Benedict XVI's General Audience: Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Vatican City ^ | December 28, 2005 | Benedict XVI

[ELS]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As we celebrate the Octave of Christmas and the Feast of the Holy Innocents, we again focus our attention on Psalm 138. This hymn of praise proposes a theme that deeply resonates with the spirit of Christmas, when we commemorate the great mystery of the Son of God made man for our salvation. The second part of this psalm offers a meditation on God's all-encompassing loving gaze upon human beings. In order to describe the divine action within a mother's womb, the psalmist refers to classic biblical images. In particular, we see the Creator represented as a potter and sculptor who fashions his masterpiece from the "dust of the ground". Extremely powerful is the idea that from the moment of our conception God already sees the future: in the Lord's book of life the experiences of our earthly existence are already written. In conclusion, let us together contemplate the message of my predecessor Saint Gregory the Great who offered hope and encouragement even to those who struggle on the spiritual and ecclesial journey: "those who have not yet obtained the spiritual gifts that would open their hearts to contemplation … need not hesitate to aspire to the love of God and neighbour".

* * *

I am pleased to welcome the English-speaking pilgrims present at this Audience, especially those from Japan and the United States of America. Upon all of you I invoke the blessings of this Christmas Season.

© Copyright 2005 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

[ELS]

Psalm 138:13-18;23-24
Douay-Rheims Bible

13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast protected me from my mother's womb. 14 I will praise thee, for thou art fearfully magnified: wonderful are thy works, and my soul knoweth right well. 15 My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth.

16 Thy eyes did see my imperfect being, and in thy book all shall be written: days shall be formed, and no one in them. 17 But to me thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened. 18 I will number them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand: I rose up and am still with thee.

23 Prove me, O God, and know my heart: examine me, and know my paths. 24 And see if there be in me the way of iniquity: and lead me in the eternal way.

Latin Vulgate Bible

13 quia tu possedisti renes meos suscepisti me de utero matris meae 14 confitebor tibi quia terribiliter magnificatus es mirabilia opera tua et anima mea cognoscit nimis 15 non est occultatum os meum a te quod fecisti in occulto et substantia mea in inferioribus terrae

16 inperfectum meum viderunt oculi tui et in libro tuo omnes scribentur die formabuntur et nemo in eis 17 mihi autem nimis honorificati sunt amici tui Deus nimis confirmati sunt principatus eorum 18 dinumerabo eos et super harenam multiplicabuntur exsurrexi et adhuc sum tecum

23 proba me Deus et scito cor meum interroga me et cognosce semitas meas 24 et vide si via iniquitatis in me est et deduc me in via aeterna

[ELS]

Pope Benedict XVI arrives to lead his weekly Wednesday general audience in St. Peter Square at the Vatican December 28, 2005. REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico

Pope Benedict XVI, wearing the camauro hat on his popemobile, kisses a child as he arrives for the traditional weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005. The pontiff offered prayers for the victims of last year's tsunami in south-east Asia. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

---

Here is a picture from last week's audience posted on the Vatican's Web site. Yahoo! News just doesn't manage to get (or perhaps doesn't post) the most flattering photos.

[ELS]

ZENIT News Agency, the source I usually use for the English transcripts of Pope Benedict's audiences, will not be posting anything to their site until January 1. The Vatican Web site only has the full text in Italian, and runs a couple of weeks behind in posting an English translation. Right now they only have the English summary, which I have posted as the beginning of this thread. When ZENIT posts their English transcript, I will post it to the thread and ping the weekly audience ping list.

[Salvation]

Thanks for the ping, ELS!

[Nihil Obstat]

Any mention of how large the audiences have been? The crowds in October were incredible.

[ELS]

I haven't seen any mention of the crowd size at today's audience. The crowds seem to be averaging in the tens of thousands. Paul VI Hall only seats about six thousand, so BXVI has recently been making a sacrifice to hold the audiences in St. Peter's Square despite the chilly temperatures in Rome/Vatican City. God bless him!

[Kolokotronis]

I look forward to reading the entire text of his homily when you get it posted.

[ELS]

This was in today's Vatican Information Service (VIS) newsletter:

"VATICAN CITY, DEC 29, 2005 (VIS) - From the beginning of Benedict XVI Papacy, this past April 24th, 2,855,500 persons participated in public meetings with the Holy Father, according to a communication by the Prefecture of the Pontifical House."

"Benedict XVI held his first general audience on April 27th, and with yesterday's, the last one for this year, he has celebrated a total of 32, in which 810,000 faithful participated. The months with the highest number of persons participating were, respectively: October, with 190,000 persons; June, with 130,000 and September, with 126,000."

PD/PAPAL AUDIENCES/... VIS 051229 (100)

[Nihil Obstat]

Thank you very much. Vivat Benedictus XVI.

[Pyro7480]

Here's the English translation (finally) of Pope Benedict XVI's general audience. Zenit released it 2 days ago on 6 January.

Commentary on 2nd Part of Psalm 138(139)
On the Embryo "God Has Already Turned His Loving Eyes"

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 6, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave at the Dec. 28 general audience, which he dedicated to comment on the second part of Psalm 138(139).

