“… Jerusalem is the land that summarizes the vocation and destiny of humanity, Jerusalem, the land three times holy, in different ways, for the sons of Abraham, Jews, Christians and Muslims. To understand Jerusalem means to hold the key of interpretation of the history of God among men. Of her, each of us can say with the Psalmist: “Behold my mother, everybody is born here” (Ps. 87).

But what distance, more cultural than geographical between Occident and the Orient! In Jerusalem, the forces that favor peace are more pressing than elsewhere because they are nourish by the messianic vision described by Isaiah. Any one who seeks peace must be a prophet, a lucid and fearless pioneer who goes to the end of a tortuous path which leads to peace. In Jerusalem, the responsibility of churches is greater than anywhere in the world, because they are illuminated by the glorious memory of Christ, who dying on the cross, as St. Paul says, “has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility… that he might create in himself, out of enemies, one new man” (Cf. Eph 2.11 to 17).

Each pilgrimage, I celebrate the Holy Mass in the sanctuary of “Dominus Flevit” facing the city with its ramparts, as Jesus so often contemplated from the Mount of Olives to the point of tears of love for his people. Ah, those tears of Jesus: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings” (Cf. Mt 23.37-40). Now I have before me a more complex city than two thousand years ago, with three families from our common father. The three of them may claim Jerusalem as their own, but no one of them can claim it with the exclusion of others. It is not a place that we own but a place that own us; it is a city where everyone has to disrobe their human allegiances to be entirely dedicated to the only fidelity that counts, fidelity to God.

The tragedy of the Middle East can have no other solution than spiritual. To count the reciprocal violence would be futile. We must overcome the opposing solidarity that sometimes divides us to the point of hatred. After 66 years of trial and error and misunderstanding, it is high time that Israelis and Palestinians recognize each other fully and that they may move towards peace, of which Jerusalem is named. Abraham, who founded our common religious tradition, may sometimes blur what are our differences in the worship of one God. This coexistence in Jerusalem, which is more difficult than that of different generations living under one roof, first requires peace, peace within each of the three families. We should prove that we are able to sanctify Jerusalem in peace within its walls and to open it…”

† Card. Roger Etchegaray
Rome, October 20, 2014