In an essay drawn from his preface to 'No Guilty Bystander,' a biography of Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton, the late peace activist reflects on life lessons and expresses gratitude.

Bishop Gumbleton became a national religious figure in the 1960s when he was urged by activist priests to oppose the U.S. role in the Vietnam War. He was a founding leader of Pax Christi USA, an American Catholic peace movement.

Pope Francis appealed for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza after the killing of seven aid workers and the bombing of the Iranian consulate, warning against the war’s escalation.

Right there at the cross, in Jesus, our humanity doesn’t fall beyond its edges. Even there, even then, he continues to love. And even in that dense darkness—or loneliness—that he experiences as a human being, he doesn’t let himself forget that he is loved too.

While some children have been evacuated from conflict, more than 1.1 million children in Gaza and 3.7 million in Haiti have been left behind to face the rampaging adult world around them.

Easter will not be postponed this year. It will not wait until the war is over. It is precisely now, in our darkest hour, that resurrection finds us.