Jerusalem patriarch exhorts priests to hope in Jesus (Patriarchate of Jerusalem )

As he celebrated the Chrism Mass, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, told his priests that the call of divine justice requires “people who, like Jesus, are prepared to pay for it themselves.”

The situation in the Holy Land today is “dark and complicated,” the cardinal said. But he exhorted his priests:

The evil we experience is real, the pain of our people is deep, the injustice that oppresses us is heavy. And we must not be afraid to acknowledge and denounce it. But we know with Jesus that these are not the last words about history and life.
We are hungry for justice, that is true. But not for the justice of men, which is always lacking, which always disappoints, and which will always make us hungry. We long for the justice that flows from the heart of Jesus, from His self-giving on the cross, which is an excess, a “more” of love and forgiveness.