The festive bells ring in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre to the notes of the "Gloria in Excelsis Deo". The announcement of Easter in Jerusalem takes place on the morning of Holy Saturday. In front of the Wayside Shrine at the tomb of the Risen One, this year, the atmosphere is different. There are no pilgrims, but only Monsignor Pizzaballa and the other celebrants. "Yet, strange as it may seem - reflects the Apostolic Administrator - the experience of these days, marked by the emptiness and disorientation caused by the pandemic, is the closest to that experienced by the first witnesses of the Resurrection." HE Mgr PIERBATTISTA PIZZABALLA, ofm Apostolic Administrator Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem "We lack our reference points, it's a bit like what women and disciples experienced at that time. Because the Master, Jesus, who was their reference, was dead. Only later they understood that this emptiness was the beginning of the new creation, of the new life in the Risen Christ." In the Basilica in semi-darkness, at the anointing stone, the blessing of the fire...the light that overcomes the darkness of the world...the Easter Candle is lit with the candle that burns in the empty tomb and the light spreads on torches. The long and intense liturgy retraces the wonders that the Lord has accomplished for his people, starting from Genesis. Next to the Wayside Shrine the liturgy of Baptism, the renewal of promises, the sprinkling with holy water, the wish for an Easter that can restore hope to a world wounded by the health emergency. "Courage alone will not suffice to face the announced human, social and economic crisis - says Monsignor Pizzaballa - we need a perspective transformed by the light of the Risen One". HE Mgr PIERBATTISTA PIZZABALLA, ofm Apostolic Administrator Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem "The empty tomb of Christ helps us to read these events not only as the end of a world, the end of our certainties, but as the beginning, a new beginning...which also depends on us, if we are able to draw strength, life and hope from the event that we celebrate, which is the Resurrection of Christ." Read More