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GENERAL AUDIENCE
September 12, 2012
More reflections on prayer in the Apocalypse
and a message on the eve of the trip to Lebanon
On Wednesday, the Holy Father continued his reflections on the examples of Christian prayer in the Apocalypse (Revelation), last book of the New Testament, which he began last week, once again flying to the Vatican from Castel Gandolfo to hold his weekly General Audience at the Aula Paolo VI.
Here is how he synthesized the catechesis in English:
In our continuing catechesis on prayer in the Book of Revelation, we now turn to its teaching on the importance of prayer in the Church’s pilgrimage through history.
Prayer enables us to discern the events of history in the light of God’s plan for the spread of his Kingdom. That plan is symbolized by the book closed with seven seals which only the Lamb, the crucified and risen Lord, can open.
In prayer, we see that Christ’s final victory over sin and death is the key to all history. While giving thanks for this victory, we continue to beg God’s grace for our earthly journey. Amid life’s evils, the Lord hears our prayers, strengthens our weakness, and enables us to trust in his sovereign power.
The Book of Revelation concludes with Jesus’s promise that he will soon come, and the Church’s ardent prayer "Come, Lord Jesus!". In our own prayer, and especially in our celebration of the Eucharist, may we grow in the hope of Christ’s coming in glory, experience the transforming power of his grace, and learn to discern all things in the light of faith.
I am pleased to greet the participants in the Communications Seminar sponsored by the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. I also welcome the priests taking part in the Institute for Continuing Theological Education at the Pontifical North American College.
Upon all the English-speaking visitors, including those from England, Scotland, Wales, Denmark, Malta, India, Korea, the Philippines, Canada and the United States of America, I invoke God’s blessings!
He ended the audience with a message delivered in French asking for prayers for his trip to Lebanon starting Friday, and for the peoples of the Middle East.
Dear pilgrims, in two days at around this time, I will be in flight to Lebanon on an apostolic trip for which I rejoice.
It will allow me to encounter the many components of Lebanese society: civil and ecclesial authorities, Catholic faithful of various rites, other Christians, along with the Muslims and Druses of the region.
I thank the Lord for this richness which can only continue if the country lives in peace and permanent reconciliation. That is why I call on all the Christians of the Middle East, whether they are indigenous or recent arrivals, to be builders of the peace and protagonists in reconciliation.
Let us ask God to strengthen the faith of Christians in Lebanon and the Middle East, and to fill them with hope. thank God for their presence in the region and I encourage solidarity in all the Church so that they can continue to bear witness to Christ in these blessed lands while seeking communion in unity.
I thank God for all the persons and all the institutions who, in many ways, are helping them in this sense. The history of the Middle East teaches us the important and often primordial role played by the different Christian communities in inter-cultural and inter-religious dialog.
Let us ask God to give this region of the world the peace that is so desired, with respect for legitimate differences. May God bless Lebanon and the Middle East! May God bless you all!
Here is a full translation of the catechesis:
Dear brothers and sisters,
Last Wednesday, I spoke about prayer in the first part of the Apocalypse. Today, we go to the second part of the book. While, in the first part, prayer was oriented internally towards ecclesial life, in the second part, it is directed to the whole world.
In fact, the Church journeys through history, and is part of it, according to God's plan. The assembly, listening to John's message presented by the reader, has discovered its own mission to collaborate in the progress of the Kingdom of God as "priests of God and of Christ" (Ap 20,6; cfr 1,5; 5,10) and opens to the world of men.
There emerge two ways of dialectical relationship among them. We can define the first as 'the system of Christ', to which the assembly is happy to belong; and the second, 'the earthly anti-Kingdom and anti-Covenant system put in motion by the influence of the Evil One", who, deceiving men, wants to realize a world opposite to that desired by Christ and by God" (cfr Pontifical Biblical Commission, 'Bibbia e Morale. Radici bibliche dell’agire cristiano], 70).
