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Pope Benedict XVI- Audiences |
General
Audience
“If I forget you, Jerusalem”
H.H. Benedict
XVI
November 30, 2005
www.zenit.org
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
1. On this first
Wednesday of Advent, a liturgical season of silence, watchfulness
and prayer in preparation for Christmas, let us meditate on Psalm
137[136], whose first words in the Latin version became famous:
Super flumina Babylonis. The text evokes the tragedy lived by
the Jewish people during the destruction of Jerusalem in about 586
B.C., and their subsequent and consequent exile in Babylon. We have
before us a national hymn of sorrow, marked by a curt nostalgia for
what has been lost.
This heartfelt
invocation to the Lord to free his faithful from slavery in Babylon
also expresses clearly the sentiments of hope and expectation of
salvation with which we have begun our journey through Advent.
The background
to the first part of the Psalm (cf. vv. 1-4) is the land of exile
with its rivers and streams, indeed, the same that irrigated the
Babylonian plain to which the Jews had been deported. It is, as it
were, a symbolic foreshadowing of the extermination camps to which
the Jewish people - in the century we have just left behind us -
were taken in an abominable operation of death that continues to be
an indelible disgrace in the history of humanity.
The second part
of the Psalm (cf. vv. 5-6) is instead pervaded by the loving memory
of Zion, the city lost but still alive in the exiles' hearts.
2. The hand,
tongue, palate, voice and tears are included in the Psalmist's
words. The hand is indispensable to the harp-player: but it is
already paralyzed (cf. v. 5) by grief, also because the harps are
hung up on the poplars.
The tongue is
essential to the singer, but now it is stuck to the palate (cf. v.
6). In vain do the Babylonian captors "ask... for songs..., songs...
of joy" (v. 3). "Zion's songs" are "song[s] of the Lord" (vv. 3-4),
not folk songs to be performed. Only through a people's liturgy and
freedom can they rise to Heaven.
3. God, who is
the ultimate judge of history, will also know how to understand and
accept, in accordance with his justice, the cry of victims, over and
above the tones of bitterness that sometimes colours them.
Let us entrust
ourselves to St Augustine for a further meditation on our Psalm. The
great Father of the Church introduces a surprising and very timely
note: he knows that there are also people among the inhabitants of
Babylon who are committed to peace and to the good of the community,
although they do not share the biblical faith; the hope of the
Eternal City to which we aspire is unknown to them. Within them they
have a spark of desire for the unknown, for the greater, for the
transcendent: for true redemption.
And Augustine
says that even among the persecutors, among the non-believers, there
are people who possess this spark, with a sort of faith or hope, as
far as is possible for them in the circumstances in which they live.
With this faith, even in an unknown reality, they are truly on their
way towards the true Jerusalem, towards Christ.
And with this
openness of hope, Augustine also warns the "Babylonians" - as he
calls them -, those who do not know Christ or even God and yet
desire the unknown, the eternal, and he warns us too, not to focus
merely on the material things of the present but to persevere on the
journey to God. It is also only with this greater hope that we will
be able to transform this world in the right
way. St Augustine says so in these words:
"If we are
citizens of Jerusalem... and must live in this land, in the
confusion of this world and in this Babylon where we do not dwell as
citizens but are held prisoner, then we should not just sing what
the Psalm says but we should also live it: something that is done
with a profound, heartfelt aspiration, a full and religious yearning
for the eternal city".
And he
adds with regard to the "earthly city called Babylon", that it "has
in it people who, prompted by love for it, work to guarantee it
peace - temporal peace - nourishing in their hearts no other hope,
indeed, by placing in this one all their joy, without any other
intention. And we see them making every effort to be useful to
earthly society".
"Now, if they
strive to do these tasks with a pure conscience, God, having
predestined them to be citizens of Jerusalem, will not let them
perish within Babylon: this is on condition, however, that while
living in Babylon, they do not thirst for ambition, short-lived
magnificence or vexing arrogance.... He sees their enslavement and
will show them that other city for which they must truly long and
towards which they must direct their every effort" (Esposizioni
sui Salmi, 136, 1-2: Nuova Biblioteca Agostiniana,
XXVIII, Rome, 1977, pp. 397, 399).
And let us pray
to the Lord that in all of us this desire, this openness to God,
will be reawakened, and that even those who do not know Christ may
be touched by his love so that we are all together on the pilgrimage
to the definitive City, and that the light of this City may appear
also in our time and in our world.
[To special
groups:]
I offer a warm
welcome to the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at
today's Audience, and in particular to the various student groups.
May this Advent be for all of you a time of reflection, prayer and
joyful expectation in preparation for the mystery of Christmas. Upon
you and your families I cordially invoke God's abundant Blessings of
joy and peace.
Lastly, I greet
the young people, the sick and the newly-weds.
May the Apostle St Andrew, whose feast we are celebrating today, be
for you all a model of the faithful following of Christ and
of a courageous Gospel witness.
I offer a warm
welcome to the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at
today’s Audience, and in particular to the various student groups.
May this Advent be for all of you a time of reflection, prayer and
joyful expectation in preparation for the mystery of Christmas. Upon
you and your families I cordially invoke God’s abundant blessings of
joy and peace.
Appeal of the
Holy Father
Tomorrow, 1
December, is World AIDS Day, a United Nations initiative planned to
call attention to the scourge of AIDS and to invite the
International Community to a renewed commitment in the work of
prevention and supportive assistance to those afflicted. The figures
published are alarming!
Closely
following Christ's example, the Church has always considered care of
the sick as an integral part of her mission. I therefore encourage
the many initiatives promoted especially by the Ecclesial Community
to rout this disease, and I feel close to persons with AIDS and
their families, invoking for them the help and comfort of the Lord.
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2005 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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