CNN NEWS: THE POPE'S SERMON ON THE MOUNT
JOHN PAUL URGES CHRISTIANS TO TURN AWAY FROM VIOLENCE

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Pope John Paul II looked out over an ocean of faces on a hillside next to the Sea of Galilee on Friday and urged reconciliation in a land fraught with conflict and violence.

"The Ten Commandments ... speak of truth and goodness, of grace and freedom, of all that is necessary to enter into Christ's kingdom," the pontiff said to as many as 100,000 faithful who listened with rapt attention to his words. "Now it is your turn to be courageous apostles of that kingdom."

The 79-year-old pontiff spoke on the Mount of Beatitudes, the site believed to have been used by Jesus for his Sermon on the Mount, one of Christianity's most beloved passages.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," Jesus' sermon began, according to the Gospel of Matthew.

John Paul warned in his homily of a second voice, contradictory to that of Christianity's founder, which he said insists: "Blessed are the proud and the violent, those who prosper at any cost, those who are unscrupulous, prisoners, devils, who make war, not peace, and persecute those who stand in their way."

That exhortation, he said, was not true, and Jesus' words hold as much power today as they did 2,000 years ago. Resist the voice of evil, he urged.

"It is strange that Jesus exalts those whom the world generally regards as weak. He says to them: 'Blessed are you who seem to be losers, because you are the true winners: The kingdom of heaven is yours,'" the pope said. "These words present a challenge which demands ... a great change of heart."

John Paul remained in Galilee after the Mass to visit the sites of several of the miracles related in the Bible, as well as Capernaum, where the apostle Paul is said to have lived.

John Paul closed the day in a short meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who briefed the pontiff on the Middle East peace process. After the meeting, Barak commented on the significance of the pope's visit.

"I believe the visit of the pope to Israel became of immense historic importance, a major step toward reconciliation between the Jewish people and Christianity and it carried with it a very important message about peace and tolerance and compassion, not just among human beings but among nations," he said.

The pontiff's visit to Israel is significant in its own right -- it is the first visit by a pope to the Holy Land since Pope Paul VI in 1964, and John Paul's first to Israel since Israel and the Vatican normalized relations in 1994.

The pope has repeatedly pressed the issue of cooperation and reconciliation among the three major religions that call the Holy Land sacred, while stressing that his visit to the region is spiritual in nature and not political.

But the politics could not be kept far away.

The pontiff has followed in the footsteps of Christianity's founder throughout his Middle East trip, while trying to bind the wounds of religious strife that have bled for so much of the region's history.

On Thursday, John Paul celebrated Mass at the traditional site of Jesus' Last Supper and made a moving appearance at Yad Vashem, Israel's hilltop Holocaust memorial, where the ashes of Holocaust victims are enshrined.

Some Jews were disappointed that he did not directly apologize for the Church's inaction during World War II during his remarks at the memorial, but most were impressed with his vivid message of solidarity with the victims of Nazi atrocities.

The pastoral turn to his tour, among the green hills where the Gospels tell of Christ performing miracles, preaching to the multitudes and gathering his disciples, was in sharp contrast to the tumult of the pontiff's last two days in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Jerusalem's grand mufti, Sheik Ikrima Sabri -- the city's top Muslim cleric -- announced he would boycott an interfaith appearance with the pope at a Catholic institute. Then, Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Meir Lau thanked John Paul for something he had not done: endorsing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The Vatican has not endorsed Israel's claim to the entire city, the eastern portion of which was captured in the 1967 Mideast War. Lau's claim provoked shouts from Muslim members of the audience, and a Palestinian judge who represented the Muslim community delivered a bitter speech directed at Israel.

Each new broadside diminished hopes for dialogue, and the pontiff buried his head in his hand. The last to speak, John Paul reminded those in the auditorium that they had come "to pray for the peace of Jerusalem."

Explicitly condemning the violence that has plagued and stalled the Middle Eastern peace process, the pope said that "religion is not and must not become an excuse for the violence."

On Saturday, the penultimate day of his pilgrimage, John Paul travels to Nazareth, where he will attend a prayer ceremony at the Grotto of the Basilica of the Annunciation.

Nazareth, the boyhood home of Jesus, is another flashpoint for religious conflict. Christians and Muslims there are at odds over a mosque -- approved by Israel -- to be built on the plaza that holds the Basilica. Muslims who have been praying at a makeshift mosque on the site vow to continue their prayers when the pope arrives.

On Friday, church bells interrupted the prayers, stopping Sheikh Nazim just before he began his sermon. The worshippers sat in silence -- much as Christian worshippers had done on Wednesday when the Muslim call for prayer rang out during the pope's Mass -- until the bells, which were ringing for the Feast of the Annunciation, stopped.

Nazim took the interruption in stride.

"We welcome (the pope) to Nazareth," he told those waiting to hear his words. "We are ready to receive him. Tomorrow we must keep everything calm because there will be a lot of tourists coming to Nazareth and we will convey to them an idea of Islam."