Jonathan Clark, the Bishop of Croydon, tonight issued a Holy Week message which called for hope to triumph over the hate provoked by the terrorist bombings in Brussels.

Bishop Jonathan Clark: issued special Holy Week message after Brussels bombings. Picture by Lee Townsend

Hatred, Bishop Clark wrote, “leads to the success of the suicide bomber”.

He added: “The more difficult path is for anger to become the passionate search for justice, and its cousin peace.”

By 11pm on Tuesday, the death toll in the Belgian capital had reached 31, with hundreds more innocent people seriously injured after explosions at the airport and at a metro station in the city.

Holy Week is the most important time in the Christian calendar, culminating in Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and Bishop Clark referenced the message of Easter in an article posted on his personal blog.

“Three men it would seem sacrificed themselves as suicide bombers,” Clark wrote. “A sacrifice built on hatred of European culture, a sacrifice that desires to spawn yet more hatred, and its cousin fear. This seed seeks to die in order to make a harvest as horrible as itself, hundreds of times over.

“I can’t condemn anyone for anger at a time like this. It’s because I know well what anger is like that I pray that it may not set hard into hatred. That way leads to the success of the suicide bomber. The more difficult path is for anger to become the passionate search for justice, and its cousin peace.

“That is the way of the cross. If we can walk in it, even falteringly, we are beginning to take the seeds of hate and transform them into love.”

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