Thursday, December 13, 2001 2:12 PM
Every creature praise the Lord
VATICAN At his Sunday public audience on December 9, Pope John Paul II explained to 10,000 pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square his reasons for calling a special day of fast and prayer on December 14.
« Faced with the complexity of the international situation today, mankind needs to mobilize all of our energies, so that love will prevail over hatred, peace over war, truth over falsehood, and pardon over vengeance, » the Pope said. Fasting and prayer, he continued, are powerful means of achieving those ends.
« A fast expresses sorrow for a grave wrong, but at the same time also signals the willingness to assume responsibility, » the Holy Father continued. The December 14 observance should help the faithful to renew their dedication to pray and work for peace, he concluded.
The Pope observed that the date he chose for the fast, December 14, « coincides with the end of Ramadan, » the month of fasting for the world of Islam. He offered his prayer that « the shared action of faithful mortification will cause an increase in mutual understanding between Christians and Muslims – who are called, now more than ever, to come together as builders of justice and peace. »
The theme of the Holy Father’s catechesis of yesterday (December 12) was the Canticle of the Prophet Daniel: « Every creature praise the Lord. »
The canticle we just heard is taken from the first part of a long and beautiful hymn, which is found in the Greek translation of the Book of Daniel. It is sung by three Jewish youths thrown into a furnace for having refused to adore the statue of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. Another part of the same song is found in the Liturgy of the Hours for Sunday lauds, in the first and third week of the liturgical Psalter.
As is known, the Book of Daniel reflects the ferment, hope and even apocalyptic expectation of the Chosen People who, in the period of the Maccabees (second century B.C.) were struggling to live according to the law given by God.
>From the furnace, the three youths, miraculously preserved from the flames, sing a hymn of blessing addressed to God. This hymn is similar to a litany, repetitive but at the same time new: Its invocations rise to God like billowing incense, which fills the atmosphere in similar but unique ways. The prayer is not adverse to repetition, as someone who is in love does not hesitate to repeatedly express his affection for the beloved. To emphasize the same things is a sign of intensity and of the multiple nuances of interior feelings and affections.
We heard proclaimed the beginning of this cosmic hymn, contained in the third chapter of Daniel, in verses 52-57. It is the introduction, which precedes the grandiose parade of creatures engaged in praise. An overall view of the whole song, as an extended litany, makes us discover a succession of components that make up the theme of the whole hymn. It begins with six invocations addressed directly to God; followed by a universal appeal to « all you works of the Lord, » so that they will open their lips, ideal for blessing.
This is the part we are considering today, which the Liturgy proposes for lauds on Sunday of the second week. The song will be prolonged successively calling all creatures of heaven and earth to praise and magnify their Lord.
Our initial passage will be taken up again by the liturgy in the Sunday lauds of the fourth week. For this reason, we will now choose only some elements for our reflection. The first is the invitation to blessing: « Blessed are you, » which at the end becomes: « Bless! »
There are two forms of blessing in the Bible which are intertwined. On one hand, is that which comes from God: the Lord blesses his people. It is an efficacious blessing, source of fruitfulness, happiness and prosperity. On the other, is the blessing that rises from earth to heaven. Man, beneficiary of divine generosity, blesses God, praising, thanking and exalting him: « Bless the Lord, my soul! ».
The divine blessing is often mediated by priests through the imposition of hands; human blessing, instead, is expressed in the liturgical hymn, which rises to the Lord from the assembly of the faithful.
Another element that we consider, within the passage just proposed for our meditation, is composed of the antiphon. One might imagine the soloist, in the Temple crowded with people, intoning the blessing: « Blessed are you, Lord, » listing the different divine wonders, while the assembly of the faithful constantly repeated the formula: « Worthy of praise and glory forever. » It is what already occurred in Psalm 135, the so-called Great Hallel, namely, the great praise, where the people repeated: « Eternal is his mercy, » while the soloist enumerated the various acts of salvation accomplished by the Lord in favor of his people.
In our Psalm, the object of praise above all is the « glorious and holy » name of God, whose proclamation resounds in the Temple, which in turn is « holy and glorious. » While contemplating in faith, God who sits « on the throne of his reign, » the priests and people are conscious of being the object of the gaze that « penetrates the abysses » and this awareness pours forth from their heart the praise: « Blessed. Blessed. » God, who « sits above the cherubim » and has as his dwelling the « firmament of the sky, » yet is still close to his people who, for this reason, feel protected and safe.
When proposing this canticle again on Sunday morning, the weekly Easter of Christians, there is an invitation to open one´s eyes to the new creation that had its origin, precisely, in the resurrection of Jesus. Gregory of Nyssa, a fourth-century Father of the Greek Church, explains that with the Lord´s Easter « new heavens and a new earth are created … a different, renewed man comes into being in the image of his creator through the birth from on high ». And he continues: « As the one who looks toward the sensible world perceives the invisible beauty through visible things … so the one who looks toward this new world of the ecclesial creation sees in it him who became everything in everyone, leading the mind by the hand, through things comprehensible to our rational nature, toward that which goes beyond human comprehension ».
Thus, in singing this canticle the Christian believer is invited to contemplate the world of the first creation, intuiting the outline of the second, inaugurated with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And this contemplation leads all by the hand to enter, virtually dancing with joy, into the one Church of Christ.
