In this time of Easter, it is difficult to address simple vows as if the world were going well, as if our region were not overwhelmed, as if the peoples of the Middle East had not crossed, once again, their share of fire, mourning and anguish. However, it may be precisely in such moments that these words must be said. Happy Easter. Not by convenience. But because we must continue to wish the light where the darkness has settled too long.
Easter is not a light party. This is not a decorative parenthesis in the calendar. It is a feast of the resurrection, i.e. the victory of life over death, hope over crushing, uplifting on falling. In a region that has seen so many destructions, so many coffins, so much buried by innocent people, this message has nothing to say. On the contrary, it resonates with a particular force.
The Middle East does not need hollow discourse. He does not need compassion of circumstance, nor repeated formulas at a distance. He needs to finally stop this endless series of misfortunes. He needs war, bombing, displacement, humiliation, fear of the next day. He needs the children to stop learning the noise of the strikes before the bells. He needs mothers to cry less of their dead. He needs the peoples of this region to finally breathe without feeling that every day can change a life.
Wishing for happy Easter holidays this year is therefore more than a religious celebration. It’s a wish for a night out. It is to hope that the resurrection is not only a spiritual promise, but also a human and political hope for societies that are bruised. It is hope that the time will come when we can speak of the future without cynicism, of peace without irony, of coexistence without naivety.
There is a simple and immense idea in the resurrection: nothing obliges man to stay locked in the tomb of violence. Nothing obliges nations to make war a permanent horizon. There is nothing to force people to get used to suffering. Unhappiness is not a historical fatality. Tragedy is not a regional destiny. And that is perhaps what we must remember today, with gravity but without giving up hope.
To all those who, in Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, and more broadly in the exhausted Middle East, go through the test, Libnanews addresses a simple but profound wish: that this Passover mark a beginning. Let the time of the ruins finally recede. May sadness cease to be the ordinary language of this region. Let the tears shed tomorrow be tears of joy, not of evil.
For a feast of the resurrection cannot only be the memory of an ancient victory. It must also carry a promise for the present. The one that life can return to where everything seemed lost. The one that joy can take its place. The people of the Middle East, so often condemned to bear the cross of history, also have the right to recovery, dignity and peace.
Happy Easter. And finally, for our region, let the time of resurrection come.
