The glory of the Lebanon will come to you, cypress, plane-tree, box-tree, one and all, to adorn the site of my sanctuary, for me to honour the place where I stand.
Your oppressors' children will humbly approach you, at your feet all who despised you will fall addressing you as 'City of Yahweh', 'Zion of the Holy One of Israel'.
Instead of your being forsaken and hated, avoided by everyone, I will make you an object of eternal pride, a source of joy from age to age.
You will suck the milk of nations, you will suck the wealth of kings, and you will know that I, Yahweh, am your Saviour, that your redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob.
For bronze I shall bring gold and for iron I shall bring silver, and for wood, bronze, and for stone, iron; I shall make Peace your administration and Saving Justice your government.
Isaiah 60, 13-17
The city of Jerusalem turned into a city of peace and justice: this is the dream that encompasses the whole humanity. This is also God’s dream, as expressed in the prophet’s oracle. Both dreams merge and, indeed, are the same one.
The city of peace and justice is open, common, without borders. It has no walls for defense, rather trees: “the juniper, the fir and the cypress together, to adorn my sanctuary; and I will glorify the place for my feet.” It is Lebanon’s wonderful flora! Trees that attract peoples and signify God’s glory. Peace is God’s glory and, at the same time, it is everybody’s yearning.
Peoples bring their wealth, that is the fruits of peace that flow from their humble and pacified hearts. Peoples are now convinced of the primacy of peace, portrayed as a city where peace and justice coexist: “I will make peace your governor and justice your ruler.”
Hearts are now disarmed, because arrogance, the mother of violence, does not exist anymore. Destruction is no more an aim. A new spirit gathers everybody. War is beaten, because the two sisters, peace and justice, win. Peace and justice embrace, as we embrace today, all brothers of the same God, brothers of our Lord Jesus Christ.
