"And who do you say that I am?" (Mt 16:15).

1. As we begin the cycle of catechesis on Jesus Christ, of fundamental importance for Christian faith and life, we feel challenged by the same question that almost two thousand years ago the Master asked Peter and the disciples who were with him. At that decisive moment of his life, as Matthew, who witnessed it, recounts in his Gospel, "When Jesus had come to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'People, who do they say that the Son of Man is?' They answered, 'Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, others Jeremiah or any of the prophets.' He said to them, 'Who do you say that I am?'" (Mt 16:13-15).

We know Peter's blunt and impetuous reply: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16:16). In order for us too to formulate it, not so much in abstract terms, but as an expression of a vital experience, the fruit of the Father's gift (cf. Mt 16:17), each of us must allow ourselves to be personally touched by the question: "And you, who say, who am I? You who hear of me, answer: what am I really to you?". For Peter, divine illumination and the answer of faith came after a long period of being close to Jesus, listening to his word and observing his life and ministry (cf. Mt 16:21-24).

In order to come to a more conscious confession of Jesus Christ, we too must walk, like Peter, a path of attentive, caring listening. We must put ourselves in the school of the first disciples, who became his witnesses and our teachers, and at the same time absorb the experience and testimony of twenty centuries of history marked by the Master's question and enriched by the immense chorus of responses from the faithful of all times and places. Today, as the "Lord and Life-giving" Spirit pushes us towards the threshold of the third Christian millennium, we are called to give with renewed joy the response that God inspires and expects from us, almost as if for a new birth of Jesus Christ in our history.

2. Jesus' question about his identity shows the pedagogical subtlety of one who does not trust in hasty answers, but wants an answer matured through a time, sometimes a long time, of reflection and prayer, in attentive and intense listening to the truth of the Christian faith professed and preached by the Church.

Indeed, we recognise that in the face of Jesus we cannot be content with a merely human sympathy, however legitimate and precious, nor is it sufficient to consider him merely as a character worthy of historical, theological, spiritual or social interest, or as a source of artistic inspiration. Around Christ we often see hovering, even among Christians, the shadows of ignorance, or the even more distressing ones of misunderstanding or even infidelity. There is always the risk of appealing to the 'Gospel of Jesus', without really knowing its greatness and radicality, and without living out what is claimed in words. How many are those who reduce the Gospel to their own measure and make themselves a more comfortable Jesus, denying his transcendent divinity, or nullifying his real, historical humanity, or manipulating the integrity of his message, in particular by not taking into account the sacrifice of the cross that dominates his life and doctrine, nor the Church that he instituted as his 'sacrament' in history.

Even these shadows stimulate us to search for the full truth about Jesus, taking advantage of the many lights that, as once with Peter, the Father has lit up over the centuries around Jesus in the hearts of so many men with the power of the Holy Spirit: the lights of faithful witnesses even to martyrdom; the lights of so many passionate scholars, committed to fathoming the mystery of Jesus with the instrument of intelligence sustained by faith; the lights that above all the Magisterium of the Church, guided by the charisma of the Holy Spirit, has lit up in the dogmatic definitions of Jesus Christ.

We recognise that a stimulus to discover who Jesus really is is present in the uncertain and anxious search of many of our contemporaries so similar to Nicodemus who went "by night to find Jesus" (Jn 3:2) or Zacchaeus who climbed a tree to "see Jesus" (Lk 19:4). The desire to help every man to discover Jesus, who came as a doctor for the sick and as a saviour for sinners (cf. Mk 2:17), urges me to perform the demanding and exciting task of presenting the figure of Jesus to the children of the Church and to every man of good will.

You may remember that, at the beginning of my pontificate, I addressed an invitation to the people of today to "open wide the doors to Christ" (Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, I [1978] 38). Later, in the exhortation Catechesi Tradendae (Ioannis Pauli PP. II, Catechesi Tradendae, 5), dedicated to catechesis, making myself the spokesman for the thinking of the bishops gathered in the Fourth Synod, I affirmed that "the essential and primordial object of catechesis is . . the 'mystery of Christ'. To catechise is in a certain way to lead one to scrutinise this mystery in all its dimensions . . .; to unveil in the person of Christ the whole eternal plan of God, which is fulfilled in him . . . He alone can lead us to the love of the Father in the Holy Spirit and can make us participate in the life of the Holy Trinity' (Eiusdem, Catechesi Tradendae, 5).

We will follow this catechetical itinerary together, ordering our considerations around four focal points: 1) Jesus in his historical reality and in his transcendent messianic quality, son of Abraham, son of man and son of God; 2) Jesus in his identity as true God and true man, in profound communion with the Father and animated by the power of the Holy Spirit, as presented to us in the Gospel; 3) Jesus in the eyes of the Church, which with the assistance of the Holy Spirit has clarified and deepened the revealed data giving us, especially with the Ecumenical Councils, precise formulations of the Christological faith; 4) finally, Jesus in his life and works, Jesus in his redemptive passion and glorification, Jesus among us and in us, in history and in his Church until the end of the world (cf. Mt 28, 20).

3. It is true that in the Church there are many ways of catechising God's people about Jesus. Each one, however, to be authentic must draw its content from the perennial source of holy Tradition and sacred Scripture, interpreted in the light of the teachings of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, the liturgy, popular faith and piety, in a word of the Tradition living and working in the Church under the action of the Holy Spirit, who - according to the Master's promise - "will lead you into all truth, for he will not speak of himself, but will say all that he has heard and will proclaim to you the things to come" (Jn 16:13). This Tradition we recognise expressed and synthesised particularly in the doctrine of the sacrosanct Councils, gathered in the symbols of faith and deepened by theological reflection faithful to Revelation and the Magisterium of the Church.

What would a catechesis on Jesus be worth if it did not have the genuineness and completeness of the gaze with which the Church contemplates, prays and proclaims his mystery? On the other hand, a pedagogical wisdom is required that, in addressing the recipients of catechesis, knows how to take into account their conditions and needs. As I wrote in the exhortation now cited, Catechesi Tradendae: 'The constant concern of every catechist - whatever the level of his or her responsibilities in the Church - must be to pass on the doctrine and life of Jesus through his or her teaching and behaviour' (John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae, 6).

