Vatican City, May 10, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Continuing his series of Wednesday audiences prepared by the late John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI today told an estimated 17,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square that although seemingly in the hands of dark forces, God penetrates all of human history.
The Holy Father spoke on the "Hymn of adoration and praise", a canticle in chapter 15, verses 3 and 4, of the Book of Revelation.
"History”, he said, “is not in the hands of dark forces, of chance, or of merely human choices."
Rather, he said, "The Lord, supreme arbiter of historical events, rises above the discharge of evil energies, the vehement onslaught of Satan, the emergence of plagues and wickedness. He knowingly guides history to the dawn of the new heaven and the new earth, as mentioned in the last part of the book in the image of the new Jerusalem."