Pope Benedict XVI stressed that God is the guardian of his people, before “all risk and danger”, at the general hearing that presided over May 4, 2005, today exactly 20 years ago, the second of his pontificate.
This reflection retains all their news and encourages the faithful a few days after the start of the conclave, in which 133 Cardinals will meet in the Sistine Chapel since Wednesday, May 7, to choose the successor of St. Peter.
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Within the framework of the catechesis that began in May 2005 on the psalms and songs of the eve – with texts prepared by San Juan Pablo II – Benedict XVI explained that Psalm 120 “is a psalm of trust, because it resonates the Hebrew verb Shamar six times, ‘save, protect’”.
“God, whose name is invoked repeatedly, is presented as the ‘guardian’ who never sleeps, attentive and solicitous, The ‘sentry’ that watches over his people to defend him from all risk and danger”Pope Ratzinger said.
Benedict also stressed that in the Psalm, whose second verse is “help comes to me from the Lord, who made heaven and earth”, the true life, “true help comes from the Lord. And our eyes, therefore, turns to true height, towards the true mountain: Christ.”
Within that framework, said the German Pope, “the divine pastor does not rest in his work of defense of his people, of all of us.”
“Often our life develops under a ruthless sun. The Lord is the shadow that protects us, helps us,” Benedict then said and added that with Psalm 120 all the faithful can have “the certainty that the Lord does not abandon in the time of the test, the assault of evil and persecution.”
In the final part, Pope Benedict XVI stressed that “God will keep us with love at every moment, protecting our life from all evil.”
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.