4. Let us conclude this introductory catechesis by recalling that Jesus, at a particularly difficult moment in the life of the first disciples, when the cross loomed close and many were abandoning him, addressed to those who had remained with him another of those questions of his that were so strong, so penetrating and inescapable: "Do you perhaps also wish to leave?" It was Peter again who, as the interpreter of his brothers, answered: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have words of eternal life. We have believed and known that you are the Holy One of God" (Jn 6:66-69). May these catechetical appointments of ours make us ever more willing to allow ourselves to be questioned by Jesus, able to have the right answer to his questions, ready to share his life to the full.

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 7 January 1987]

The Gospel passage this Sunday (Lk 9:18-24) calls us to once again confront Jesus “face to face”, so to speak. In one of the rare quiet moments when he is alone with his disciples, he asks them: “Who do the people say that I am?” (v. 18). They responded to him, saying: “John the Baptist; others say Elijah; others say one of the ancient prophets who has risen” (v. 19). Therefore, people esteemed Jesus and considered him to be a great prophet, but they were not yet aware of his true identity, that is, that He was the Messiah, the Son of God sent by the Father for the salvation of everyone.

Then Jesus directly addresses the Apostles — because this is what most interests him — asking: “But who do you say that I am?”. Immediately, on behalf of everyone, Peter responds, “The Christ of God” (v. 20), that is to say: You are the Messiah, the Anointed of God, sent by Him to save his people according to the Covenant and the promise. Therefore Jesus realizes that the Twelve, and Peter in particular, have received the gift of faith from the Father; and for this reason he begins to speak with them openly — this is how the Gospel puts it: “openly” — of what awaits him in Jerusalem. “The Son of Man must suffer many things”, he says, “and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and rise on the third day” (cf. v. 22).

These same questions are proposed to each of us today: “Who is Jesus for the people of our time?”, and more importantly: “Who is Jesus for each of us?”, for me, for you, for you, for you, and for you ...? Who is Jesus for each one of us? We are called to make Peter’s answer our own response, joyfully professing that Jesus is the Son of God, the Eternal Word of the Father, who became man to redeem mankind, pouring out the abundance of divine mercy upon it. The world needs Christ more than ever: his salvation, his merciful love. Many people feel an empty void around and within themselves — perhaps, at certain times, we do too —; others live in restlessness and insecurity due to uncertainty and conflict. We all need adequate answers to our questions, to our concrete questions. Only in Him, in Christ, is it possible to find true peace and the fulfillment of every human aspiration. Jesus knows the human heart better than anyone. This is why he can heal, giving life and consolation.

After concluding the dialogue with the Apostles, Jesus addressed everyone, saying: “If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me” (v. 23). This is not an ornamental cross or an ideological cross, but it is the cross of life, the cross of one’s duty, the cross of making sacrifices for others with love — for parents, for children, for the family, for friends, and even for enemies — the cross of being ready to be in solidarity with the poor, to strive for justice and peace. In assuming this attitude, these crosses, we always lose something. We must never forget that “whoever loses his life [for Christ] will save it” (v. 24). It is losing in order to win. Let us remember all of our brothers and sisters who still put these words of Jesus into practice today, offering their time, their work, their efforts and even their lives so as to never deny their faith in Christ. Jesus, through His Holy Spirit, gives us the strength to move forward along the path of faith and of witness: doing exactly what we believe; not saying one thing and doing another. On this path Our Lady is always near to us: let us allow her to hold our hand when we are going through the darkest and most difficult moments.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 19 June 2016]

In the riddle, the solution

(Lk 9:7-9)

Jesus, who is he? You can’t give an answer except in the light of his story and his condemnation: nothing to do with one of the spiritualists or miracle-makers who arouses curiosity, as Herod expected.

The contrast between the extraordinary figure expected and the obtuseness of (elusive) judgment ends up leaving things as they are. Worse: it encloses the Mystery and loses its "where" today.

One does not understand the Person of Christ starting from the things we know.

He intends to wipe out all attractive but false idols; however, he doesn’t like the axe of the Baptizer, nor the violent zeal of Elijah.

The new Rabbi wants to value the intuition of consciences, rather than the duties or the desire to analyze behaviors. This is the incredible.

Jesus is not some sort of ‘ghost’ that emerges from the past.

He turns history to completion according to innate and spontaneous impulses, which will let emerge the simple personal and the obvious unheard of.

Each religious group closed the Messiah in its interpretative model, consonant with an environment veined with ancient hopes: defense of goods and customs, "cultural" identity, well-being at the expense of others, expansion, wonders.

The sons’ revolution poses a theme that seeks the authentic Way, near and Elsewhere. The humanity of God.

In short, questioning the Person of Jesus already means beginning to overcome conformist codes and small habitual interpretations; to embrace the irruption of the Eternal.

It’s the very question about the Person dimension that invites us to broaden the horizon and begin an Exodus. It will guide to authentic understanding, and measure; to the reason why we are in the world.

Christ reverses the destiny of the man’s kingdom, and his claims.

Any external combination with even eminent figures of the gallery of the greats of history remains static, partial, too predictable.

Not infrequently deviant, due to the inevitable brain limitations it provides, caging the soul [and immobilizing life].

On the Way, the growth of knowledge of his story, adherence to his depth, and Action of the Spirit, will not allow to persist in fixed thoughts, attachments, commonplaces.

Interpretations, preconceptions or showcases that then permeate all of life and dampen it, depriving it of intoxication.

Completely personal Presence, new Sense, innate Wisdom of ‘nature’; not a specific particularism that does not offer regenerated life - that winks only at itself.

Jesus: he is the Engine, the Way and the Reason for the Journey in the Spirit that is leading us.

His Person in us finds in us a “point” within from which he pours forth the courage to be ourselves, and to no longer seek external approval.

This frees the soul from common or prodigious expectations; from the regrets of conformity. To make us advance from primordial states and beliefs to new Dreams of the being that corresponds and tinkles, that emerges and wants to express itself - humanizing.

To internalize and live the message:

When did you realize that in the enigma about the Person of Christ there is already a cut with the obvious expectation, and a cue - the energy of the solution?

