VATICAN CITY, NOV 30, 2005 (VIS) - More than 23,000 people participated in the general audience, held this morning in St. Peter's Square, during which the Holy Father continued his catechesis on the Psalms.
"On this first Wednesday of Advent, the liturgical period of silence, vigil and prayer in preparation for Christmas, we consider Psalm 136 ... 'on the rivers of Babylon'," said the Pope. "It evokes the tragedy experienced by the Jewish people during the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, and their deportation to Babylon."
"This heartfelt invocation to the Lord to free His faithful from slavery," Benedict XVI continued, "also expresses the feelings of hope and expectation of salvation with which we began our Advent journey. The backdrop to the first part of the psalm is the land of exile with its rivers and canals, the rivers and canals that irrigated the Babylonian plain where the Jews had been deported; almost a symbolic foreshadowing of the death camps in which, last century, the Jewish people underwent the infamous operation of extermination that has remained as an indelible mark of shame in the history of humanity."
"God, Who is the ultimate arbiter of history, will know how to understand and accept, according to His justice, the cries of the victims, despite the harsh tones they sometimes assume," he went on.
In elucidating the psalm, the Pope also referred to a meditation on the subject by St. Augustine in which, he said, "the great Father of the Church introduces a surprising note: he knows that even among the inhabitants of Babylon there are people committed to peace and goodness, though without sharing the biblical faith. In the end, then, God will lead those people to the heavenly Jerusalem, rewarding them for their pure consciences."
"God will not allow them to perish with Babylon, having predestined them as citizens of Jerusalem, on the condition, however, that, living in Babylon, they do not promote its pride, its grandeur or its overweening arrogance."
At the end of the audience, the Pope greeted a group of Italian prison chaplains, thanking them for the "valuable ministry" they carry out "with evangelical charity alongside those in prison; I give assurances of my prayers for each one of you, and for everyone in institutes of detention, to whom I send my most affectionate greetings."
AG/PSALM 136/... VIS 20051130 (400)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment