Cardinal Pizzaballa: Violence in the Holy Land is because of Satan’s desire to impose itself where Jesus lived

The continuous violence that Holy Land experiences, especially now with the war in Gaza, was approached by the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, in the homily he pronounced during the solemnity of the Assumption of Mary.

As part of his work, Cardinal Pizzaballa Not only watch Israel’s Catholicsbut also by those inhabit the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank. This has allowed him to know firsthand the consequences of violence, especially what in the last two years hits the strip and that requires true words of peace and not speeches “sweetened and abstract.”

From the Benedictine monastery of Abu Gosh (Israel), the purple said that although everyone wants the conflict to end, its term will not mark “the end of the hostilities and pain they will cause”, as the desire for revenge will subsist and “we will have to deal with the consequences caused by this war in the lives of people”.

In that sense, The Cardinal recalled in his homily The importance of holy land for Christians and for humanity, being the region where Mary said yes to the will of God and in which Christ was born. In addition to being the place where the Lord defeated sin with his resurrection.

“It really seems that this Holy Earth, which custodes the highest revelation and manifestation of God, is also the place of the highest manifestation of Satan’s power. And perhaps precisely for this same reason, because it is the place that guard the heart of the history of salvation, which has also become the place where ‘the old adversary’ tries to impose more than any other place,” he said.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem said these words by reflecting on the passage of the apocalypse that mentions the huge dragon with seven heads and ten headbands, which “is a very clear representation of the power of evil in the world, of Satan.”

“I am impressed that from that passage it is clear that the dragon, Satan, will never stop affirming and ravage the world, in particular ‘against those who keep God’s commandments and maintain the testimony of Jesus,” he said.

This, he explained, leads Christians to be aware that “the power of evil will continue to be present in the life of the world and in ours”, but this does not mean resigning, because the solemnity of the assumption “also tells us that there is someone before whom that evil is impotent.”

“The dragon’s power cannot prevail before a birth, before a mother who gives birth, who generates life. On the seed of life, the result of love, the dragon cannot prevail,” he said.

In that sense, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem pointed out that the church called to “sow a seed of life in the world.” “Evil will continue to express, but we will be the place, the presence that the dragon cannot overcome: a seed of life,” he said.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa said that while “we know that sooner or later the dragon will be defeated,” today Christians are called to persevere, “aware that the dragon will continue to devastate the story.”

However, he said that “the blood caused by all this evil” anywhere in the world “flows under the altar, mixed with the blood of the lamb, also participates in the redemption work with which we are associated.”

“The assumption of the Virgin Mary, which we are celebrating, its full participation, in body and soul, in the victory of Christ, is also an advance of our destiny as children of God, baptized and redeemed by the blood of Christ,” he said.

Finally, he said: “When we get up today from the Eucharistic table, we carry with us the certainty of Christ’s victory over death, the conviction that our life, no matter how disrupted it is for the dramatic events of today, is, however, it is, however, it is the place where the dragon will not prevail, because it is a life bathed in the blood of the lamb, in the infinite love of God.”