[Thursday 25th wk. in O.T.  September 26, 2024]

Who is Jesus: a question that judges

(Lk 9:7-9)

Jesus, who is he? No answer can be given except in the light of his story and his condemnation: nothing to do with one of the spirits or miracle-makers who arouses curiosity, as Herod expected.

The contrast between the extraordinary figure expected and misunderstood, and the obtuseness of the elusive judgement ends up leaving things as they are. Worse: it encloses the Mystery - the most normal one in the world, but one that remains forever [God's humanity] - and loses its 'whereabouts' today.

One does not understand the Person of Christ from the things we know or try to frame him in the customary criteria of the First Testament; with the common feeling, with the magical models of the time...

He is not one of the ancient prophets, come back to purify the filthiness of the opportunist strings of the Temple, and to mend the practices of ancient religion. He comes to supplant them.

By political exigencies, Herod Antipas is forced to be constantly on the alert for the security of his small kingdom [Galilee and Perea] so the success of the Baptist frightens him.

As Josephus Flavius reports, the king preferred to do away with him for fear of a popular uprising, for which he would have to account to Rome.

But - it is the stupidity of power - once a prophet is beheaded, someone more incisive takes his place.

While the blood of the Baptist was still fresh, news came of a young Rabbi who shocked the minds of the subjects of those lands.

The subversive nightmare returns, more subtle than before: the Son of God does not merely call for an improvement of the situation; he wants to replace it.

He proclaims the Truth of the Father and of authentic man, proposing a germ of an alternative world to the ruthless, pyramidal society of the time.

He intends to sweep away the attractive but false idols; however, he does not like the axe of the Baptizer, nor the violent zeal of Elijah - who had sent down a portentous and unstoppable fire from heaven on his enemies.

Jesus wants to value the intuition of consciences, rather than duties or the eagerness to analyse behaviour. This is the incredible.

The Lord is not some kind of 'ghost' who emerges from the past to make the 'ultimate', in an atmosphere [also of group] that oppresses and expects enhanced or even outsized results.

He turns history to fulfilment according to innate and spontaneous impulses, which will allow the simply personal and the blatantly unprecedented to emerge.

Each religious group enclosed the Messiah in its own interpretative model, consonant with an environment tinged with ancient hopes: defence of goods and customs, 'cultural' identity, well-being at the expense of others, expansion, prodigies.

The revolution of the sons poses a theme that seeks the authentic, proximate Way and Elsewhere - precisely, the humanity of God. In the background, around the corner, but not relegated inside a corner.

In short, to question the Person of Jesus is already to begin to move beyond conformist codes and petty habitual interpretations... to embrace the irruption of the Eternal.

It is the very question about the prominence of Person that invites us not to look at a single banal solution [that of everyone or of some lover of paroxysm].

Rather, to broaden the horizon and begin an Exodus, which will lead us to the authentic understanding and measure; to the reason why we are in the world.

Christ reverses the fate and destiny of the kingdom of man.

Any outward juxtaposition to even eminent figures in the gallery of history's greats remains static, partial, too predictable.

Not infrequently deviant, because of the inevitable cerebral limitations it causes, caging the soul [and immobilising life].

By Way, the growth of knowledge of its story, the adherence to its depth, the Action of the Spirit, will not allow fixed thoughts, attachments, commonplaces to persist in our minds.

Interpretations, preconceptions or window dressing that then impregnate the whole of life and dull it, depriving it of intoxication.

Entirely personal presence, new insight, innate Wisdom of 'nature'; not a specific particularism that does not offer regenerated life - that only winks at itself.

Jesus: he is the Engine, the Way and the Motive of the Way in the Spirit that is leading us.

His Person in us finds a "point" within from which He pours forth the courage to be ourselves, and to no longer seek external approval.

This frees the soul from common, or prodigious expectations; from the regrets of conformity. To advance from primordial states and beliefs to new Dreams of being that corresponds and tinkles, that emerges and wants to express itself - humanising.

To internalise and live the message:

In your opinion, what interpretations and preconceptions dampen the exercise of personal intuition in one's growth, and Evangelisation?When did you realise that in the enigma about the Person of Christ there is already a cut with the obvious of expectations, and a cue - the energy of the solution, even for revival from the global emergency?

As we follow him

To truly know Jesus we must talk to him, dialogue with him as we follow him on his path. Pope Francis focused his homily at the mass celebrated on 26 September 2013 in the chapel of Santa Marta precisely on getting to know Jesus.

The Pontiff took as his starting point the passage from Luke's Gospel (9:7-9) in which Herod wonders who the Jesus he hears so much about is. The person of Jesus, the Pontiff recalled, often provoked questions such as: "Who is this? Where does he come from? Let us think, for example, in the synagogue in Nazareth, when he left for the first time: but where did he learn these things? We know him well: he is the carpenter's son. We think of Peter and the apostles after that storm, that wind that Jesus silenced. But who is he to whom heaven and earth, the wind, the rain, the storm obey? But who is he?"

Questions, the Pope explained, that one can ask out of curiosity or to be sure of how to behave before him. The fact remains, however, that anyone who knows Jesus asks these questions. Indeed, "some", continued the Pope, returning to the Gospel episode, "begin to feel afraid of this man, because he can lead them into a political conflict with the Romans"; and so they think they do not take into greater consideration "this man who creates so many problems".

And why, the Pontiff asked, does Jesus create problems? "One cannot know Jesus," was his answer, "without having problems". Paradoxically, he added, 'if you want to have a problem, go down the road that leads you to know Jesus' and then many problems will arise. In any case, Jesus cannot be known 'in first class' or 'in tranquillity', let alone 'in the library'. Jesus can only be known in the daily journey of life.

And one can get to know him, said the Holy Father, "even in the catechism. It is true! The catechism,' he specified, 'teaches us many things about Jesus and we must study him, we must learn him. In this way we learn that the Son of God came to save us and we understand from the beauty of salvation history the love of the Father'. The fact remains, however, that even knowledge of Jesus through the catechism "is not enough": knowing him with the mind is already a step forward, but "Jesus must be known in dialogue with him. Speaking with him, in prayer, on your knees. If you do not pray, if you do not speak with Jesus,' he said, 'you do not know him'.

