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Happiness is genuine when it is found in the light of all those who are seeking the Lord with purified hearts and with a yearning for truth that shines forth in the sky.

Pope John Paul II met with 1,500 pilgrims who gathered in the courtyard of his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo for his general audience Aug. 13. He offered his reflections on the Canticle of Tobit, which is recited during Friday morning prayer of the fourth week of the Liturgy of the Hours.

The Holy Father noted that the Canticle of Tobit invites the faithful to purify their hearts so that they will experience conversion and work for justice.

“This is the path that we must take in order to find God's love, which is the source of peace and hope,” he said.

“The story of Jerusalem is in itself a parable that teaches the choice that is to be made,” he pointed out. “God punished the city because he could not remain indifferent to the sins that were being committed by its sons and daughters. However, seeing now that many have repented and have been transformed into sons and daughters that are righteous and faithful, he will once again manifest his merciful love.”

Throughout his canticle, Tobit gives praise to God for purifying his chosen people through the experience of the exile and for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. Mount Zion is seen as God's dwelling place and a goal of pilgrimage not only for Israel but also for all nations.

“The Israelites and all the nations are on the road together to a single goal, which is that of faith and truth,” John Paul said. He emphasized that all people are called to journey toward the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, where God will bestow salvation and peace upon all who turn to him.

Among the canticles that are included in the morning prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours is a fragment of a hymn — which we just heard — that is found at the end of the story that is told in the Book of Tobit. The hymn, which is rather long and solemn, is a rather typical expression of Jewish prayer that draws on other texts that have already been presented in the Bible.

The canticle is developed along two lines. First of all, an invitation to praise God for the purification that is taking place through the exile (see verses 3, 4 and 7) is repeated several times. The “sons of Israel” are exhorted to welcome this purification with sincere conversion (see verses 6 and 8). If conversion flourishes in their hearts, the Lord will insure the dawn of their deliverance. It is right at this spiritual climax that the part of the canticle, which the Liturgy of the Hours has excerpted from the longer hymn that is found in Chapter 12 of the Book of Tobit, begins.

A Call to Repentance

The second part of the text, which is intoned by the elder Tobit, who is the main character along with his son Tobiah, is truly and in many ways a celebration of Zion. It reflects the passionate nostalgia and burning love that the Jews of the Diaspora experienced toward the holy city (see verses 9-18). This aspect also shines forth in the passage that was chosen for the morning prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. Let us reflect on these two themes — the purification from sin through trial and waiting for an encounter with the Lord in the light of Zion and of its holy Temple.

Tobit addresses a wholehearted appeal to sinners so that they will convert and work to bring about justice: This is the path that we must take in order to find God's love, which is the source of peace and hope (see verse 8).

The story of Jerusalem is in itself a parable that teaches the choice that is to be made. God punished the city because he could not remain indifferent to the sins that were being committed by its sons and daughters. However, seeing now that many have repented and have been transformed into sons and daughters that are righteous and faithful, he will once again manifest his merciful love (see verse 10).

Throughout the canticle found in Chapter 13 of the Book of Tobit, this conviction is often repeated: “He scourges and then has mercy … he scourged you for your iniquities, but will again have mercy on you all … he scourged you for the works of your hand, but will again pity the children of the righteous …” (see verses 2, 5 and 9). God resorts to punishment as a means of calling sinners who are deaf to other cries back to the straight path. The final word of our just God is, nonetheless, one of love and forgiveness; his deep desire is to embrace once again his rebellious children who have turned back to him with repentant hearts.

God Is Merciful

God's mercy will be manifested to his people through the rebuilding of the Temple of Jerusalem, which God himself will carry out, “so that his tent may be rebuilt in you with joy” (verse 10). It is here that the second theme appears — the theme of Zion as the spiritual center toward which both the Jews who are returning and the pilgrimage of those nations who are seeking God must converge. Thus, it opens up a universal perspective: The Temple of Jerusalem, which has been rebuilt and which is a sign of God's word and presence, will shine forth with a crowning light that will dispel the darkness so that “many nations … the inhabitants of all the limits of the earth” (verse 11) will be drawn to it, bearing gifts and singing their joy in taking part in the salvation that the Lord is pouring out upon Israel.

Therefore, the Israelites and all the nations are on the road together to a single goal, which is that of faith and truth. The author of this hymn repeatedly invokes a blessing upon them and says to Jerusalem: “Happy are those who love you, and happy are those who rejoice in your prosperity” (verse 14). Happiness is genuine when it is found in the light of all those who are seeking the Lord with purified hearts and with a yearning for truth that shines forth in the sky.

Heavenly Jerusalem

St. Augustine speaks with ardor about this Jerusalem, which is free and glorious and a symbol of the Church in its ultimate goal of hope, which was prefigured in Christ's resurrection.

Referring to the prayer that he is about to pray in his “secret chamber,” he describes to us those “songs of love, groaning with groans that are unutterable in my pilgrimage, and remembering Jerusalem, with heart raised up toward it, Jerusalem my country, Jerusalem my mother, and to thee thyself, its ruler, the source of light, its father, guardian and husband, its chaste and strong delight, its solid joy and all its good things ineffable …” He then concludes with a promise: “I will not be turned away until thou hast brought back together all that I am from this dispersion and deformity to the peace of that dearest mother, where the first fruits of my spirit are to be found and from which all these things are promised me which thou dost conform forever, O my God, my mercy” (Le Confessioni, 12, 16, 23, Rome, 1965, p. 424-425).

(Register translation)