VATICAN CITY, JULY 26 (ZENIT.org)

    How can the mystery of God be discovered in a technological society that is so often superficial? This was the question John Paul II addressed this morning, when he met with 20,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square, during his Wednesday general audience.

    The Pontiff's response can be summarized in two words; we must learn to "wait" and "wonder." Since Jesus' coming 2,000 years ago, "God the Father has crossed the threshold of his transcendence. Through his Son, Jesus Christ, he has come down to our streets, and his Spirit of life and love has penetrated the heart of his creatures." Since then, "God has been close to us, especially when our 'face is sad'; then, as with his disciples of Emmaus, with the warmth of his words, our hearts begin to burn in ourbreast," the Pontiff said.

    However, "God's passage is mysterious, and requires pure eyes to be discovered, and ears disposed to listening." Thus, the Holy Father's first meeting with pilgrims after his summer vacation became a spiritual adventure in search of the mystery of God.

    In order to discover the presence of God, above all it is necessary to know how to wait or, as Jesus says in the Gospel, to be attentive. "'Attention,' as the word itself indicates, means to be concentrated on a reality with your whole soul. The opposite is distraction, which, sadly, is virtually our habitual condition, especially in a frenetic and superficial society like today's. It is difficult to be able to concentrate on an objective, a value, and pursue it with fidelity and coherence. We run the risk of doing the same with God who, by becoming flesh, has come to us to be the Pole Star of our existence," the Holy Father emphasized.

    Our waiting must be patient. "For an stalk to grow or a flower to open there must be time that cannot be forced; nine months must go by for the birth of a human child; to write a book or compose music often years must be dedicated to patient research," John Paul II explained.

    The Pope illustrated this "law of the spirit" by quoting verses from Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), who in his "Sonnets of Orpheus" wrote: "Everything that is frenetic will soon pass." "To find the mystery there must be patience, interior purification, silence, waiting," the Pope added.

    The second necessary attitude to discover the mysterious presence of God "is marvel, wonder," the Pope said. "We must open our eyes to admire God, who hides and at the same time reveals himself in things, and introduces us into places of mystery. The technological culture and excessive immersion in material realities often impede our seeing the hidden face of things. In reality, for those who know how to read in depth, each thing, each event brings a message that, in the final analysis, leads to God."

    "Therefore, the signs that reveal the presence of God are multiple. However, if they are not to escape us, we must be pure and simple as children, able to admire, be surprised, wonder, be enchanted by the divine gestures of love and closeness to us," the Holy Father explained. ZE00072605

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