Finally, there is a third way to know Jesus: "It is following him, going with him, walking with him, walking his ways. And as you walk with him, you know "Jesus with the language of action. If you know Jesus with these three languages: of the mind, of the heart, of action, then you can say that you know Jesus". Making this kind of knowledge involves personal involvement. "One cannot know Jesus," the Pontiff reiterated, "without involving oneself with him, without staking one's life for him. Therefore, to really know him it is necessary to read "what the Church tells you about him, to speak with him in prayer and to walk the road with him". This is the way and "each one - he concluded - must make his own choice".

[Pope Francis, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 27/09/2013]

My dear Professor Odifreddi, (...) I would like to thank you for having tried in great detail to engage with my book and thus with my faith; this is largely what I had intended in my speech to the Roman Curia at Christmas 2009. I must also thank you for the fair manner in which you treated my text, sincerely trying to do it justice.

My judgement of your book as a whole is, however, rather mixed in itself. I read some parts of it with enjoyment and profit. In other parts, however, I marvelled at a certain aggressiveness and recklessness of the argumentation. (...)

Several times, she points out to me that theology would be science fiction. In this regard, I am amazed that you nevertheless consider my book worthy of such detailed discussion. Allow me to propose four points on this matter:

1. Is it correct to say that 'science' in the strictest sense of the word is only mathematics, whereas I learnt from you that here too a distinction should be made between arithmetic and geometry. In all specific subjects, scientificity has its own form each time, depending on the particularity of its object. The essential thing is that it applies a verifiable method, excludes arbitrariness and guarantees rationality in the respective modes.

2. At the very least, it should recognise that, in the historical sphere and in that of philosophical thought, theology has produced lasting results.

3. An important function of theology is to keep religion bound to reason and reason to religion. Both functions are of essential importance to humanity. In my dialogue with Habermas, I showed that there are pathologies of religion and - no less dangerous - pathologies of reason. Both need each other, and keeping them continuously connected is an important task of theology.

4. Science fiction exists, on the other hand, within many sciences. What you expound on the theories about the beginning and end of the world in Heisenberg, Schrödinger, etc., I would designate as science fiction in the good sense: they are visions and anticipations, in order to arrive at true knowledge, but they are, in fact, only imaginations with which we try to approach reality. There is, after all, science fiction in a big way even within the theory of evolution. Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene is a classic example of science fiction. The great Jacques Monod wrote some sentences that he himself will surely have included in his work only as science fiction. I quote: 'The appearance of tetrapod vertebrates ... originates precisely from the fact that a primitive fish 'chose' to go and explore the earth, on which it was, however, unable to move except by jumping awkwardly and thus creating, as a consequence of a change in behaviour, the selective pressure thanks to which the robust limbs of the tetrapods would develop. Among the descendants of this daring explorer, this Magellan of evolution, some can run at speeds in excess of 70 kilometres per hour..." (quoted in the Italian edition Il caso e la necessità, Milan 2001, p. 117 ff.). 

In all the issues discussed so far this is a serious dialogue, for which I - as I have already said repeatedly - am grateful. Things are different in the chapter on the priest and Catholic morality, and still differently in the chapters on Jesus. As for what you say about the moral abuse of minors by priests, I can - as you know - only take note of this with deep consternation. I have never tried to disguise these things. That the power of evil should penetrate to such an extent into the inner world of faith is for us a suffering that, on the one hand, we must endure, while, on the other hand, we must at the same time do everything possible to ensure that such cases do not happen again. Nor is it any comfort to know that, according to research by sociologists, the percentage of priests guilty of these crimes is no higher than in other comparable professional categories. In any case, one should not ostentatiously present this deviation as if it were a filth specific to Catholicism.

If it is not permissible to remain silent about evil in the Church, one must not, however, remain silent either about the great luminous wake of goodness and purity that the Christian faith has traced down the centuries. We must remember the great and pure figures that the faith has produced - from Benedict of Norcia and his sister Scholastica, to Francis and Clare of Assisi, to Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, to the great Saints of charity such as Vincent de Paul and Camillus de Lellis, to Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the great and noble figures of 19th century Turin. It is also true today that faith drives many people to selfless love, service for others, sincerity and justice. (...)

What you say about the figure of Jesus is not worthy of your scientific rank. If you pose the question as if nothing is known about Jesus and nothing can be ascertained about him as a historical figure, then I can only strongly urge you to become a little more historically competent. I recommend to you for this especially the four volumes that Martin Hengel (an exegete from the Protestant Theological Faculty in Tübingen) has published together with Maria Schwemer: it is an excellent example of historical accuracy and extensive historical information. In the face of this, what you say about Jesus is rash talk that you should not repeat. That much has also been written in exegesis that is not very serious is, unfortunately, an indisputable fact. The American seminar on Jesus that you cite on pages 105 ff. only confirms once again what Albert Schweitzer had noted about Leben-Jesu-Forschung (Research on the Life of Jesus), namely that the so-called 'historical Jesus' is mostly a mirror of the ideas of the authors. Such unsuccessful forms of historical work, however, in no way undermine the importance of serious historical research, which has brought us true and reliable knowledge about the proclamation and the figure of Jesus. 

(...) Furthermore, I must emphatically reject your claim (p. 126) that I have presented historical-critical exegesis as a tool of the antichrist. In dealing with the account of Jesus' temptations, I have only taken up Soloviev's thesis that historical-critical exegesis can also be used by the antichrist - which is an indisputable fact. At the same time, however, I have always - and in particular in the preface to the first volume of my book on Jesus of Nazareth - made it abundantly clear that historical-critical exegesis is necessary for a faith that does not propose myths with historical images, but claims true historicity and must therefore also present the historical reality of its claims in a scientific manner. That is why it is not even correct for you to say that I would only be interested in meta-history: on the contrary, all my efforts are aimed at showing that the Jesus described in the Gospels is also the real historical Jesus; that it is history that really happened. (...)

