Palm Sunday in Jerusalem was marked not only by the waving of palm branches and joyous hymns, but by a deeply stirring message from Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who urged Christians in the Holy Land to cling to hope—even when circumstances seem hopeless.
“This is our vocation: to build, to unite, to tear down walls, and to hope against all hope,” said Cardinal Pizzaballa in his Palm Sunday message, according to Vatican News. “The Passion is not God’s last word to the world. The Risen One is. And we are here to affirm it once more — with strength, with love, and with unshakable faith.”
The celebrations on April 13 began at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the very site of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. There, Cardinal Pizzaballa blessed palms from Jericho and olive branches from the Franciscan Convent of the Holy Savior. In a powerful act of remembrance, clergy and lay faithful processed three times around the rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre, symbolizing the three days Christ spent in the tomb.
“For the first time since 2017,” Catholic News Agency noted, the Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches are celebrating Holy Week and Easter on the same calendar dates, a rare moment of unity in the land where Christianity was born. As the Latin rite Mass was held at the Altar of Mary Magdalene, other Churches — Coptic, Syriac, and Ethiopian — held their liturgies at altars around the edicule, the small shrine enclosing Christ’s empty tomb.
“We know we are living through difficult times,” Cardinal Pizzaballa acknowledged, “but we are not here today to speak only of hardship. We are here to proclaim with strength that we are not afraid. We are children of light, of resurrection, of life. We believe in a love that conquers all.”
The Palm Sunday procession continued outside the Old City, starting at the Shrine of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives and ending at St. Anne’s Church at the Lions’ Gate — retracing the very path Christ took into Jerusalem, riding humbly on a donkey to cries of “Hosanna!”
“You are the ones that keep the flame of the Christian faith alive, here in Jerusalem,” the Patriarch told the faithful at the end of the procession. “And you keep alive the presence of Christ in our midst.”
He reminded Christians everywhere that Jerusalem is not merely a city of history and conflict, but a sacred place of belonging and love: “Jerusalem has always been and will always be a house of prayer for all peoples. No one can possess her,” he said. “We belong to this city, and no one can separate us from our love for Jerusalem, just as no one can separate us from the love of Christ.”
Cardinal Pizzaballa’s words echo the heart of Holy Week itself — a journey through pain and sacrifice toward the victory of Easter. “Here, today, despite everything,” he declared, “at the gates of his and our city, once again, we declare wanting to welcome him truly as our king and messiah, and to follow him on his path toward his throne, the cross, which is not a symbol of death but of love.”
