The Cross and the Pieta. The Passion of Palestine

Michelangelo's Pieta, the larger-than-life sculpture of the crucified Christ held tenderly in Mother Mary's lap, has attracted visitors to Rome since it was installed in the old St. Peter's Basilica more than 500 years ago.

Contemplation of the Pieta gifts one with the powerful presence of sacrifice and divine acceptance, life summoned from stone, transcending death. Christians approach Good Friday with two powerful remembrances: Christ's sacrifice and redemption on The Cross, and the acceptance, love and compassion expressed through The Pieta.

Countless images emerging from Gaza, of the sudden deaths of children, by bombing, shrapnel, gunshots, and grieving parents evoke modern day Pietas, occurring with terrible frequency. Unlike Michaelangelo's crucified Christ, the dead children are seldom intact.

They are horribly mangled and disfigured, limbless, headless, often identified by a scrap of clothing. Yet, the bereaved parents, holding what is left of their child wrapped in white shroud, look to the heavens, and, resonating with divine grace and acceptance recite "Allah Akbar," God is Great.

The forbearance, the courage under fire, the suffering of the people of Gaza in the face of the relentless and cowardly bombing attack which seeks to exterminate them has awakened the moral conscience of people all over the world.

As my own attention is riveted to the daily massacres in Gaza, to the graphic videos of extraordinary human suffering sent to me, I find myself filled with a deep sense of anguish at witnessing the collective punishment, the death and destruction of innocents and, equally, the loss of humanity of the perpetrators, which leads us all into an eternal Valley of Shadows.

The feeling of grief at what is unfolding before our eyes is unshakable, at times unbearable, and I know I am not alone in sensing this.

It is not only Gaza which is dying.

Our country is dying, from indifference, distraction and crass political calculations which justify mass murder on the installment plan...

It is not only Gaza which is dying.

Our country is dying, from indifference, distraction and crass political calculations which justify mass murder on the installment plan, with the remorseless, clipped reduction: "They are human shields!" Or, for those mired in genocidal sanctimony: "Kill the children before they become terrorists."

And so, the children of Gaza are being killed, by the tens of thousands. Videos of those deceased children whose bodies were not mangled, show they were obviously well cared for by their families, some dressed smartly, some dead in their resplendent Eid finery, the boys with neat haircuts and the girls, long hair, beautifully combed, with colorful bows.

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