With the 19th chapter of your book we return to the positive aspects of your dialogue with my thinking. (...) Although your interpretation of John 1: 1 is far removed from what the evangelist intended, there is nevertheless a convergence that is important. If you, however, want to replace God with 'Nature', the question remains, who or what this nature is. Nowhere do you define it and it therefore appears as an irrational deity that explains nothing. Above all, however, I would still like to point out that in your religion of mathematics three fundamental themes of human existence remain unconsidered: freedom, love and evil. I am astonished that you with a single mention dismiss freedom, which has been and is the core value of the modern age. Love does not appear in your book and there is no information about evil either. Whatever neurobiology may or may not say about freedom, in the real drama of our history it is present as a determining reality and must be taken into account. But your mathematical religion knows no information about evil. A religion that leaves out these fundamental questions remains empty.

My dear Professor, my criticism of your book is harsh in parts. But frankness is part of dialogue; only in this way can knowledge grow. You have been very frank and so you will accept that I am too. In any case, however, I very much welcome the fact that you, through your confrontation with my Introduction to Christianity, have sought such an open dialogue with the faith of the Catholic Church and that, despite all the contrasts, there is no lack of convergence in the core area.

With cordial greetings and all good wishes for your work.

[Pope Benedict, article in La Repubblica 24/09/2013]

1. With last week's catechesis, following the oldest symbols of the Christian faith, we began a new cycle of reflections on Jesus Christ. The Apostolic Symbol proclaims: "I believe . . . in Jesus Christ, his only Son (of God)". The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Symbol, after defining with even greater precision the divine origin of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, goes on to declare that this Son of God 'for us men and for our salvation descended from heaven and . . . became incarnate'. As can be seen, the core of the Christian faith consists of the twofold truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Son of man (the Christological truth), and is the realisation of man's salvation, which God the Father has accomplished in him, his Son and Saviour of the world (the soteriological truth).

2. If in the previous catecheses we dealt with evil, and sin in particular, we did so also to prepare the present cycle on Jesus Christ the Saviour. Salvation in fact means deliverance from evil, particularly sin. Revelation contained in sacred Scripture, beginning with the Proto-Gospel (Gen 3:15) opens us up to the truth that only God can free man from sin and all the evil present in human existence. God, while revealing himself as the Creator of the world and its providential Orderer, simultaneously reveals himself as Saviour: as the one who liberates from evil, particularly from sin caused by the creature's free will. This is the culmination of the creative project implemented by God's Providence, in which world (cosmology), man (anthropology) and God the Saviour (soteriology) are closely linked.

In fact, as the Second Vatican Council recalls, Christians believe that the world is "created and kept in existence by the love of the Creator, a world certainly placed under the bondage of sin, but liberated by Christ crucified and risen . . ." (Gaudium et Spes, 2).

3. The name 'Jesus', considered in its etymological meaning, means 'Yahweh frees', saves, helps. Before the enslavement in Babylon it was expressed in the form 'Jehosua': a theophoric name containing the root of the most holy name of Yahweh. After the Babylonian enslavement it took the abbreviated form 'Jeshua', which in the translation of the Septuagint was transcribed as 'Jesoûs' from which the Italian 'Jesus' is derived.

The name was quite common, both in the time of the old and the new covenant. It is in fact the name borne by Joshua, who after the death of Moses introduced the Israelites into the promised land: "He, according to the meaning of his name, was great for the salvation of God's elect . . . to give possession to Israel' (Sir 46: 1). Jesus, son of Sirach, was the compiler of the book of Sirach (Sir 50: 27). In the genealogy of the Saviour, recorded in the Gospel according to Luke, we find enumerated 'Er, son of Jesus' (Lk 3:28-29). Among St Paul's co-workers is also a certain Jesus, "called Righteous" (cf. Col 4:11).

4. The name Jesus, however, never had the fullness of meaning that it would take on in the case of Jesus of Nazareth and that would be revealed by the angel to Mary (cf. Lk 1:31ff.) and Joseph (cf. Mt 1:21). At the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, people understood his name in the common sense of the time.

"We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the prophets wrote, Jesus, son of Joseph of Nazareth". So says one of the first disciples, Philip, to Nathanael who replies: "Can anything good ever come from Nazareth?" (Jn 1:45-46). This question indicates that Nazareth was not highly esteemed by the children of Israel. In spite of this, Jesus was called "Nazarene" (cf. Matthew 2: 23), or even "Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee" (Matthew 21: 11), an expression that Pilate himself used in the inscription he had placed on the cross: "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews" (John 19: 19).

5. People called Jesus "the Nazarene" after the place where he resided with his family until he was thirty years old. We know, however, that Jesus' birthplace was not Nazareth but Bethlehem, a town in Judea, south of Jerusalem. This is attested by the evangelists Luke and Matthew. The former, in particular, points out that because of the census ordered by the Roman authorities, "Joseph went up from the town of Nazareth and Galilee to Judea to the city of David, called Bethlehem, to be registered with Mary his wife, who was with child. Now while they were in that place, the days of childbirth were fulfilled for her" (Lk 2:4-6).

As with other biblical places, Bethlehem also takes on a prophetic value. Referring to the prophet Micah, Matthew recalls that this town was designated as the place of the birth of the Messiah: "And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are not the smallest chief town of Judah: for out of you shall come forth a leader who shall shepherd my people Israel" (Mt 2:6). The prophet adds: ". . its origins are from antiquity, from the earliest days" (Mt 5:1).

This text was referred to by the priests and scribes whom Herod had consulted to answer the Magi who, having come from the East, asked where the birthplace of the Messiah was.

The text in Matthew's Gospel (Matthew 2: 1): "Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the time of King Herod", refers to the prophecy of Micah, to which the question in the Fourth Gospel also refers: "Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from the seed of David and from Bethlehem, the village of David?" (John 7: 42).

6. From these details we deduce that Jesus is the name of a historical person who lived in Palestine. If it is right to give historical credibility to figures like Moses and Joshua, all the more reason to accept the historical existence of Jesus. The Gospels do not tell us in detail about his life because they do not have a primarily historiographical purpose. However, it is precisely the Gospels that, read with critical honesty, lead to the conclusion that Jesus of Nazareth is a historical person who lived in a specific space and time. Even from a purely scientific point of view, it is not those who affirm, but those who deny the existence of Jesus, as the mythological theories of the past have done and as some scholars still do today, that must arouse wonder.

