1. At Al Hussein Cultural Center theater, the musicians of the National Music Conservatory made distinguished musical performances with Rose Al Wir singing mellifluously by reciting hymns of peace, love, passion and resurrection. Following every hymn there was an interlude of people standing at the podium conveying messages for Easter celebrations this year. Their words were abounding of sadness but full of hope. A Syrian young man took the podium and said: “The world marks nowadays the 5th anniversary of the war in Syria. War against whom? It is the war of the losers against the losers.” He quoted a statement by St. Pope John Paul II, on the 10th anniversary of his departure to the House of God, saying: “In wars there are neither winners nor loser, for all are losers.’’
Afterwards an Iraqi girl, who was displaced by followers of extremism and alienation of others, and said in an Iraqi dialect: "From Mosul and Nineveh to Libya and Yemen... to all the countries of the world… These are all painful trips... when walking in the streets of Jerusalem and Via Dolorosa... one hears heavy steps... and knocking on the gates… the gates of embassies... Have you as many visas as the number of our sighs, pains and suffering? O Lord, have mercy on us, O Lord, O Lord of life... O Creator of all creatures, have mercy on us."
Later a blind couple, namely Saliba and Randa Haddadin who got married years ago and were accompanied by their daughter Farah, took the podium. Randa said: “Love does not depend on viewing by the naked eye. Haven’t you heard the poet’s words that the ear causes one to fall in love before the eye? She added: “The Cross, no matter how heavy it is, it is light and close to the heart when we share the burden of holding it together. Share with each other your pains for then pain becomes beautiful.”
2. At the national level, we experienced the meaning of resurrection and sacrifice in the martyrdom of hero Kasasbeh where love is manifested when “man’’ dies in defence of the loved ones, the children of the homeland, and the genuine values of religion.
There is another hero, namely Omar Balawneh, who learned that salvation can neither be attained by surrendering to the storm nor by falling in the trap of abominable despair. Salvation can be attained while moving against the current and evading easy solutions… how hard this hobby is… It was experienced by Kasasbeh, in the air, may his soul rest in peace, and by Balawneh, may God protect him, at sea. These are two examples of dedication and sacrifice. Our country abounds with heroes. We only have to value every person for all have a heroic role to play.
3. Mr. Mohammad Sammak, a Lebanese activist in the Muslim-Christian dialogue, conveys an Easter this year. He says: “Easter teaches us that death is not the end, And that after death there is resurrection, that our tormented East, suffering from death, believes in renaissance,
However, it does await it but makes it."
4. Italian Television RA1 highlighted during Good Friday the situation of the displaced Iraqis in our beloved Jordan, and before screening the via Crucis--the Way of the Cross--at the Colosseum which had been the scene of the persecution of Christians in the first century, the Way of the Cross was first screened from the town of Na’our which showed an Iraqi family carrying a huge cross. The priest said, on television, with tears welling in his eyes: "We have carried our crosses in the 20th century and left. We are awaiting the resurrection...”
5. In the conference: "Jerusalem speaks" where the atmosphere of Easter prevailed, I quoted a verse by poet Ahmad Shawqi addressing British General Allenby who was about to enter the City of Peace in 1917: “O conqueror of Jerusalem put the sword aside, the Cross was not made of iron but rather from wood.”
The Lord has risen, Halleluiah
Happy Easter
