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'If I forget you, Jerusalem'
Pray and work so that a desire for God may receive
fresh emphasis in our world, leading to the building of Christ's Kingdom
here on earth.
At the General Audience in St Peter's Square on Wednesday, 30
November, the Holy Father commented on Psalm 137[136]:1-6, a lament over
the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian Exile. The Pope evoked
the captivity of the Jews in Babylon as symbolically foreshadowing the
extermination camps of the last century, "an abominable operation of
death", he said, "that continues to be an indelible disgrace in the
history of humanity". The following is a translation of the Pope's
Catechesis, 70th in the series on Evening Prayer and given in Italian.
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[1361, 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.
Grief dampens a singing mood
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
nonbelievers, 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.
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