Pope Asks the Faithful: Who is Jesus for you?

'If you say you have faith but do not love your brother, then you are not a true believer. God does not dwell in you.'

CASTEL GANDOLFO (AsiaNews) - Mary teaches us to "bear witness to our faith with a life of humble service, ready to pay in first person in order to remain faithful to the Gospel of charity and truth, confident that nothing we do is lost." That was Benedict XVI's call today to the four thousand people who filled the courtyard of the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo for the recitation of the Angelus prayer.

Inspired by today's Gospel, the Pope said that "the Word of God challenges us with two crucial questions, that can be summarized as follows: 'Who is Jesus of Nazareth for you?'. And: 'Is your faith reflected in all that you do or not?'.

"Jesus - he commented - did not come to teach a philosophy, but to show the way, indeed, the path that leads to life. This path is love, which is the expression of true faith.

"If you love your neighbour with a pure and generous heart, it means you really know God. But if you say you have faith but do not love your brother, then you are not a true believer. God does not dwell in you.

"St. James clearly confirms as much in the second reading of the Mass this Sunday: So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead' (James 2:17). In this regard, I would like to quote a piece by Saint John Chrysostom, one of the great Fathers of the Church who the liturgical calendar invites us to remember today.

"Commenting on this very passage quoted from the Epistle of St James, he writes: 'One can also have a true faith in the Father and the Son as the Holy Spirit, but if one does not have a good life, this faith will not serve his salvation. So when one reads in the Gospel: 'This is life eternal, that they know thee the only true God' (Jn 17:3), do not think that this verse is enough to save us: a pure life and behaviour are necessary' (cited . In JA Cramer, Kalmbach Graecorum Patrum in NT, vol. VIII: In Epist. Cath. et Apoc., Oxford 1844).

Benedict XVI then recalled that on Tuesday we will celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. "The Virgin Mary, who believed the Word of God, did not lose her faith in God when she saw her son rejected, insulted and crucified. Rather she remained close to Jesus, suffering and praying, until the end.

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"And she saw the radiant dawn of his resurrection. We learn from her to bear witness to our faith with a life of humble service, ready to personally pay to remain faithful to the Gospel of charity and truth, confident that nothing we do is lost ".

"Mary" - he said finally, addressing the faithful from Poland - "ask for us the gift of courage, so that in every situation we testify that the cross of Christ is for us never a source of scandal, but of pride."