It is not enough to try to understand him with our mind, “ideas alone do not give life and those who go down this road of ideas alone end up in labyrinth with no way out". "The great theologians do theology on their knees ." "The Book of the Gospel is full of dust, because it is never opened".

Vatican City ( AsiaNews) - In order to know Jesus, study, trying to understand him with our minds is necessary, but not enough, ideas are not enough, instead you have to "open three doors": pray to Him with our hearts, celebrate and imitate Him. This was the Pope's reflection at Mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta, commenting on Jesus' statement " I am the way, the truth and the life".

Vatican Radio reports that Pope Francis argued that "the most important job we have in our lives is to get to know Jesus". But " how can we know Jesus? Some would say: 'Studying , Father. You must study hard!.' That's true! Let us study the catechism, it is true", but study alone is not enough to know Jesus. "Some have this fantasy that with ideas, only ideas will lead us to knowledge of Jesus. Even some early Christians thought so . "

"Ideas alone do not give life and those who go down this road of ideas alone end up in labyrinth with no way out! 'This is why, since the beginning of the Church there have been heresies. These are heresies: trying to understand with our minds and with our light alone, who Jesus is.  A great English writer said that heresy is an idea gone mad. This is true! When ideas alone are mad ... that is not the way".

To know Jesus we must open three doors. "The first door: pray to Jesus.  Know that study without prayer is useless. Pray to Jesus to know him better. The great theologians do theology on their knees. Pray to Jesus! And with study, with prayer we get a little closer to Him' ... But without prayer, we will never meet Jesus, never, never ! The second door: celebrate Jesus.  Prayer is not enough, you need the joy of celebration. Celebrating Jesus in the Sacraments, because there He gives us life, He gives us strength, He give us nourishment, He gives us comfort, He gives us the covenant He gives us mission. Without the celebration of the Sacraments, we will not come to know Jesus. This belongs to the Church: celebration.  The third door: to imitate Jesus. Take the Gospel, what did he do, how was his life, what did he tell us, what did he teach us and try to imitate him."

"Entering via these three doors, the Pope went on, means entering into the mystery of Jesus and it's only in this way that we can get to know him and we mustn't be afraid to do this. "During the day, today, we can think about how the door leading to prayer is proceeding in our life: but prayer from the heart is not like that of a parrot! How is prayer of the heart? How is the Christian celebration in my life proceeding? And how is the imitation of Jesus in my life proceeding? How must I imitate him? Do you really not remember! The reason is because the Book of the Gospel is full of dust as it's never opened! Take the Book of the Gospel, open it and you will discover how to imitate Jesus! Let's think about how these three doors are positioned in our life and this will be of benefit to everybody."

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