Good vs evil
  
Faithful persons walk the spiritual path of light and joy; the wicked live blinded by the world, doomed to destruction and death

On Wednesday, 3 September, the Holy Father was driven from Castel Gandolfo to Rome for the General Au­dience, held in the Paul VI Audience Hall. The Pope introduced his Catechesis on Psalm 92[91] by show­ing how this psalm, a never-ending stream of prayer and song coloured by reference to musical instruments, inspired St Augustine to reflect on good and evil. The Holy Father stressed how this Psalm highlights the contrast between the righteous and the wicked, between good and evil: "The righteous person has the irresistible strength of the wild ox", but the man who is wicked "is weak through and through". The Pope also refers to the Old Testament concept of retribution that is evident in this Psalm: "From the heights of his strength and safety, the person pray­ing sees the wicked hurled into the abyss of their ruin". The following is a translation of the Holy Father's Cat­echesis, which was given in Italian.

1. The canticle just presented to us is the song of a man faithful to Holy God. It is in Psalm 92[91] which, as the an­cient title of the composition suggests, was used by Jewish tradition "for the Sabbath". The hymn opens with a gen­eral appeal to celebrate and praise the Lord in music and song. It seems to be a never-ending stream of prayer, for di­vine love must be exalted in the morn­ing when the day begins, but it must al­so be declared during the day and through the hours of the night. It was the reference to musical instruments that the Psalmist makes in the introduc­tory invitation that moved St Augustine to meditate in his exposition on Psalm 92[91]: "What does it mean, brothers, to sing praise with the psaltery? The psaltery is a musical instrument with strings. Our psaltery is our work. Those who do good work with their hands praise God with the psaltery. Those who confess with their lips, praise him with their singing! Song is on their lips! They praise him with their actions!...  So who are those who sing? Those who delight in doing good. Indeed, singing is a sign of cheerfulness. What does the Apostle say? 'God loves a cheerful giver' (II Cor 9:7). Whatever you do, do it joyfully. Then you will be doing good and doing it well. On the other hand, if you are cast down while you work, even if good is done through you, it is not you who do it: you have your lute in your hands, you are not singing" (cf. Esposizioni sui Salmi, III, Rome 1976, pp. 192-195).

Good and evil: God will reward the righteous and punish evildoers

2. Through St Augustine's words we can enter the heart of our reflection and deal with the fundamental theme of the Psalm: good and evil. Both are scruti­nized by the just and holy God, "on high for ever", who is eternal and infi­nite, who lets no human action escape him.

Thus, two opposite forms of conduct are repeatedly compared. In his con­duct, the faithful person is devoted to celebrating the divine works and plumb­ing the depths of the Lord's thoughts, and on this path his life is radiant with light and joy. By contrast, the Psalmist outlines the dullness of the wicked per­son, incapable as he is of understanding the hidden meaning of human events. Ephemeral good fortune makes him ar­rogant, but in fact he is basically weak and doomed after his fleeting success to destruction and death. The Psalmist, us­ing an interpretative key dear to the Old Testament, that is, retribution, is con­vinced that God will already reward the righteous in this life, giving them a hap­py old age, and that he will punish evil­doers before long.

Actually, as Job affirmed and Jesus was to teach, history can never be so clearly interpreted. Thus, the Psalmist's vision becomes a plea to the just God "on high for ever", to enter into the se­quence of human events, to judge them and make good shine forth.

For the wicked: the doom of dispersal and destruction

3. The contrast between the righteous and the wicked is subsequently taken up once again by the person praying. On the one hand, there are the "enemies" of the Lord, the "evildoers", once again doomed to dispersal and destruction. On the other, the faithful appear in their full splendour, embodied by the Psalmist who describes himself with pic­turesque images taken from Oriental symbology. The righteous person has the irresistible strength of the wild ox and is ready to challenge any adversity; his glorious forehead is anointed, with the oil of divine protection that be­comes, as it were, a shield to defend the chosen one and guard him. From the heights of his strength and safety, the person praying sees the wicked hurled into the abyss of their ruin.

Psalm 92[91] thus is replete with hap­piness, confidence and optimism: gifts that we must ask God for precisely in our time when the temptation of dis­trust and even despair can easily creep in.

For the just: a fruitful old age, steeped in God's peace

4. At the end, in the atmosphere of profound peace that permeates it, our hymn casts a glance at the old age of the righteous and predicts that they will be equally serene. Even when these days loom on his horizon, the spirit of the praying person will still be vital, happy and active, and feel flourishing and fruitful like the palms and cedars planted in the courtyards of the temple of Zion.

The righteous are radicated in God himself, from whom they absorb the sap of divine grace. The life of the Lord nourishes them and makes them flour­ish and vigorous, that is, able to give to others and to witness to their own faith. The Psalmist's final words in this de­scription of a just, hard-working life and an intense and active old age, are in fact linked to the declaration of the Lord's eternal fidelity. At this point, therefore, we can conclude by proclaim­ing the canticle that is raised to the glo­ry of God in the last Book of the Bible, Revelation, the book of the terrible struggle between good and evil, but also of hope in Christ's final victory: "Great and wonderful are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the peoples!... For you alone are holy. All nations shall come and worship you, for your judg­ments have been revealed…. Just are you in these your judgments, you who ­ are and were, O Holy One…. Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!" (cf. 15:3-4; 16:5, 7).

L'Osservatore Romano September 10, 2003
Reprinted with permission