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1. Every week, in the Liturgy of
Lauds for Friday, we pray Psalm 50, the Miserere, the
pentitential Psalm, that is so much beloved, sung and meditated upon.
It is a hymn raised to the merciful God by the repentant sinner. We
have already had the chance in a previous catechesis to give a general
overview of this great prayer. First of all, the Psalmist enters the
dark region of sin to bring into it the light of human repentance and
divine forgiveness (cf. vv. 3-11). Then he goes on to exalt the gift
of divine grace, that transforms and renews the repentant sinner's
spirit and heart: this is a place of light, full of hope and
confidence (cf. vv. 12-21).
Darkness of sin, light
of hope and confidence in God's mercy
In our reflection, we will comment on
the first part of Psalm 50[51] selecting a few key items for comment.
Right from the beginning, we want to present the marvellous
proclamation of Sinai that is the perfect portrait of God who is
praised in the Miserere: "The Lord, a God merciful and
gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and
faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands of generations,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin" (Ex 34,6-7).
God gives us the grace
to admit the evil of sin
2. The person praying prays to God
first of all for the gift of purification that, as the Prophet Isaiah
said, makes "white as snow" "like wool" our sins
even though they are more like "scarlet" and "red as
crimson" (cf. Is 1,18). The Psalmist confesses his sin candidly,
without hesitation: "I know my transgressions.... Against you,
you only, have I sinned and done that which is evil in your
sight" (Ps 50[51],5-6).
Now there comes into play the personal
conscience of the sinner who is ready to perceive his wrongdoing
honestly. This experience involves freedom and responsibility, and
leads him to admit that he has broken a bond and has preferred to
build a life different from that of the divine Word. The result is a
radical decision to change. All this is contained in the verb
"recognize", that in Hebrew implies not just an intellectual
agreement but also a vital choice.
Unfortunately, many do not make this
step as Origen warns: "There are some who after sinning are
absolutely at peace and give no further thought to their sin; nor are
they troubled by the knowledge of the evil they have committed but
live as though nothing had happened. Such people would certainly not
be able to say: my sin is ever before me. Instead, when,
after committing a sin, one feels miserable and troubled by it, nagged
by remorse, tormented without respite and undergoing inner revolt in
his spirit when he tries to deny it, one rightly exclaims: my sins
give my bones no peace.... Thus when we set before the eyes of
our heart the sins we have committed, when we look at them one by one,
recognize them, blush and repent for what we have done, then, overcome
with remorse and terrified, we can rightly say that there is no peace
in our bones on account of our sins ..." (Origen,
Omelie sui Salmi, Florence, 1991, p. 277-279 [Homilies on the
Psalms]). The admission and consciousness of sin are the fruit of a
sensitivity acquired through the light of God's Word.
Theological concept of
sin: we offend God by betraying him
3. In the confession of the Miserere
there is a noteworthy emphasis: the sin is described not only in
its personal and "psychological" dimension but above all
what is described is the theological reality. "Against you,
against you alone have I sinned" (Ps 50[51],6) exclaims the
sinner, whom tradition claims to be David, conscious of his adultery
with Bathsheba and of the Prophet Nathan's denunciation of this crime
and of the murder of Uriah, her husband (cf. v. 2; II Sm,11-12).
Sin is not just a psychological and
social matter, but an event that corrodes the relationship with God,
violating his law, refusing his plan in history and overturning his
set of values, "putting darkness for light and light for
darkness", in other words, "calling evil good and good
evil" (cf. Is 5,20). Before finally injuring man, sin is first
and foremost a betrayal of God. The words the prodigal son says to his
father, whose love is so abundant, capture it well: "Father, I
have sinned against Heaven (that is, against God) and before you"
(Lk 15,21).
Grace is more powerful
than sin, even than the original sin that affects us
4. At this point the Psalmist
introduces an angle that is more directly connected with human
reality. It is a sentence that has given rise to many interpretations
and has been linked with the doctrine of original sin: "Behold, I
was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me" (Ps 50[51],7). The praying person wants to indicate the
presence of evil in our whole being, as is evident in his mention of
conception and birth, as a way of expressing the entirety of
existence, beginning with its source. However, the Psalmist does not
formally connect his state with the sin of Adam and Eve; he does not
speak explicitly of original sin.
It is still clear, according to the
text of our Psalm, that evil is rooted in man's innermost depths, it
is inherent in his historical reality, so the request for the
mediation of divine grace is crucial. The power of God's love exceeds
that of sin, the forceful river of evil is less powerful than the
fruitful water of forgiveness: "Where sin increased, grace
abounded all the more" (Rom 5,20).
God's grace gives the
ability to face the sin that we hope He will pardon
5. In this way the theology of original
sin and the whole biblical vision of man as a sinner are indirectly
recalled in a way that at the same time gives an intuition into the
light of grace and salvation.
As we will have the chance to discover
later on, when we return to this Psalm and the later verses, the
confession of sin and the consciousness of one's misery do not lead to
terror or the nightmare of judgement, but indeed, to the hope of
purification, liberation and the new creation.
In fact God saves us, "not because
of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy,
by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, whom he
poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour" (Ti
3,5-6).
To the English-speaking pilgrims
and visitors the Holy Father said:
I extend a special greeting to the
young people of Toronto, gathered at the university in a television
link-up with the young people of the University La Sapienza
in Rome. Dear friends, I hope to see many Canadians at the World Youth
Day. Coming together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you will
commit yourselves to being the salt of the earth and the light of the
world.
Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims
and visitors present at today's audience, especially those from
England, Norway, Sweden, India, South Korea, Canada and the United
States of America, I invoke the joy and peace of the Risen Saviour.
At the end of the General Audience,
John Paul II asked everyone present to pray for the success of the
Special Session of the General Assembly of the UN on children. The
three day summit is focusing on the improvement of children's
situation worldwide.
Today in New York the General
Assembly of the UN is beginning a special session on children. The
important meeting calls attention to the scourges that continue to
afflict little children, the precious but also vulnerable treasure
of the human family. I am thinking of the wars, the poverty, the
abuses and injustice of every kind of which they are the victims.
In these days in which
representatives of countries from around the world are meeting to
reflect on the conditions in which little children have to live, I
invite everyone to pray for the success of these deliberations. I
also hope that this important meeting may call forth a renewed
commitment of the international community in favour of children, so
that every type of social action that affects them may be inspired
by a genuine promotion of human dignity and full respect of their
fundamental rights. |
