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POPE-AUDIENCE Aug-10-2005 (350 words) With photos. xxxi
Pope says Christians must acknowledge dependence on God
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Like a small child still totally dependent on his mother, but old enough to recognize his need, Christians must acknowledge their dependence on God, Pope Benedict XVI said.
Holding his weekly general audience Aug. 10 at the Vatican, the pope offered reflections on Psalm 131's opening verses, which reject pride in one's self-sufficiency.
Instead, the psalm presents a proper attitude toward God as being "like a weaned child," still and quiet on the mother's lap.
The image of the mother and child, the pope said, is a "sign of the tender and maternal love of God."
The child in the psalm "is tied to his mother with a very personal and intimate relationship, not merely one of physical contact or because of the need for food," the pope said. "It is a more conscious bond, even though it is immediate and spontaneous.
"This is the ideal parable of true spiritual childhood, of abandoning oneself to God, not in a blind or automatic way, but serenely and with responsibility," he said.
The psalmist contrasts his dependence with the pride and conceit of those who busy themselves with the "great things" of this world, the pope said.
Humble trust in God, Pope Benedict said, leads to "security, life and peace, and it extends from the present to the future, now and forever."
The Vatican estimated about 6,000 people attended the audience. Many were youths, sporting World Youth Day shirts or hats, who stopped at the Vatican on their way to Cologne, Germany, for the celebration of World Youth Day Aug. 16-21.
Among the groups present, the Vatican announced "young people from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan headed for Cologne for World Youth Day."
That group, traveling with members of the Neocatechumenal Way, sang a familiar Neocatechumenal version of "Alleluia" for the pope.
AsiaNews, the Rome-based missionary news agency, said only 15 of the 95 youths came from mainland China, but the agency said it had been told that 50 young people from the mainland already had arrived in Cologne.
END
Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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