Wednesday, May 12, 2004

GENERAL AUDIENCE: GOD HAS FREED US FROM THE FEAR OF DEATH


VATICAN CITY, MAY 12, 2004 (VIS) - During today's general audience in St. Peter's Square, the Pope's catechesis focused on Psalm 29 "Gratitude at being freed from death."

  John Paul II said that the psalm invites us to give thanks to God "who has freed us from the fear of death. ... The night of death has passed and the dawn of a new day breaks. Christian tradition has therefore read this psalm as a paschal hymn. The psalmist repeatedly addresses the Lord ... in order to announce that he will praise Him as well as to recall the cry to Him in the time of trial and his liberating intervention, and to invoke once again His mercy."

  "Emotions," he continued, "vacillate between terrible memories of the trial and the joy of liberation. ... The vision of life which continues has overshadowed death."

  The Holy Father indicated that the psalm "teaches us that we must never be ensnared into the dark confusion of despair when everything seems to be lost.  Of course, we also cannot fall into the trap of believing that we can save ourselves on our own, with our own resources. The psalmist is tempted by pride and self-sufficiency 'I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved'."

  "The Fathers of the Church taught us," he added, "that this is a temptation that comes in times of well-being and they saw a divine call to humility in times of tribulation."

  The Pope concluded by affirming that "aspiration to victory has always continued to be present despite everything, and has become, in the end, a hope for resurrection.  Satisfaction for this powerful aspiration has been fully ensured with Christ's Resurrection which we can never thank God enough for."
AG/PSALM 29/...               VIS 20040512 (310)


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