2nd voice

Violence unleashed first begins its work and then continues to wreak havoc through trickery and lies. To condemn and crucify others beyond recall will be forever the trademarks of evil. Such violence traps persons and populations in a hell of exclusion and fear. It demolishes spirits and souls. It tears cultures apart.

To yield to violence heralds a culture of death, with its lot of snickering, mockery and insults. So many Christians belong to Churches and to families burdened with the cross of long-enduring suffering in the most hopeless of conditions.

How can a culture of forgiveness come to be and get passed on in environments poisoned by circumstances and events that unceasingly crucify by circulating contempt and issuing death sentences? The proclamation of justice and forgiveness flows often from the heart onto the lips of those very people who have experienced the depths of the worst.

Benedict XVI reminded the Christians of the Holy Land of a word that holds true for all who wish to remain loyal to forgiveness: “The Church in the Holy Land, which has so often experienced the dark mystery of Golgotha, must never cease to be an intrepid herald of the luminous message of hope which this empty tomb proclaims.” *