Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre
Wednesday 24th Week Year II
Basilica of the Assumption
September 16 2026
Whenever we gather, one place is uppermost in our minds and hearts: that place made holy by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Though some historians have described it as an outpost of the Roman Empire, the Holy Land has always been a place of pilgrimage and a meeting place of humanity’s languages, cultures, and conflicts. In its portrayal of Pentecost, the Acts of the Apostles draws our attention to the many pilgrims who were in Jerusalem that day, pilgrims from many places and speaking many languages – yet they heard and understood Peter’s proclamation as if he spoke in their own language.
Jerusalem remains a place of pilgrimage and a point of convergence for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Unfortunately, the message of reconciliation and peace is neither preached with one voice, nor met with a common understanding. Two years after the October 7th, 2023, war in Gaza erupted, 2023, a ceasefire was negotiated. Nevertheless, it is still a place of danger and conflict, marked by neither war nor peace.
In Gaza, people are living amid rubble, without water, food, or medicine. Holy Family Parish, aided by Caritas, continues as a beacon of hope, indeed the face of Christ amid the suffering. For Palestinians the war in Gaza brought fresh humiliation & displacement. Israeli settlements that displace Christians have accelerated. Meanwhile, the Christian community continues to shrink. Taybeh is the last remaining Christian town, and the parish, Christ the Redeemer, is stalwart. For Israelis, the violence evoked the memory of the Holocaust. And Israel itself is marked by unrest and new levels of violent crime. For all believers, these real-life situations constitute a stark call to conversion and reconciliation.
Two years ago, I travelled to the Holy Land with Msgr. Vaccari, the head of CNEWA and with Patrick Kelly, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus. On several occasions, we met with the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pizzaballa, the Grand Prior of our Equestrian Order. His Beatitude expressed gratitude for the work of our Order, especially for the crucial assistance we provide in maintaining his ministries – education, healthcare, pastoral care and outreach. He also spoke gratefully of the humanitarian assistance that CNEWA, the Knights, Caritas, CRS, Malta, and others provide. And more than that, he was grateful for their presence and our presence, on the ground, in the midst of all the turmoil and violence. For we are his partners, not merely in rebuilding destroyed structures, but in repairing the fabric of a society torn by centuries of conflict & violence.
The Patriarch is a churchman of deep prayer and profound vision. He is not a dreamer but a realist. He understands how fragile and fallible are the peace accords, and the international order that produces them. He will never give up on diplomacy or dialogue but he recognizes that unless God is allowed break in, all efforts to attain an elusive peace will falter. After all, Jerusalem and indeed the Holy Land itself is a place of revelation. Efforts to create peace, reconciliation, and peaceful coexistence will fail unless and until Jews, Christians, and Muslims listen to God so that they, in turn, can listen to one another.
In seeking to repair the fabric of a wounded and fragmented society, Cardinal Pizzaballa has evoked the image of the new and eternal Jerusalem, where there is no need for borders, no need for lamps or the sun, no need even for a temple – because God is all in all. It is there that humanity’s divisions, struggles, and heartlessness give way ‘to the peace of God beyond all understanding.’ The earthly Jerusalem and all that surrounds struggles to be an image of that heavenly city towards which we travel as pilgrims.
Cardinal Pizzaballa seeks our help. Yes, our generosity but also our prayers, and when possible, our presence. Let us never doubt the relevance and the urgency of our mission. Let us never underestimate its scope. Rather, as we contemplate St. Paul’s beautiful hymn honoring the beauty of divine love at work in human hearts, let us ask that our hearts be enlarged, that we might be architects and builders of a renewed society at home, and that we might be the Patriarch’s good co-workers in reconstructing a civilization of life and love in the land made holy by the Lord of life and love. Deus lo vult!