The assembly then had to know how to read in depth the history it was experiencing, learning to discern events with faith in order to collaborate, with its action, in the progress of the Kingdom of God. This task of reading and discernment, as well as that of action, is linked to prayer.
First of all, after the insistent appeal of Christ - who, in the first part of the Apocalypse, said seven times, "Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (cfr Ap 2,7.11.17.29; 3,6.13.22), - the assembly is invited to ascend to heaven to look at reality with the eyes of God. And here, we find three symbols, reference points from which to begin reading history: the throne of God, the Lamb and the book (cfr Ap 4,1 – 5,14).
The first symbol is the throne, on which is seated a figure that John does not describe because it surpasses every human description - he can only indicate the sense of beauty and joy that he experiences when finding himself in front of him.
This mysterious personage is God, almighty God who has not remained closed in his heaven but made himself close to man, entering into a covenant with him. It is God who makes himself felt in history, in a mysterious but real way, his voice symbolized by lighting and thunder.
There are various elements that appear around the throne of God, like the 24 elders and the four living creastures who incessantly praise the one Lord of history.
Thus the throne is the first symbol. The second symbol is the book, which contains the plan of God about events and men. It is hermetically closed by seven seals and no one is able to read it. In the face of this inability of man to scrutinize the plan of God, John feels a profound sadness which brings him to tears.
But there is a remedy to man's disorientation in the face of the mystery of history: someone is able to open the book and to illuminate it.
Here appears the third symbol - Christ, the Lamb immolated in the sacrifice of the Cross, but who is standing, sign of his Resurrection. It is the Lamb - Christ who died and resurrected - who progressively opens the seals and reveals the plan of God, the profound meaning of history.
What do these symbols mean? They tell us how we can read the facts of history and of our own life. Raising pur gaze to God's Heaven, in constant relationship with Christ, opening our heart and our mind to him in personal and communitarian prayer, we learn to see things in a new way and to grasp their truest meaning.
Prayer is like an open window that allows us to have our gaze turned to God, not just to remind us of the goal toward which we are directed, but also to let the will of God illuminate our earthly journey and help us to live it with intensity and commitment.
How does the Lord guide the Christian community to a more profound reading of history? First of all, by inviting it to consider with realism the present that we are experiencing. The Lamb then opens the first four seals of the book, and the Church sees the world into which it has been set, a world in which there are various negative elements.
There are the evils that man does, like violence, which is born from the desire to possess, to prevail over the other to the point of killing each other (second seal); or injustice, when men do not respect the laws that are given to them (third seal). Add to these the evils that man must undergo, like death, hunger, sickness (fourth seal).
In the face of these realities, which are often tragic, the ecclesial community is asked never to lose hope, to believe firmly that the apparent omnipotence of Evil can be counteracted by the true omnipotence of God. The first seal that the Lamb breaks contains this message.
John narrates: "I looked, and there was a white horse, and its rider had a bow. He was given a crown, and he rode forth victorious to further his victories" (Ap 6,2). The power of God has entered the history of man, and is not just able to counteract evil but of defeating it outright.
The color white recalls the Resurrection: God has made himself so near as to descend into the darkness of death to illuminate it with the splendor of his divine life. He has taken the evil of the world upon himself in order to purify the world with the fire of his love.
How can we grow in this Christian reading of reality? The Apocalypse tells us that prayer nourishes this vision of light and profound hope in each of us and in our communities. It invites us not to let ourselves be conquered by evil, but to defeat evil with good, to look towards the Crucified and Risen Christ who associates us with his victory.
The Church lives in history, it is not closed in on herself, but it courageously faces its journey amid sufferings and difficulties, affirming forcefully that evil can definitely not defeat good, darkness cannot obfuscate the splendor of God.
This is an important point for us. As Christians, we can never been pessimists. We know very well that in the journey of our life, we often encounter violence, lies, persecution, but this must not discourage us.
