"The social idea of charity must never be separated from the brave announcement of faith". This is one of the lessons that come from the figure of Saint Stephen, at the centre of the catechesis of today’s general audience, attended by about 7 thousand people. Saint Stephen, said Benedict XVI, "announces Christ Crucified with such love as to accept his martyrdom", and in this way he proves how "love and announcement always go hand in hand". "As well as charity services recalled the Pope , Stephen engages in the evangelisation of his fellow countrymen, known as Hellenistic". In reading "all of the Old Testament from a Christological perspective", Saint Stephen "proves that Jesus Resurrected is the finishing point of all this history, that the cult of time is over, and Jesus is the new real temple". This causes his martyrdom, "shaped on the passion of Jesus Himself". "The killing of Stephen, Christ’s first martyr highlighted the Pope , is followed by the local persecution against the disciples of Jesus, the first in the history of the Church" and becomes "the concrete occasion that drives the group of Hellenistic Christians to leave Jerusalem". (to be continued)
