"Saint Paul does not think of Jesus as a historian, as a person of the past. About the earthly Jesus, he supposes many things, more than telling them. For him, Jesus Christ actually is, above all, the life of our life", "here and now". And "this concept, we must all treasure". This is the final consideration of the catechesis that Benedict XVI held this morning during the general audience, focussed once again on the Apostle of People. The subject of the Pontiff’s reflection: Paul’s relation with Jesus. Speaking off the cuff, the Pontiff explained that there are two ways of knowing Jesus or anyone else: "according to the flesh" or "with one’s heart". "Only with one’s heart he explained can one truly know someone. The Twelve, in the friendship of the heart, began to truly know Jesus. Nowadays, there are learned people who know everything about Jesus, but in fact they do not know Him; others, who are simple-hearted, do not know all these things, but they truly know Him". Paul teaches us that "His Words do not belong to a past" and that "we too have to learn to know Jesus, not according to the flesh, but as a brother who is with us even now and teaches us how to live and die". (continued)
