"Also today, like the women of the Gospel, and the disciples Peter and John, we have returned here, before the empty Tomb of Christ, to pray, to contemplate, to reconfirm ourselves in the faith." The proclamation of the Resurrection again this year started from Jerusalem and spread throughout the world. Easter Sunday Mass at the Holy Sepulcher was presided over by H. B. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins. Along with him were bishops, Franciscan friars from the Custody of the Holy Land, priests from the Latin Patriarchate and many priests from the various religious communities present in the Holy Land. "The Gospel proclaimed today is a passage that resounds in this basilica almost daily. And we know well that it is a Gospel full of momentum and life. It speaks of night and darkness, which, however, no longer frighten, because they are about to yield to the light of the looming morning." It is the light of resurrection, the light of love, which - the patriarch continued - "is the only bastion capable of stopping the power of fear, of death and its stings, and of generating life," in spite of all darkness. "We live in a period marked by violence and death, of deep distrust, visible in the different spheres of social, political and religious life in our countries. The violence against our Christian places and symbols is only one expression of the more widespread violence that characterizes our time." But where the horizon seems cloudy and "everything leads us to believe that there is no future," the light of Easter breaks through, as the Church reminds us every year: "Here today, once again, before this empty Tomb, we renew our desire to bet on the love of Jesus, not to fear death and its bindings, but to be here in the Holy Land and in the world, generators of life, love, forgiveness and hope." After the Eucharist, the joy of Easter was proclaimed from the four cardinal points around the empty tomb of Christ. A symbol of how the proclamation of the Resurrection reaches every corner of the earth. The Word of God was then carried in solemn procession around the Wayside Shrine and the Anointing Stone. "That is why we still come here today to the Tomb of Christ. We need to hear again that Word that awakens in our hearts that love that generated us to life and faith." H B PIERBATTISTA PIZZABALLA, ofm Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins We have always had so many problems in our families, in our hearts, in our relationships. Today Easter tells us that God not only gives us life but gives us a love that has the power to change every thing, even what seems lost like death. Happy Easter to everyone.