Vatican City, Nov 9, 2004 / 22:00 pm
In today’s general audience held in St. Peter’s Square and in the Paul VI Hall, Pope John Paul II speaking on Psalm 61, taught that the “two types of trust” which are contrasted in the psalm are trust in God, “source of eternity and peace,” and trust in a false god, that of “violence, covetousness and riches.”
The two forms of trust “are two fundamental choices,” said the Pope, “one good and one perverse, which entail two types of moral conduct. There is above all trust in God...'God is my rock and my salvation; my fortress, I shall not be shaken'."
"There also exists," he continued, "another type of trust, of an idolatrous nature, which the psalmist focuses on with critical attention. It is a trust that moves one to seek safety and stability in violence, covetousness and riches."
"The first false god [is] the violence which humanity unfortunately continues to resort to even in these bloody days,” he said. “Accompanying this idol is an immense procession of wars, oppression, perversions, torture and killing, inflicted without any trace of remorse."