GOD COMBATS EVIL IN HISTORY

VATICAN CITY, MAY 21, 2003 (VIS) - In today's general audience which took place in St. Peter's Square, John Paul II dedicated his catechesis to Psalm 143: A king's prayer for victory and peace. Twenty-thousand people were in attendance.

The psalm, said the Pope, "has the attributes of a royal hymn ... King David speaks in the first person and recognizes the divine origin of his victories. The Lord, according to ancient custom, is presented to us with warlike images: ... stalwart fortress, a protective shield, a victor. God's personality is exalted in this way as He combats evil in history; His is not a dark power, a sort of destiny, nor is He a sovereign who is impassive and indifferent to human events."

"In the face of divine power," the Holy Father explained, "the Jewish king realizes that he is fragile and weak as all human creatures are ... Only with divine assistance can we overcome the dangers and difficulties that mark every day of our life. Only by counting on the help of heaven can we ... walk toward freedom from oppression."

"Divine intervention is depicted with traditional universal and historical images that illustrate divine reign over the universe and human events. This is a concrete, Eastern way of representing evil, perversions, oppression and injustice, tremendous realities which the Lord frees us from while we advance in the world."

Referring later to the end of the psalm, which concludes with a hymn of thanksgiving because the Lord grants victory to those who have "consecrated" themselves to Him, John Paul II recalled that this word in Hebrew is 'Messiah' and he emphasized that as Christians we repeat this hymn with "our gaze fixed on Christ who frees us from every evil and sustains us in the battle against hidden, perverse powers."

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