GENERAL AUDIENCE POPE
FRANCIS
Paul VI Audience Hall-Wednesday, 11 January 2017
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| PHOTO: L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO |
Christian hope - 6. Psalm 115.
The false hopes of idols
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Good morning!
In the month of December and in the first part
of January we celebrated the Season of Advent and then Christmas: a period of
the liturgical year that reawakens hope in God’s people. Hope is a basic human
need: hope for the future, belief in life, so-called “positive thinking”.
But it is important that this hope be placed in
what can really help you to live and give meaning to our existence. This is why
Scripture warns us against the false hopes that the world
presents to us, exposing their uselessness and demonstrating their foolishness.
It does so in various ways, but especially by denouncing the falsehood of the idols in
which man is continually tempted to place his trust, making them the object of
his hope.
The prophets and scholars in particular insist on
this, touching a nerve centre of the believer’s journey of faith. Because faith
means trusting in God — those who have faith trust in God — but there’s a
moment when, in meeting life’s difficulties, man experiences the fragility of
that trust and feels the need for various certainties — for tangible, concrete
assurances. I entrust myself to God, but the situation is rather serious and I
need a little more concrete reassurance. And there lies the danger! And then we
are tempted to seek even ephemeral consolations that seem to fill the void of
loneliness and alleviate the fatigue of believing. And we think we can find
them in the security that money can give, in alliances with the powerful, in
worldliness, in false ideologies. Sometimes we look for them in a god that can
bend to our requests and magically intervene to change the situation and make
it as we wish; an idol, indeed, that in itself can do nothing. It is impotent
and deceptive. But we like idols; we love them! Once, in Buenos Aires, I had to
go from one church to another, a thousand meters, more or less. And I did so on
foot. And between them there is a park, and in the park there were little
tables, where many, many fortune tellers were sitting. It was full of people
who were even waiting in line. You would give them your hand and they’d begin,
but the conversation was always the same: ‘there is a woman in your life, there
is a darkness that comes, but everything will be fine ...’. And then, you paid.
And this gives you security? It is the security of — allow me to use the word —
nonsense. Going to a seer or to a fortune teller who reads cards: this is an
idol! This is the idol, and when we are so attached to them, we buy false hope.
Whereas, in that gratuitous hope, which Jesus Christ brought us, freely giving
his life for us, sometimes we fail to fully trust.
A Psalm brimming with wisdom depicts in a very
suggestive way the falsity of these idols that the world offers for our hope
and on which men of all ages are tempted to rely. It is Psalm 115, which is
recited as follows:
“Their idols are silver and gold, / the work of
men’s hands. / They have mouths, but do not speak; / eyes, but do not see. /
They have ears, but do not hear; / noses, but do not smell. / They have hands,
but do not feel; / feet, but do not walk; / and they do not make a sound in
their throat. / Those who make them are like them; / so are all who trust in
them!” (vv. 4-8).
The psalmist also presents to us, a bit
ironically, the absolutely ephemeral character of these idols. And we must
understand that these are not merely figures made of metal or other materials
but are also those we build in our minds: when we trust in limited realities
that we transform into absolute values, or when we diminish God to fit our own
template and our ideas of divinity; a god that looks like us is understandable,
predictable, just like the idols mentioned in the Psalm. Man, the image of God,
manufactures a god in his own image, and it is also a poorly realized image. It
does not hear, does not act, and above all, it cannot speak. But, we are
happier to turn to idols than to turn to the Lord. Many times, we are happier
with the ephemeral hope that this false idol gives us, than with the great and
sure hope that the Lord gives us.
In contrast to hoping in a Lord of life who,
through his Word created the world and leads our existence, [we turn to] dumb
effigies. Ideologies with their claim to the absolute, wealth — and this is a
great idol — power and success, vanity, with their illusion of eternity and omnipotence,
values such as physical beauty and health: when they become idols to which
everything is sacrificed, they are all things that confuse the mind and the
heart, and instead of supporting life, they lead to death. It is terrible to
hear, and painful to the soul: something that once, years ago, I heard in the
Diocese of Buenos Aires: a good woman — very beautiful — boasted about her
beauty. She said, as if it were natural: ‘Yes, I had to have an abortion
because my figure is very important’. These are idols, and they lead you down
the wrong path, and do not give you happiness.
The message of the Psalm is very clear: if you
place hope in idols, you become like them: hollow images with hands that do not
feel, feet that do not walk, mouths that cannot speak. You no longer have
anything to say; you become unable to help, to change things, unable to smile,
to give of yourself, incapable of love. And we, men of the Church, run this
risk when we “become mundanized”. We need to abide in the world but defend ourselves
from the world’s illusions, which are these idols that I mentioned.
As the Psalm continues, we must trust and hope
in God, and God will bestow the blessing. So says the Psalm: “O Israel, trust
in the Lord.... O House of Aaron, put your trust in the Lord.... You who fear
the Lord, trust in the Lord.... The Lord has been mindful of us; he will bless
us” (vv. 9, 10, 11, 12).
The Lord always remembers. Even in the bad times
he remembers us. And this is our hope. And hope does not disappoint. Never.
Never. Idols always disappoint; they are make-believe; they are not real. Here
is the wonderful reality of hope: in trusting in the Lord, we become like him.
His blessing transforms us into his children who share in his life. Hope in God
allows us to enter, so to speak, within the range of his remembrance, of his
memory that blesses us and saves us. And it is then that a Hallelujah can burst
forth in praise to the living and true God, who was born for us of Mary, died
on the Cross and rose again in glory. And in this God we have hope, and this
God — who is not an idol — never disappoints.
Special greetings:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and
visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly those from Australia,
Canada and the United States of America. May each of you, and your families,
cherish the joy of this Christmas season, and draw near in prayer to the
Saviour who has come to dwell among us. God bless
you!
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