Above all, prayer educates us to see the signs of God, his presence and action, indeed to become ourselves the lights of goodness that spread hope and demonstrate that God triumphs.
This perspective leads us to raise thanksgiving and praise to God and the Lamb. The 24 elders and the four living creatures sing together the 'new canticle' that celebrates the work of Christ the Lamb, who will make "all things new" (Ap 21,5).
But this renewal is first of all a gift we must ask for. Here we find another element which must characterize prayer: to invoke the Lord insistently that his Kingdom may come, that man may have a heart obedient to the lordship of God, that his will may orient our life and that of the world.
In the vision of the Apocalypse, this prayer of request is represented by an important detail: 'the 24 elders' and the 'four living creatures' are holding, besides the harp that accompanies their song, "gold bowls filled with incense" (8b), which, it is explained, "are the prayers of the holy ones" (8a), namely, those who have already reached God, but also we who are still on the way.
We see that before the throne of God, an angel holds a thurible of gold into which he continually places grains of incense - our prayers which rise to the presence of God (cfr Ap 8,1-4). It is a symbolism that tells us how all our prayers - with all the limitations, effort, poverty, aridity and imperfections they may have - arrive as if purified to reach the heart of God.
We can be sure, therefore, that there are no superfluous or useless prayers - no prayer gets lost. They find an answer, even if sometimes mysterious, because God is Love and infinite Mercy.
The angel, writes John, "took the censer, filled it with burning coals from the altar, and hurled it down to the earth. There were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake" (Ap 8,5). This image means that God is not insensitive to our supplications, he intervenes to make his power and his voice felt on earth, it makes the system of Evil tremble and upsets it.
Often, in the face of evil, one has the sensation of not being able to do anything, but it is precisely prayer that is the first and most effective response we can give and which strengthens our daily task of spreading goodness. The power of God makes our weakness fruitful (cfr Rm 8,26-27).
I wish to conclude with a reference to the final dialog (cfr Ap 22,6-21). Jesus says many times: "Behold, I am coming soon" (Ap 22,7.12). This affirmation does not just refer to what will happen at the end of time, but even at present: Jesus comes, dwells in whoever believes in him and welcomes him.
Thus, the assembly, guided by the Holy Spirit, repeats to Jesus its urgent request to make himself ever closer: "Come" (Ap 22,17a). It is like the 'spouse' (22,17) who ardently looks forward to the consummation of marriage. For the third time, the invocation is repeated: "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus" (22,20b). And the reader concludes with an expression that manifests the sense of this presence: "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all" (22,21).
The Apocalypse, even with the complexity of its symbols, involves us in a very rich prayer, so that we, too, may listen, praise, thank and contemplate the Lord, and that we may ask his forgiveness.
The book's structure as a great communitarian liturgical prayer is also a strong call to rediscover the extraordinary and transforming importance of the Eucharist. In particular, I would like to invite you strongly to be faithful to the Holy Mass on the Lord's Day, Sunday, the true center of the week.
The richness of the prayer in the Apocalypse makes us think of a diamond, which has a fascinating array of facets, but whose preciousness lies in the purity of its only central nucleus.
The suggestive forms of prayer that we find in the Apocalypse light up the unique and unsayable preciousness of Jesus Christ. Thank you.
Bottom left photo: The Holy Father with His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, with whom he later had a private audience after the GA.
Now that Daylife has been closed off as a reliable source of newsphotos of papal events, I have had to resort to Vatican Radio's online thumbnail photos, which in itself has become not an easy task, since all of the various language services have now stopped running the slide show of about 8-10 photos that they used to run about each papal event, and have chosen to illustrate an event with just one photograph. Which means that for the photos posted here, I had to go into each and everyone of the language services online to pick up the individual photos (many of them use the same image, so there are not 46 different image) I have reproduced here, with poor resolution because they are all blown up from thumbnails.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 13/09/2012 16:44] |