Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - In his reflection addressed to some 20,000 visitors at the Wednesday audience this morning in St Peter’s Square Pope Benedict XVI focused on Psalm 137 (“thanksgiving”) - vespers Tuesday week 4.
The psalmist starts with a personal hymn to “God who is in heaven with his court of angels but who is also attentive to the earthly space of time”. For an instant the psalmist looks back at past times of suffering when the voice of the Lord answered the call of his faithful infusing courage in his troubled soul. The psalmist then broadens his gaze over the world, “imagining that his witness involves the entire horizon … in a common act of praise in honour of the Lord’s greatness and sovereign power”.
“The contents of this choral praise which rises up from all peoples has as its first theme the «glory» and the «paths of the Lord» - the Holy Father said -, that is, his plans for salvation and his revelation, discovering thus that God is certainly «Most High» and transcendent, but «He looks on the lowly» with affection, and turns his face away from the proud in a sign of rejection and judgement … therefore God chooses to take sides to defend the weak, the victims, the ‘nobodies’: and this fact is conveyed to all kings that they might know which option to choose in governing their nations.”
The psalmist returns then to his hymn of praise imploring God’s help during future trials. Despite the many hostilities which may face him on his journey through history, the just man knows the Lord will never abandon him. “We must be certain that however burdensome and stormy are the trials that await us, we will never be left alone, we will never fall from the Lord's hands, the hands that created us and now follow us on life's itinerary”.
At the end of the audience, after giving summaries of his teaching in a number of different languages including English, the Pope greeted a few special groups including participants at a Convention or organised by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy to mark the 40th anniversary of the Vatican II decree Presbyterorum ordinis: “Dear Brothers this Council Document was a milestone of fundamental importance in the life of the Church with regard to reflection on the nature and characteristics of the ministerial priesthood which configures priests to Jesus Christ, head and shepherd of his people. In his image and at his service priests must give their life for the glory of God and the salvation of souls”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 7/12/2005, righe 28, parole 423)
