"The washing that Jesus gives to His disciples", explained Benedict XVI, then becomes "a model, the job of doing the same thing to each other". This "whole, of a gift and an example, is typical of the general nature of Christianity", which, "compared with moralising, is something more and is something different". "Christianity explained Benedict XVI is first and foremost a gift: God gives Himself up to us" and "remains forever He who gives. He gives us His gifts over and over again. That’s why the central act of being Christian is the Eucharist": the "joy for the new life He gives us". However, according to the Pope, "we do not remain the passive recipients of God’s goodness. God rewards us as personal, lively partners". From this perspective, the Sermon on the Mount is not a whole of new precepts, but "a path of training in empathising with Christ’s feelings, a path of inner cleansing which leads us to living with Him". "If we reflect on this warned Benedict XVI , we feel how far we often are with our life from this novelty of the New Testament; how little we give the example to other men of loving in communion with His love. Thus we remain indebted for the proof of credibility of the Christian truth, which is proven in love". (continued)
