hatred, mistrust, and fear. Once again, the fear, one of the other. When we meet people now in Jerusalem, wherever we are, we are afraid to talk, because we don't know who he is, what he thinks, where he stands. It's very difficult where hatred and fear determine these relations, to stand up, raise your head and look beyond - look to the cloud for the coming of Jesus. But our faith says that Jesus is always coming. The cloud, the presence of God, is always there. It is through our hearts that we are able to see the signs of the presence of God, even in this storm, in this problematic situation.

The war will finish. It's a question of time. But hatred is not going to finish soon. We will need, especially after the war, the emotional space to talk about the future. Now everyone is so touched by the war that there is no emotional space to think about anything else. But in the end this will finish. When it does we'll need to find people to help us to look beyond, to open our hearts to rebuild what this war has destroyed. Not only rebuild relations between Palestinians and Israelis, but also between Jews, Christians, and Muslims to rebuild the trust. We need people to help us to stand up, to raise our heads to see the presence of the cloud. God is present there. Maybe not in the big institutions - political, social, and religious - but at the grassroots level there are still many people, of all faiths, that are not afraid to do something for the other.

Where there is a gesture of love, a gesture of donation, a gesture of commitment towards the other, there Jesus is present. We have to pray for this. We have to pray that the Holy Spirit will give all of us this ability to raise our heads to see beyond destruction everywhere, to see how the Kingdom of God, despite everything, is still growing, is still present in the 'little ones' of the Gospel.

I take a lot of consolation visiting the communities. I see how they suffer. They lost almost everything, especially in Gaza, they lost their houses, their opportunities. They have nothing. But they are not able to say a word of anger. They are not able to express hatred despite everything. They say this, 'We are Christians. We have Jesus.' They say this in a very simple way. They didn't study the Christology of Karl Rahner. They are not professors. They are simple people, but they are attached to what is essential in their lives. Despite everything, they remain attached to their love for Jesus. We see very well how the love of Jesus is able to give them a vision of the situation which is sometimes quite different from ours.

My wish for all of us, is that we do not let the dramatic situations of the world determine our choices, our vision. We have to look to Jesus - who comes in the Sacraments, in the Word of God, in the occasions of life - so we are able, with our heart and our eyes, to see, to look. We have to look. If you don't look, you don't find.

We must look for the sign of his presence everywhere, in our relationships first of all. Also, we count on your prayers because prayer is very powerful to help us see the coming of our Saviour, even in the Holy Land. We pray to be among those who want to build relationships, to help us not just to raise our heads, but to help all the people we meet to raise their heads to look together to the cloud, to the presence of God, and to develop relationships of friendship, fraternity, and humanity, especially in this moment where we try to dehumanise the other.

Although pilgrimages are totally cancelled, when the situation changes, I hope that we can see all of you in Jerusalem. We are waiting for you because your presence will bring joy, consolation, and happiness to many of our families.

Have a good Advent, a good preparation for the coming of our Saviour, and may the Lord bless all of us.