” “”Jesus’ message would be completely misconstrued if one separated it from the sphere of faith and the hope of the chosen people”, warned the Pope, who highlighted that "Jesus’ preaching is at the same time a call of grace and a sign of contradiction and judgement for the whole of God’s people. Therefore, since the very start of His salvific work, God of Nazareth tends to gather the People of God together”. Then, Benedict XVI explained in this way the close relationship between the personal and the community dimensions of Christianity, starting from Jesus’ announcement: "Even if His preaching is always an appeal to personal conversion, in fact He always aims at constituting the People of God that He came to gather together and save. Therefore, the individualistic interpretation of Christ’s announcement of the Kingdom is biased and groundless". In fact, according to the Holy Father, "such individualism is a typically modern emphasis: in the perspective of the Biblical tradition and in the horizon of Hebraism, in which Jesus’ work finds its place despite its novelty, it appears clear that the whole mission of the Son incarnate has a community purpose, since it aims at gathering God’s eschatological people into unity". "The twelve Apostles concluded Benedict XVI are the clearest sign of Jesus’ will about the existence and the mission of His Church, the guarantee that between Christ and the Church there is no opposition. A slogan that was so fashionable a few years ago: yes to Jesus, no to the Church, is therefore completely incompatible with Christ’s intention".” “
