VATICAN - The Pope’s catechesis at the general audience: “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfil the scripture: ‘He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.” (Jn 13,18).

Wednesday, 2 June 2004

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Vatican City (Fides Agency) - continuing on his cycle of catecheses on the Liturgy of the Vespers, the Holy Father John Paul II commented on Psalm 40, The Prayer of a Sick Person, during the today’s general audience (Reading: Ps 40, 2.5-6.10.13-14).
“I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfil the scripture: 'He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.” (Jn 13,18). This sentence from the Psalm is actually the plea of a sick person abandoned by his friends. In this ancient prayer, Christ finds the feelings and the words, which express his profound sorrow.
Psalm 40 opens with a beatitude - the Holy Father continues. Its addressee is the true friend, the one “who has regard for the weak”: for he shall be rewarded by the Lord on the day of his suffering, when he will be “on his bed of illness”.
"O Lord, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you." (v.5; cf. Ps 37): these are the words at the beginning of the sick person’s prayer, (cf. vv 5-10) he asks God for forgiveness.
There is profound bitterness, when it is “the friend”, the trusted friend that strikes us, literally called in Hebrew “the man of peace”. The prayer of Psalm 40, however, does not end against such a dark background. The person praying is sure that God shall appear on his horizon, revealing all his love once again (cf. vv. 11-14). He shall offer his support and take the sick person in his arms, and the Lord shall “set him in his presence forever” (v. 13). According to the language of the Bible, this means to experience once again the Liturgy in the temple.
Though marked by sorrow, the Psalm ends with a glimmer of light and hope. “Blessed are those who think of the misery and poverty of Christ, who was rich and made himself poor for our sake; rich in his kingdom, poor in flesh, because he took upon himself the flesh of a poor person…
(AP) (2/6/2004 Fides Agency; lines: 27 words: 359)