By Jeannie Connerney

This reflection was read at the 35th annual Stations of the Cross event in front of the Massachusetts State House organized by the Agape Community.  Jeannie Connerney is a member of Pax Christi at St. Susanna’s Parish, Dedham.

Monday, March 30, was Land Day in Palestine. It commemorated the murders of peaceful protesters by the Israeli Defense Forces IDF 50 years ago. The Israeli Knesset spent the day this year by making death by hanging the default punishment for Palestinians who kill Jews, but not Jews who kill Palestinians. Adding to this obvious apartheid injustice, the conviction rate for Palestinians is at least 96%, due to confessions gathered via torture and coercion. In contrast, the conviction rate for Jews who murder Palestinians is below 2%. Immediately after it passed, cheers went up in the Knesset, and Israeli Security Minister Ben Gvir popped open and shared a bottle of champagne, while wearing a gold lapel pin shaped like a noose.

Many more than the official death toll of 71,000 people have been killed in Gaza in the last 2.5 years, and Israel has broken the so-called ceasefire more than 1,000 times. Since it was announced last October, at least another 680 people have been bombed to death, shot, or starved, and only a trickle of humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza. Trump is moving forward with this “real estate bonanza,” as the Israeli Finance Minister called it, their twisted fantasy of building a playground for the 1% on the graveyard of more than 20,000 children. The ironically named “Board of Peace,” on which there are no Palestinians, plans to create what at best can be called reservations, into which remaining Gazans will be corralled and where they will be monitored 24/7, allowed out only by permission, and where everything they eat, drink, or purchase will be controlled by Israel and the US.

I don’t have to tell you all that this maniacal lust for power and money has now spread even more. After 30+ years of trying, Israel finally convinced a US president to bomb Iran, and they are now doing to southern Lebanon what they’ve done to Gaza, where in less than a month over 1,000 people have been killed, including journalists and paramedics. One million have been displaced. We’ve seen this play out before.

Today the believers in justice, love, and peace in our world seem to be walking the Via Dolorosa with Christ, and we carry a heavy cross. We too are exhausted; we feel sweat trickle down our faces as we strain to keep speaking truth to power. We too taste blood as the crown of thorns pricks into our skulls, and we are called attention-seeking fools and antisemites—we, who try our best to follow the message of universal love taught by a Jew living in occupied Palestine.

So, what do we do now? The world is dark this Good Friday, and the road is very, very long. We fall, but like Christ, let us pick up our crosses and stand up once again. Let us walk forward, proud to be full of the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us carry the crosses for those who cannot. Yesterday Pope Leo urged us to embrace our mission, even when it requires risk, vulnerability, and suffering. So, pick up your cross and be not afraid.

For despite it all, darkness and death do not win. Our world will be reborn. The resurrection is true, but it cannot happen without sacrificing at least some of our own comfort. Let us truly believe that ultimately what awaits all of us on this Earth is not hell, but heaven; not death, but life; not darkness, but glorious, beatific, and dazzling Light.

Free Palestine, Stop War, Build a New World!

Amen.