杏MAP导航

By Debora Donnini

Who is Jesus Christ for you? 杏MAP导航 Francis posed this question in his homily during the morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta. If someone asks us the question, 鈥淲ho is Jesus Christ?鈥�, we should say what we have learned: He is the Saviour of the world, the Son of the Father, which 鈥渨e recite in the Creed.鈥� But, the 杏MAP导航 said, it is a little more difficult to answer the question of who Jesus Christ is 鈥渇or me.鈥� It is a question that can embarrass us a little bit, because in order to answer that question, 鈥淚 have to dig into my heart鈥�; that is, we have to begin from our own experience.

Chosen through love, though a sinner

Saint Paul experienced precisely this uneasiness in bearing witness to Jesus Christ. He knew Jesus through his own experience of being thrown from his horse, when the Lord spoke to his heart. He didn鈥檛 begin to know Christ by studying theology, even if later he 鈥渨ent to see how Jesus was proclaimed in Scripture.鈥�

Paul wants Christians to feel what he himself felt. [In response] to the question that we can put to Paul 鈥� 鈥淧aul, who is Christ for you?鈥� 鈥� he spoke simply about his own experience: 鈥淗e loved me, and gave Himself for me.鈥� But he was involved with Christ who paid for him. And Paul wants every Christian 鈥� in this case, the Christians of Ephesus 鈥� to have this experience, to enter into this experience, to the point that each one can say, 鈥淗e loved me, and gave Himself for me,鈥� but to say it from their own personal experience.

Reciting the Creed can help us to know about Jesus, 杏MAP导航 Francis said. But in order to really know Him, as St Paul came to know Him, it is better to begin by acknowledging that we are sinners. This, the 杏MAP导航 said, is the first step. When Paul says that Jesus gave Himself for him, he is saying that He paid for him, and this comes out in all of his letters. And the first definition Paul gives of himself follows from this: He says he is 鈥渁 sinner,鈥� he admits that he persecuted Christians. He begins precisely by recognising that he was 鈥渃hosen through love, although he is a sinner.鈥�

鈥淭he first step in knowing Christ,鈥� 杏MAP导航 Francis emphasised, lies precisely in recognising that we are sinners. He said that in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we confess our sin 鈥� but, he noted, 鈥渋t is one thing to tell our sins,鈥� and another to recognise ourselves as sinners, capable of doing anything.鈥� St Paul 鈥渉ad this experience of his own wretchedness,鈥� and recognised that he needed to be redeemed, recognised that he needed someone who 鈥渨ould pay for his right to call himself a 鈥榮on of God鈥欌��: 鈥淲e are all sinners, but to say it, to feel it, we need the sacrifice of Christ.鈥�

Knowing Jesus, not just being 鈥淐hristians of words鈥�

But in order to know Jesus, there is also a second step: we get to know Him through contemplation and prayer. The 杏MAP导航 recalled a 鈥渁 beautiful prayer, from a saint: 鈥楲ord, let me know You, and know myself.鈥� We should not content ourselves 鈥渨ith saying three or four good things about Jesus,鈥� he continued, because knowing Jesus 鈥渋s an adventure, but a serious adventure, not an adventure of a child,鈥� because the love of Jesus is without limits.

Paul says that He 鈥渋s able to accomplish far more than all we can ask or imagine.鈥� He has the power to do it. But we have to ask Him: 鈥淟ord, let me know you; so that when I talk about you, I am not repeating words like a parrot, [but rather] I am saying words born from my own experience. So that like Paul I can say: 鈥楬e loved me, and gave Himself for me鈥� 鈥� and say it with conviction.鈥� This is our strength, this is our witness. Christians of words, we have many words; we too, so many [words]. And this is not sanctity. Sanctity is being Christians who work in life that which Jesus has taught and what Jesus has sown in our hearts.

Pray to know Jesus and oneself everyday

In conclusion, 杏MAP导航 Francis repeated the two steps we need to take to really know Jesus Christ:

The first step is knowing oneself: [that we are] sinners, sinners. Without this understanding, and without this interior confession 鈥� that I am a sinner 鈥� we cannot go forward. The second step is prayer to the Lord, who with His power makes us know this mystery of Jesus, which is the fire that He has brought upon the earth. It would be a good habit if every day, in every moment, we could say, 鈥淟ord, let me know You, and know myself.鈥