As for the precise date of Jesus' birth, expert opinions do not agree. It is commonly accepted that the monk Dionysius the Small, when in the year 533 he proposed to calculate the years not from the foundation of Rome, but from the birth of Jesus Christ, fell into error. Until recently, it was believed that this was a mistake of about four years, but the matter is far from settled.

7. In the tradition of the Israelitic people, the name 'Jesus' has retained its etymological value: 'God frees'. Traditionally, it was always the parents who imposed the name on their children. However, in the case of Jesus, son of Mary, the name was chosen and assigned from above already before his birth, according to the angel's indication to Mary in the annunciation (Lk 1:31) and to Joseph in a dream (Mt 1:21). "He was given the name Jesus" - underlines the evangelist Luke - because by this name "he had been called by the angel before he was conceived in his mother's womb" (Lk 2:21).

8. In the plan laid out by God's providence, Jesus of Nazareth bears a name that alludes to salvation: "God delivers", because he is in fact what the name indicates, namely the Saviour. This is testified by a number of phrases in the so-called Infancy Gospels, written by Luke (Lk 2:11): ". . there was born . . . a Saviour", and by Matthew (Mt 1:21): "for he will save his people from their sins". These are expressions that reflect the truth that is revealed and proclaimed throughout the New Testament. For example, the Apostle Paul writes in the Letter to the Philippians: "For this reason God has exalted him and given him the name which is above every other name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and every tongue proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord (Kyrios, Adonai) to the glory of God the Father' (Phil 2:9-11).

The reason for the exaltation of Jesus we find in the testimony given to him by the apostles who boldly proclaimed: 'In no one else is there salvation; for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which it is established that we may be saved' (Acts 4:12).

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 14 January 1987]

"It would be a good habit if every day, at some time, we could say: 'Lord, may I know you and may I know myself' and so go on". This is the suggestion proposed by Pope Francis in the Mass celebrated on Thursday 25 October at Santa Marta. There is no need for "Christians in words" who say the Creed "in parrot fashion", said the Pontiff, inviting people to live the experience of seriously feeling themselves to be sinners.

"If someone," Francis began, "asks us 'who is Jesus Christ', we will certainly say what we learned in catechesis, how he came to save the world, we will say the true doctrine about Jesus: he is the saviour of the world, the Son of the Father, God, man, what we recite in the Creed." But, he pointed out, "a little more difficult will be to answer the question: 'True, but for you, who is Jesus Christ?'". And this is a "question" that "embarrasses us a little, because I have to think and reach into my heart to give the answer".

So, the Pope relaunched, 'for me, who is Jesus Christ? The knowledge of Jesus Christ that I have, what is it? When I say that for me Jesus Christ is the Saviour, it is so,' said the Pontiff, 'but each one of us must also answer from the heart, what we know and feel about Jesus Christ, because we all know that he is the Saviour of the world, that he is the Son of God, that he came to earth to save us, and we can also recount so many passages of the Gospel'.

The direct question remains, however: but 'for me' who is Jesus Christ? Precisely "this is Paul's work," Francis explained in reference to the liturgical passage from the letter to the Ephesians (3:14-21), noting that the apostle "has this restlessness to transmit his own experience of Jesus Christ. In fact, Francis insisted, Paul "did not come to know Jesus Christ by beginning with theological studies; then, he went to see how Jesus Christ was announced in Scripture". On the contrary, 'he came to know Jesus Christ by his own experience, when he fell from his horse, when the Lord spoke to his heart, directly'. And 'what Paul heard he wants us Christians to hear'.

If it were possible to ask Paul 'who is Christ for you?', he would, the Pope said, tell 'his own experience, simple: "He loved me and gave himself up for me"'. But Paul 'is involved with Christ, who has paid for him', and 'this experience Paul wants Christians - in this case the Christians of Ephesus - to have, to enter into this experience to the point where everyone can say: "He loved me and gave himself up for me"'. But it is important 'to say it with one's own experience,' the Pope suggested.

Francis wished to reread a passage from the letter to the Ephesians proposed as the first reading: "May Christ dwell through faith in your hearts, and so, rooted and grounded in charity, be able to understand - there goes Paul - what is the breadth, length, height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

"Paul wants to lead us all to this experience," the Pontiff explained, because it is "the experience he had of Jesus Christ: the encounter with Jesus Christ made him understand this great thing".

But "how can one get there, what is the way?" is the question proposed by the Pope. Perhaps, he added, "I have to recite the Creed many times? Yes, but it is not really the right way to arrive at this experience: it will help, but it is not the right way'. In fact, Francis said, "Paul when he says that Jesus gave himself up for him, that he died for him, he means 'he paid for me' and he recounts his own experience many times in his letters: 'I was a sinner', 'I persecuted Christians'".

To do this, the Pope continued, he 'starts from his own sin, from his own sinful existence, and the first definition Paul gives of himself is "sinner": chosen out of love, but a sinner'. Thus, the Pontiff pointed out, 'the first step to the knowledge of Christ, to enter into this mystery, is the knowledge of one's own sin, one's own sins'.

"We all approach the sacrament of reconciliation and we say our sins," Francis continued. "But," he specified, "it is one thing to say one's sins, to recognise one's sins, and another thing to recognise oneself as a 'sinner', capable of doing anything". In short, 'recognising oneself as dirt'. And 'Paul has this experience'.

It takes, therefore, the knowledge that 'the first step to the knowledge of Jesus Christ is one's own knowledge, of one's own wretchedness, which needs to be redeemed, which needs someone to pay: to pay for the right to call oneself a "child of God"'. In reality, the Pope explained, 'we all are, but' to 'say it, to feel it, there was a need for Christ's sacrifice and, starting from this, Paul goes on with these religious experiences that he has, one after the other, through prayer and charity'.

Here then, the Pontiff reaffirmed, that 'the first step' is 'to recognise oneself as a sinner, but not in theory, in practice'. To say 'I started to do this, I stopped, but if I had gone further down this road, I would have ended up badly, very badly' is 'the root of sin that takes you forward'. So "the first step is this: to recognise yourself as a sinner and tell yourself your miseries, to be ashamed of yourself: that is the first step".

