Zechariah 9 :9-10
Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion,
shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king shall come to you;
a just savior is he,
Meek, and riding on an ass,
on a colt, the foal of an ass.
He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim,
and the horse from Jerusalem;
The warrior's bow shall be banished,
and he shall proclaim peace to the nations.
His dominion shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
During this Week of Passion, our thought goes to Ukraine, to the city of Sumy, where 32 people were killed and around 120 wounded, among them 10 children, in a Russian missile attack. One of the many attacks to which, unfortunately, the world opinion has become accustomed. But we can't get used to it. It happened near some churches, where people had gone to pray on Sunday.
Killing is always a curse against man, made in the image of God. But even more so it sounds like blasphemy on this Sunday, when the different Churches celebrate the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, as they will celebrate together next Easter. Orthodox, same as the Catholics, according to an ancient tradition - it comes from Jerusalem liturgy - use branches to repeat the gesture of the crowds to acclaim Jesus. In Ukraine, willow branches, olive branches here.
Death struck down people who were going to the liturgy. Catholics and Orthodox celebrate it together the Holy week, for a coincidence of dates. This coincidence speaks of unity and fraternity, not of death. Those churches in the centre of Sumy, whose domes stand out towards the heaven, although they belong to different obediences — one of them to the Patriarchate of Moscow — are close in their common liturgical tradition.
This fact shows as acts of war are fratricide. Because they are all Christians, children of the God of life, children of the same faith, received in the baptism of Rus'. I know that calling it fratricide does not please everyone and is perceived as ambiguous. But what does it mean to be a Christian, when innocent people are killed in a holy time, and then every day? Killed with palms in their hands, like the martyrs of the Apocalypse.
War tramples upon the Gospel, as shown by a Gospel holder from Ukraine, found in a war zone, under the tanks, ruined, trampled. War tramples upon the Gospel.
It is enough with this evil war that kills so many. In the face of the news and these images: it is enough with this war! This is our constant prayer, which at the end becomes a cry: it is enough! Stop! The patience of the Ukrainian people is sorely tried. May there be found ways of dialogue, of truce, of peace, because we cannot play with the life of a whole people.
Every piece of land conquered will be cursed by the blood shed and by the great suffering of those who conquer it. The blood shed in Sumy cries out and calls for peace. May the great and powerful listen to it; they bear a tremendous responsibility for every day of war and for every death. While, at times, it seems that they are participating in a game — a game of chance, or an irresponsible one.
These great men should look at that 13-year-old boy from Sumy. A true man of peace, who was able to get out of the bus where he was – a bus that had been hit, was on fire, and had several dead people on board – he broke a window with his hands. Then he didn't flee, he forced open the doors freeing the passengers and was wounded. That little boy didn't save his own life first of all. It almost seems as if, like David, he defeated the missile force that fell on Sumy with his bare hands.
The Lord comes to our aid. It is the biblical image of the just king, victorious and humble on a donkey and entering Jerusalem. He is our king, the king of peace. He will banish the chariots from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, the warrior's bow will be banished, he will proclaim peace to the nations.
The king does not ride a war horse, but a donkey. We have heard the echo of Zechariah in Jesus' entry, meek and peaceful, into Jerusalem. But not many kings, or anyone else for that matter, came to bring peace. And God himself enters his city to bring us peace. And we want to gather around him, like the children in Jerusalem, like the disciples who spread their cloaks. Supporting this Lord who brings peace.
It is God who claims peace, it is God who promises it for Jerusalem, for the Holy Land, for Ukraine, for Kivu, for Sudan and many other countries in the world. Our prayer therefore becomes insistent, even if our faith is as small as a mustard seed, that this king may soon enter and rule the earth with peace.
The king, who entered Jerusalem meek and humble, was crucified. A conspiracy of evil and violence wanted him to disappear from the land of the living. This week we celebrate his passion, his death on the cross, but we sing of his resurrection. May the powerful force of Jesus' resurrection overwhelm the roots of evil and war, and eventually bring peace!
The young man from Sumy, who has saved others before himself, shows that there is still good root in humanity, enlightened by justice and the Gospel. Perhaps a better generation is in the making. We haven't all become bad, in this climate of war that is making us all more and more evil. And the meek king is with us, so that humanity may not die, but rise again with him. Amen.
The words of Andrea Riccardi at the prayer for peace at the beginning of Holy Week (translation by editorial staff)
