From whatever perspective I consider this holy solemnity that we observe today, the picture of what happened long ago at the reestablishment of the temple of Jerusalem comes to mind: two very different experiences. On the one hand there was peace and blessing, and on the other mourning and contrition, sadness and joy, affliction and consolation, weeping and triumphant singing mixed together. Indeed, if I consider the reason we have come together, it is on the one hand to give thanks to God for so many favors that his paternal hands have shed on these blessed Provinces [of the Netherlands]. Who doubts that this is not reason for great joy? But we are also gathered together no less in order to lament the sad ravages that one of the most important sections of our mystical Zion³ has suffered and continues to suffer. Who could not see that here is the victim of the most raw and profound suffering that anyone can imagine? If then I lift my eyes on the people who make up this assembly I find both: some in good circumstances and some in bad circumstances, some in prosperity and some in calamity. And what is even more remarkable, is that I find people in these situations not separated out as were the darkness and the light when they divided the camp of the Israelites and that of the Egyptians, but I find them thrown together and mixed with each other through the admirable effect of our mutual love. “The love of Jesus Christ constrains us,” says Saint Paul. That is to say, that it ties us together, bonds us together and unites one with another. This is a wise saying of which you and I are today the living proof.

Romans 8:28-31 (KJV) "28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 31 What shall we then say to these things? If God [be] for us, who [can be] against us?"