GENERAL AUDIENCE: INVITATION TO PRAISE GOD FOR HIS LOVE

VATICAN CITY, NOV 28, 2001 (VIS) - In today's general audience, held in the Paul VI Hall, John Paul II spoke on Psalm 116, an invitation to praise God for His love.

The Pope affirmed that this shortest of all the Psalms exalts "the covenant between God and His people, within a universal context," since it "is not addressed only to Israel, but to all the peoples of the earth. ... We could, therefore, speak of an 'ecumenism' of prayer, embracing all peoples with their different origins, histories and cultures."

"Israel, the chosen people," he continued, "has a mission to fulfill in this universal horizon. It must proclaim two great divine virtues it has experienced in living the covenant with the Lord." The first virtue is that of "profound sentiments between two persons, united by an authentic and steadfast bond. It embraces, therefore, values such as love, fidelity, mercy, goodness, tenderness." The second is "the 'truth', that is, the genuineness of a relationship, its authenticity and loyalty. ... The faithful love of God will never lessen and He will not abandon us to ourselves or to the obscurity of senselessness, of blind destiny, of emptiness, or of death."

The Holy Father emphasized that "God loves us with an unconditional love, which never tires, and which is never extinguished. This is the message of our Psalm, as brief almost as an ejaculation, but as intense as a great canticle."

"Let us praise, therefore, the Lord! Let us praise Him without tiring. Yet may our praise be expressed with our lives, before our words."

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