"The second step to knowing Jesus is contemplation, prayer," the Pope said, proposing the simple invocation: "Lord, may I know you". And adding that "there is a beautiful prayer, by a saint: 'Lord, may I know you and may I know myself'". It is a matter, Francis explained, of "knowing oneself and knowing Jesus". And "here we have this relationship of salvation: prayer," the Pontiff relaunched, inviting us "not to be content with saying three, four right words about Jesus" because "to know Jesus is an adventure, but an adventure in earnest, not a child's adventure.

To know Jesus, the Pope continued, "is an adventure that takes you your whole life, because the love of Jesus is without limits". Paul reminds us of this in his letter to the Ephesians: "What breadth, length, height and depth" is an expression to indicate, precisely, that "it has no limits". But "this only with the help of the Holy Spirit can we find: it is the experience of a Christian". And "Paul himself says it: He has all power to do far more than we can ask or think. He has the power to do it'. But "we must ask him: 'Lord, that I may know you; that when I speak of you, I speak not parrot words, I speak words born of my experience, and like Paul I may say: 'He loved me and gave himself up for me' and say it with conviction". This is our strength, this is our testimony".

"Christians of words, we have many; we too, many times we are," Francis warned. But "this is not holiness: holiness is being Christians who work in life what Jesus taught and what Jesus sowed in the heart". To do this one must "know Jesus" with "that knowledge that has no limits: the height, the length, the fullness, everything".

The "first step", the Pope repeated, remains "to know oneself as a sinner: without this knowledge, and also without this interior confession that I am a sinner, we cannot go forward". Then, he recalled, the "second step" is "prayer to the Lord that, with his power, he may make us know this mystery of Jesus who is the fire that he brought to earth."

[Pope Francis, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 26/10/2018]

Satisfied sobriety: new Depth

(Lk 9:1-6)

At the time of Jesus, there was no lack of various renewal movements that sought to revive community life, undermined by economic and social collapse, and political and religious servility.

Essenes, Pharisees and Zealots had their missionaries, who although sent by those who most radically desired a new way of co-presence, were totally biased against other interlocutors.

They did not trust people, nor the customs or food of others, which was also legally considered unclean.

Instead, the Apostles must learn to accept hospitality; trusting people, and imagine being welcomed even by those whom common devotion considers defiled.

The person of Faith differs from the fundamentalist religious believer because he has an opposite criterion of fraternity and coexistence: he denounces the laws of ritual, cultural and social exclusion.

He/she have a new depth.

Access to 'purity' is in the intimate and personal relationship with God, and in the quality of open relationships; not elsewhere. And the Church is an eccentric reality; it does not live for itself, for advantage, to win.

It has only the task of keeping alive the Message that guides all to full Happiness.

Each one, and the Community itself, focus on the [real, through life] Announcement that has transforming power. Absolutely the Church is not established to impose ideas and triumph, far from it.

Thus the son of God on the way cannot spend time improving his lodging, as if it were a sign of social and spiritual rank - perhaps moving from an initial makeshift accommodation to more and more affluent and conspicuous forms on the territory (v.4).

The authentic witness to Christ has in his heart quite another Promise.

Lk insists that the Mission must take place in absolute poverty - a condition for continuing the dream of Jesus - and even takes away from the believer in Christ the [helpless] shortage of the travelling stick that Mk (6:8) leaves him instead.

Relationships with events, relationships with people and the blind forces of power, and natural contingencies, must become in us Encounter.

Stunning of new Empathy that in itself announces wisdom, healing, and victory over infirmity (vv.1-2) - introducing even the distant and desperate to the incisiveness of Faith.

This Journey of finding one's own and others' lives in the hands of the Father is not yet over.

The Truth of the Risen One is open to an updated and perspective, unframed Hope - to be enlivened again. The need for works transmuting the ancient world acquires an ever invigorated topicality.

It continues to the present day, but with needs, motives, horizons and offers of redemption in totally surprising “divine” forms - also due to multifaceted cultural contexts [or even internal interferences, with their unchanging attempts at rigid and pious respectability or fashionable obfuscation of the human spirit].

What matters is not the Means, tools [which are used from time to time], which differ according to environment or are more or less limited, but the proclamation of the Truth that one 'does', not that one 'has'.

In itself, material deprivation is a “chair”, but also a showcase. In other religions, there are forms of individual poverty and dispossession [compared to ours] that are heroic and astonishing, yet perhaps inaccessible and circle-like in their incredible athleticism - and depersonalisation.

The Church must be free, available, all dedicated, defenceless.

Its specific weight - a true guarantee of credibility - remains to be discerned in the order of a universal and perfect life ‘as saved ones’ [recovered by Grace], not like aseptic phenomena chiselled in minute detail.

We see it today, in the time of global crisis: we need to reinvent ourselves in order to be reborn, even in terms of the sacredness criteria.

In short: we have to stop sabotaging our spontaneous natural resources, and become who we are, starting from day-to-day frailties - in a more genuine [and at the same time, deeper] way.

Sometimes it will be necessary to make use of the very aspects that were once considered to be a weakness of character... precisely to be excluded, in a world that is all exterior, falsely extroverted, mannered, self-important.

In order to build one Family and one People of God, freed from fetters that humble the joy, all credible ‘facts’ and conforming ‘means’ - fragrant and spontaneous, or even culturally honed - can be welcomed, taken into account, reinvented.

The absolute and non-negotiable option is the good of the concrete woman and man, not a belief in pureness, or “cultural” appropriateness.

What matters is the concern for our relationship with God in the communion with our brothers and sisters as equals, for a conviviality of differences that enriches us, personally and together.

The quality of understanding is enough for everything, and marks a wise difference to idolizing aspects... such as material rivalry, control of weak consciences, and expansion into the territory - figures that are so important for ideologies and unfortunately also for some imposing forms of our beliefs [rigid or surreptitious].

If, on the other hand, we root ourselves in an exclusively convivial and broad-minded disposition of coexistence, we will inform our entire way of life. This, in the satisfied sobriety of those who already possess the authentic Treasure, within and without: the universal Christ, resurrected for the «multitudes»; Source and Summit of the Kingdom to be built.

