VATICAN CITY, NOV 16, 2005 (VIS) - In the general audience, held this morning in St. Peter's Square, the Holy Father spoke on the second part of Psalm 135, "thanksgiving for God's salvation."
The Pope told the 22,000 pilgrims gathered in the square that, if the first part of the psalm proclaims "faith in God the Creator, Who reveals Himself through His works of creation," this second half leads us to "the presence of God ... in the history of salvation." This presence is made manifest in the exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the journey through the desert. "Desert and sea," said the Pope, "represent the passage through evil and oppression to receive the gift of freedom and of the promised land."
"During the time of 'humiliation' - in other words, the later trials and oppression - Israel would always encounter the saving hand of the God of freedom and love."
Benedict XVI highlighted the fact that in Psalm 135 "two modalities of the one divine revelation are intertwined: the cosmic, and the historical. The Lord is, of course, transcendent as the Creator and Arbiter of existence, but He is also near to His creatures, entering into space and time. Indeed, His presence among us reaches its pinnacle in the Incarnation of Christ."
This is testified by the Church Fathers, said Benedict XVI, "they see the apex of the history of salvation, and the supreme sign of the Father's merciful love, in the gift of the Son as Savior and Redeemer of humanity."
Concluding his prepared text, the Pope recalled St. Cyprian who, in his tractate on "Works of Charity and Alms-giving," contemplates "the great deeds God has accomplished for His people in Christ." In off-the-cuff remarks, the Holy Father then added: "With these words, the holy doctor of the Church adds something to what the psalmist said: that the true gift of the Son of God is the gift of the Incarnation, in which He gave Himself to us, and which remains with us in the Eucharist, in His Word, every day until the end of history."
"We often run the risk of our memory of the evil we have suffered being stronger than our memory of good. The psalm awakens our recollection of goodness, of all the good the Lord has done and continues to do, that we may finally know what the psalmist so joyfully says: the truth that God's mercy is eternal, it is present day after day."
Among his greetings at the end of the audience, Benedict XVI addressed delegates from the Italian Movement for Life, whom he thanked "for your thirty years of service in promoting and defending the right to life and the dignity of each human person, from conception to natural death. Committing yourselves to preventing voluntary abortions, with attentive activities in support of women and families, you help to write pages of hope for the future of humanity, giving concrete proclamation to the 'Gospel of Life'."
AG/PSALM 135/... VIS 20051116 (520)