* * *

1. At this general audience on Wednesday of the octave of Christmas, the liturgical feast of the Holy Innocents, let us resume our meditation on Psalm 138(139), proposed in the Liturgy of Vespers in two distinct stages. After contemplating in the first part (verses 1­12) the omniscient and omnipotent God, the Lord of being and history, this sapiential hymn of intense beauty and deep feeling now focuses on the loftiest, most marvelous reality of the entire universe: man, whose being is described as a "wonder" of God (verse 14).

Indeed, this topic is deeply in tune with the Christmas atmosphere we are living in these days in which we celebrate the great mystery of the Son of God who became man, indeed, became a Child, for our salvation.

After pondering on the gaze and presence of the Creator that sweeps across the whole cosmic horizon, in the second part of the Psalm on which we are meditating today Goel' turns his loving gaze upon the human being, whose full and complete beginning is reflected upon.

He is still an "unformed substance" in his mother's womb: The Hebrew term used has been understood by several biblical experts as referring to an "embryo," described in that term as a small, oval, curled-up reality, but on which God has already turned his benevolent and loving eyes (verse 16).

2. To describe the divine action within the maternal womb, the psalmist has recourse to classical biblical images, comparing the productive cavity of the mother to the "depths of the earth," that is, the constant vitality of great mother earth (verse 15).

First of all, there is the symbol of the potter and of the sculptor who "fashions" and moulds his artistic creation, his masterpiece, just as it is said about the creation of man in the Book of Genesis: "the Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground" (Genesis 2:7).

Then there is a "textile" symbol that evokes the delicacy of the skin, the flesh, the nerves, "threaded" onto the bony skeleton. Job also recalled forcefully these and other images to exalt that masterpiece which the human being is, despite being battered and bruised by suffering: "Your hands have formed me and fashioned me. … Remember that you fashioned me from clay ...! Did you not pour me out as milk and thicken me like cheese? With skin and flesh you clothed me, with bones and sinews knit me together" (Job 10:8-11).

3. The idea in our psalm that God already sees the entire future of that embryo, still an "unformed substance," is extremely powerful. The days which that creature will live and fill with deeds throughout his earthly existence are already written in the Lord's book of life.

Thus, once again the transcendent greatness of divine knowledge emerges, embracing not only humanity's past and present but also the span, still hidden, of the future. However, the greatness of this little unborn human creature, formed by God's hands and surrounded by his love, also appears: a biblical tribute to the human being from the first moment of his existence.

Let us now entrust ourselves to the reflection that St. Gregory the Great in his Homilies on Ezekiel has interwoven with the sentence of the psalm on which we commented earlier: "Your eyes beheld my unformed substance; in your book were written every one of them [my days]" (verse 16). On those words the Pontiff and Father of the Church composed an original and delicate meditation concerning all those in the Christian community who falter on their spiritual journey.

And he says that those who are weak in faith and in Christian life are part of the architecture of the Church. "They are nonetheless added ... by virtue of good will. It is true, they are imperfect and little, yet as far as they are able to understand, they love God and their neighbor and do not neglect to do all the good that they can. Even if they do not yet attain spiritual gifts so as to open their soul to perfect action and ardent contemplation, yet they do not fall behind in love of God and neighbor, to the extent that they can comprehend it.

"Therefore, it happens that they too contribute to building the Church because, although their position is less important, although they lag behind in teaching, prophecy, the grace of miracles and complete distaste for the world, yet they are based on foundations of awe and love, in which they find their solidity" (2, 3, 12-13, "Opere di Gregorio Magno," IIV 2, Rome, 1993, pp. 79, 81).

St. Gregory's message, therefore, becomes a great consolation to all of us who often struggle wearily along on the path of spiritual and ecclesial life. The Lord knows us and surrounds us all with his love.

[At the end of the audience, the Holy Father greeted pilgrims in several languages. In English, he said:]

I am pleased to welcome the English-speaking pilgrims present at this audience, especially those from Japan and the United States of America. Upon all of you I invoke the blessings of this Christmas season.

[Translation of Italian original by L'Osservatore Romano]

[Bigg Red]

Very powerful!

I am a little curious as to why he included the Japanese in the "English-speaking pilgrims"...

[Bigg Red]

Thanks for the ping, Matt. Blessed Epiphany. I trust you ar enjoying a great start to the year.

[ELS]

Weekly audience ping! Finally, the English transcript!

Thank you Pyro, for posting this.

Zenit released it 2 days ago on 6 January.

Well, not really. They may have dated it Jan. 6, but I have been checking Zenit every day (yes, I cleared my browser cache) and it was not posted on Friday or yesterday.

[ELS]

I am a little curious as to why he included the Japanese in the "English-speaking pilgrims"

I doubt he was referring to Japanese pilgrims. He was probably referring to a group of English speaking pilgrims that was visiting the Vatican from Japan and had requested tickets to the audience. Although, on December 28th the audience took place in St. Peter's Square (due to the large number of faithful), it was planned to take place in Paul VI Hall which doesn't seat as many as can fit in St. Peter's Square and tickets are required. That was how the Pope knew that the group was from Japan and spoke English.

[Convert from ECUSA]

Thanks, Pyro!