Hope will prevail

In the week between the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of the Holy Trinity, the Lord granted us the opportunity to take part in a simple event, but a very special one for the city of Jerusalem. The children of the Saint Rachel Center played two football games against the children of the Beit Hanina Parish.

On the sunny soccer field, children aged five to fourteen, dressed with white, blue and orange jerseys, full of energy, met together with the desire to give their best in order to "knock out" the opponent. The first match took place between the youngest children, aged up to nine, who were organized in two mixed teams. As soon as the coach-referee whistled the kick-off, the young athletes started running without sparing themselves, with the only goal of winning. The strength of the sport and the liveliness of the children overcame all linguistic barriers and allowed the little ones to organize themselves quickly, in a harmonious and involving game, that ended after 45 minutes in a beautiful 2-2 draw.

In the second game, the older boys teams had to face one another, being divided according to the origin: the boys of Beit Hanina against those of the Saint Rachel Center. Considering the age of the players, their language and their different origins, it was possible to perceive a different kind of tension animating the players, who were inhabited by a certain pride and the desire to challenge and prove that they are the best. Actually, the match was a bit more "inflamed" between the players and towards the referee, and it ended with a score of 3-1.

Who won???

We won't tell you! It will remain a secret in our heart and in the heart of our children.

But we can tell you that, in that same afternoon, those who prevailed were the hope, the joy and the welcoming attitude, resulting from the desire to meet that was cultivated silently and tenaciously for over a year. On that football field there were no longer Arabic speaking or Hebrew speaking children, divided by a story that preceded them, and whose burden they often bear, there were only young players happy to have an opportunity to live a new experience and to be together.

Precisely, on the eve of Pentecost, our Bishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa exhorted us saying: "Only if we are conquered by the love of Christ, we can contribute to the construction of new models of coexistence. I am convinced that our Church has a special vocation and a mission, within the one Church of Christ spread throughout the world: to witness that it is possible to live and build relationships of peace even in the midst of conflicts, tensions and divisions of all kinds, even when it seems that talking about hope is just a slogan ".

Yes, it is possible to build relationships of peace, even starting from a simple ball and a soccer field. We want to believe it strongly, expecting that these little ones will become the men of tomorrow, men conquered by the love of Christ."