"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]