Scott1
Well-Known Member
During his general audience in St. Peter's Square Oct. 12, the pope ended his catechesis on a psalm that prays for peace in ancient Jerusalem by asking for prayers for that city today.
"We also want to pray for the city of Jerusalem that it may be ever more a meeting place of religions and peoples and really a place of peace," the pope said.
In his reflections on Psalm 122, the pope said the Hebrew word "shalom" or "peace" was traditionally considered to be the root word of the holy city's name, "Jerushalajim," "interpreted as 'the city of peace.'"
Jerusalem was not only a seat of government, it was also "the highest judicial seat" of the house of David, he said.
Jewish pilgrims would head to the city in order to settle any controversy and return home "more just and peaceful," said the pope.
The psalm traces "an ideal picture of the holy city" as a religious and social center, "showing that biblical religion is not abstract or individualistic, but is the leaven of justice and solidarity," he said.
Harmony among people is a necessary outcome from communion with God, he said.
Just as the psalmist praised Jerusalem as being "a city of compact unity," the Christian faithful must be the living stones that hold and support each other and make the church one and solid, he said.
The pope quoted St. Gregory the Great, who said each person must learn to accept and support one's neighbor and forge bonds of "reciprocal and patient love."
"If I do not exert myself to accept you as you are, and you do not work to accept me as I am, a building of charity cannot rise up among us," the pope said in reference to teachings by St. Gregory.
The foundation that supports the entire weight of the living stones of the faithful is Christ, who also "carries the weight of all our sins," he said.
The pope called on everyone to build peace by each one carrying the other, linked by "the joyous certainty that the Lord is carrying us all."
"In this way the church grows as a true Jerusalem, a place of peace," he added.
At the end of the audience, the pope offered greetings in 12 languages to some 50,000 pilgrims packed into St. Peter's Square.
Among the many pilgrims the pope greeted personally at the end of the audience were the founders of the Neocatechumenal Way, Kiko Arguello and Carmen Hernandez.
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