Vatican City, May 25, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Speaking about the Canticle of the Apocalypse, “The Judgment of God,” Pope John Paul II said during today’s general audience that God condemns evil and rewards faithfulness.
Speaking to some 15,000 people gathered at St Peter Square, the Pope said that the Canticle is intoned by the “twenty-four elders of the heavenly court, who represent all the just of the Old and the New Alliance.”
“In this prayer,” he continued, “we can hear the hearts of the just beating as they hopefully await the coming of the Lord to bring light to human history, so often immersed in the shadows of sin, of injustice, of deceit and of violence.”
The Pontiff explained that this hymn exalts “the just and resolute judgment that the Lord is about to exercise over human history.” “He is judge but also savior, He condemns evil but rewards faithfulness. He is just, but above all merciful.”