Pope says people should love God, who is always forgiving

Published: 2005-10-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- People should not fear God, thinking he is always ready to punish, but rather they should love him because he is always ready to forgive, Pope Benedict XVI said. "God is not a relentless sovereign who condemns the guilty, but a loving father whom we must love not out of fear of punishment, but because of his goodness," the pope said Oct. 19 during his weekly general audience. The pope's audience talk focused on Psalm 130, often called the "De Profundis" from the Latin version of the initial words of its first line: "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice!" Pope Benedict told an estimated 40,000 people gathered under a light drizzle in St. Peter's Square that the psalm is "a hymn to divine mercy and reconciliation between the sinner and the Lord, a God who is just but always ready to reveal himself as merciful and compassionate."

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