Pope warns against trying to be God
Under a splendid Roman sun, the German pope presided at a colourful celebration where tens of thousands of people waved palm and olive branches to commemorate Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem the week before he was crucified.
The pope, who turned 84 on Saturday, gave a sermon on man’s relationship with God and how it can be threatened by technology.
“From the beginning men and women have been filled — and this is as true today as ever — with a desire to ‘be like God’, to attain the heights of God by their own powers.
“Mankind has managed to accomplish so many things: We can fly. We can see, hear and speak to one another from the farthest ends of the earth.”
While technological advances have improved life for man, the pope said, they have also increased possibilities for evil, and recent natural disasters were a reminder, if any were needed, that mankind is not all-powerful.
If man wanted a relationship with God he had to first “abandon the pride of wanting to become God”, said the pope.
Benedict will preside at Easter services in the Vatican and on Good Friday he will also lead a torch-lit Via Crucis, or Way of the Cross, around the ruins of the Colosseum.
On Easter Sunday the pope will deliver his twice-yearly “Urbi et Orbi” blessing and message.