To internalize and live the message:

How do you proclaim the Kingdom of God?

Do you bring what you, first, experienced, or do you prefer other people’s ideas, artificial attitudes, schemes, thoughts, organisation charts and ‘names’?

What do you think complicates the Announcement today?

[Wednesday 25th wk. in O.T.  September 25, 2024]

Dear friends, with your precious work of animation and missionary cooperation you remind the People of God of “the need in our day too for decisive commitment to the missio ad gentes” (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, n. 95), to proclaim the “the great hope”, “the God who has a human face and who has loved us to the end, each one of us and humanity in its entirety” (Encyclical Spe Salvi, n. 31). Indeed, new problems and new forms of slavery are emerging in our time, both in the so-called first world, well-off and rich but uncertain about its future, and in the developing countries, which, partly because of a globalization often characterized by profit ends by increasing the masses of the poor, emigrants and the oppressed, in which the light of hope fades.

The Church must constantly renew her commitment to bring Christ, to prolong his messianic mission to bring about the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom of justice, peace, freedom and love. It is the duty of the entire People of God to transform the world according to God’s plan with the renewing force of the Gospel, so “that God may be everything to every one” (1 Cor 15:28). Thus it is necessary to continue with renewed enthusiasm the work of evangelization, the joyful proclamation of the Kingdom of God, who came in Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, to lead all men and women to the true freedom of children of God against every form of slavery. It is necessary to cast the nets of the Gospel into the sea of history to bring human beings towards the land of God.

“The mission of proclaiming the word of God is the task of all of the disciples of Jesus Christ based on their Baptism” (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, n. 94). However in order that they may be a decisive commitment to evangelization, it is necessary that individual Christians and communities truly believe that “the word of God is the saving truth which men and women in every age need” (ibid., n. 95). If this conviction of faith is not profoundly rooted in our own lives, we shall not be able to feel the urgency and beauty of proclaiming it. In fact, every Christian must make his or her own the pressing need to work for the edification of the Kingdom of God. Everything in the Church is at the service of evangelization: every sector of her activity and also each and every one, in the various duties that they are called to carry out. All must be involved in the missio ad gentes: bishops, priests, men and women religious and lay people. “No believer in Christ can feel dispensed from this responsibility which comes from the fact of our sacramentally belonging to the Body of Christ” (ibid., n. 94). It is therefore necessary to ensure that all the sectors of pastoral work, catechesis and charity are characterized by the missionary dimension: the Church is mission.

A fundamental condition for proclamation is to let oneself be completely grasped by Christ, the Word of God incarnate, because only those who listen attentively to the incarnate Word, who are intimately united to him, can become his heralds (cf. ibid., nn. 51, 91). The Gospel messenger must remain under the dominion of the Word and must draw nourishment from the Sacraments: it is on this vital sap that their existence and missionary ministry depends. Only if we are rooted profoundly in Christ and in his word are we capable of withstanding the temptation to reduce evangelization to a purely human, social project, hiding or glossing over the transcendent dimension of the salvation offered by God in Christ.

It is a word that must be witnessed to and proclaimed explicitly, because without a consistent witness it proves to be less comprehensible and credible. Even if we often feel inadequate, poor, incapable, let us always preserve our certainty of the power of God who places his treasure “in earthen vessels” precisely so that it may appear that it is he who acts through us.

The ministry of evangelization is fascinating and demanding. It requires love for proclamation and bearing witness, a love so total that it can even be marked by martyrdom. The Church cannot fail in her mission of bringing Christ’s light, of proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel, even if this entails persecution (cf. Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, n. 95). It is part of her very life, as it was for Jesus. Christians must not be afraid, even if “Christians are the religious group which suffers most from persecution on account of its faith” (Message for the World Day of Peace 2011, n. 1).

St Paul said that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39).

[Pope Benedict, address to the General Assembly Pontifical Missionary Works 14 May 2011]

2. Today's meeting takes place in the time and spirit of the Great Jubilee, which the universal Church is observing with great fervour. This is an extraordinary year of grace, in which the Christian community is having a deeper experience of God's goodness revealed in the Incarnation of the Son and gratefully proclaimed by the Church to all nations. The words of the Apostle echo in our minds:  "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor 6: 2b).

The celebration of the Great Jubilee appears, therefore, as a very timely occasion for reflecting on the mercy which God the Father, through the Holy Spirit, has offered in Christ to all humanity. The Great Jubilee is the "message of salvation", which should ring out in every corner of the world, so that whoever hears it may become, in turn, a witness to it and make it a means of salvation for every person. We are all called to open our eyes to the needs of the many sheep without a shepherd (cf. Mk 6: 34), in order to serve them by making known to them the Lord's name so that they may confess him and share in salvation (cf. Rom 10: 9)

3. In particular I would like to recall here all the men and women who, by dedicating themselves "ad vitam" to the mission "ad gentes", have made this work the raison d'être of their lives. They are an incomparable example of devotion to the cause of spreading the Gospel. I thank and cordially bless everyone who, in ways as discreet as they are effective, is involved in the work of promoting missionary awareness and cooperation. There are many of them. Numerous lay people join the priests and consecrated persons, individually or as a family, in the desire to give several years or even their whole life to the mission. They often proclaim the Good News and express their faith in hostile or indifferent surroundings. Dear brothers and sisters, please convey to them my gratitude and encouragement to persevere generously in their zealous missionary commitment. God, who never lets himself be outdone in generosity, will reward them.

The recent commemoration of the Witnesses to the Faith in the 20th Century, celebrated last Sunday at the Colosseum, reminds us that the supreme test of mission is often the gift of one's life to the point of death. "Throughout Christian history, "martyrs', that is, witnesses, have always been numerous and indispensable to the spread of the Gospel. In our own age, there are many:  Bishops, priests, men and women religious, lay people - often unknown heroes who give their lives to bear witness to the faith. They are par excellence the heralds and witnesses of the faith" (Encyclical Letter Redemptoris missio, n. 45).

As we thank God for our brothers and sisters in faith, we pray that their missionary work in the Church will always be inspired by great generosity.

[Pope John Paul II, address to the assembly of the Pontifical Missionary Works 11 May 2000]