” ” ” “"One can never know Christ only theoretically": every Christian is called to "become again" the disciple of Jesus, who "does not belong to the past and is not confined to a distant future". Christ’s primacy is a recurring subject of the speech that the Pope gave today to the cardinals, in which Benedict XVI repeated that "man needs transcendence", because, if God "is missing, then man must try to overcome the boundaries of the world on his own"; then, "drugs become almost a necessity for him. But he soon finds out this is just a deceptive boundlessness a joke, one could say, that the devil plays on man". And then: "As we get to know Christ, we get to know God, and only from God we get to understand man and the world, a world that otherwise would remain a meaningless question". In addition, according to the Pope, "we must defend the Creation not just for our own uses but for its own sake". Other points made by the Pope include the experience of the "effective and affective collegiality" among the bishops and the invitation to turn the catechesis "not only into an intellectual lesson" but "a familiarisation of the communion of life with Christ". The speech did not fail to mention his "spiritual affection" and "heart-felt esteem" for the Chinese people and his wish that his recent Letter to the Bishops, received "with joy and gratitude" by the Chinese Catholics, may "bear the hoped-for fruits".” “
