Christian hope is beyond death, says Pope

Vatican City, Jul 27, 2004 / 22:00 pm

The Holy Father spoke on Psalm 15, "The Lord is my heritage," at the general audience today in the Paul VI Hall, saying that the Christian’s hope reaches beyond death.

The Holy Father said that this psalm is a "mystical hymn" that presents God "as the only good and therefore, the supplicant chooses to be part of the community of those who are faithful to the Lord."

This psalm, he continued, develops two themes. The first theme is heritage "which was used to describe the gift of the promised land to the people of Israel. ... The house of Levi was the only tribe that did not receive a portion of the land, because the Lord was their heritage."

John Paul II indicated that the second theme is "perfect and continuous communion with the Lord. The psalmist expresses the firm hope of being preserved from death in order to be able to remain in intimacy with God."

The psalmist asks the Lord to show him "the path of life. It is the way which leads to 'fullness of joy in the divine presence,’ to 'sweetness without end alongside' the Lord.  These words correspond to an interpretation that opens up to the prospective of hope in communion with God, beyond death, in eternal life," explained the Pope.

The Holy Father concluded by emphasizing that this psalm "was assumed in the New Testament in the perspective of the resurrection of Christ," as in St. Peter's sermon on Pentecost and St. Paul's words in the synagogue of Antioch of Pisidia.