” ” ” ” "Contemplation of God" is achieved "through the practice of virtue". Within faith, "the essential moral requisite" is "as much important as the intellectual requisite", said the Pope. During today’s catechesis, dedicated to the figure of Clemens Alexandrinus, the Pope stated that "the assimilation to God and His contemplation cannot be achieved through simple rational knowledge: for those purposes, virtues are also necessary". For this reason, "the good deeds must accompany intellectual knowledge in the same way as the shadow follows the body. They are never separate from knowledge. And after all, the “real gnosis” cannot coexist with bad deeds". According to Clemens, in particular, two virtues make up the soul of the “real Christian”: "freedom from passions" and love, which "guarantees the intimate union with God and contemplation". "Love said the Pope gives us perfect peace, and renders the real gnostic able to face the greatest sacrifices, even the supreme sacrifice, and lets him climb up step by step until the top of virtues. Therefore, the ethic ideal of ancient philosophy, that is, freedom from passions, is reviewed by Clemens, and matched with love, in the incessant process of assimilation to God". (To be continued)
