GENERAL AUDIENCE: THE LORD SUSTAINS THOSE WHO TRUST IN HIM

VATICAN CITY, MAY 30, 2001 (VIS) - During the catechesis of today's general audience, held in St. Peter's Square, the Pope explained the significance of the words of Psalm 5: "In the morning Thou dost hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for Thee, and watch."

The words of the Psalm, the Holy Father said, are "the song of the faithful at the beginning of the day. The underlying tone of this supplication is marked by tension and anxiety arising from impending danger and disappointment."

John Paul II recalled that in the Psalms of "supplication" three people appear. "Above all 'God' appears, the 'Thou' par excellance of the Psalm, to whom the person praying addresses himself with faith. ... The Lord is a consistent God, rigorous in confronting injustice," who is on the side "of those who follow the ways of truth and love."

The second person, he continued, is "the one praying, (who) presents himself as 'I'," and entrusts himself to God and to "His 'great mercy'. He is certain that the doors of the temple, the place of communion and divine intimacy, impeded by the impious, are opened wide before him."

The Pope then noted that the "third actor of this daily drama: are the 'enemies,' the 'evildoers' ... a hostile group, the symbol of evil in the world."

"After this harsh and realistic picture of the perversity which attacks the just, the Psalmist invokes divine condemnation in a verse (v.11), which the Christian liturgy omits, wishing in this way to conform to the New Testament revelation of merciful love, which offers also to the wicked the possibility of conversion. The prayer of the Psalmist recognizes at this point an ending full of light and peace, after the dark profile of the sinner."

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