Vatican City (AsiaNews) – The message of Jesus cannot be separated "from the context of faith and hope of the chosen people" because "even if his preaching is always an appeal to personal conversion, in reality it is continually aimed at the constitution of the People of God, who he came to gather together and save". The affirmation of the "profound, inseparable, and mysterious continuity" between Jesus and "his Church", which renders invalid the statement, "Jesus yes, Church no", will be the theme to which Pope Benedict XVI will dedicate the reflections of the upcoming general audiences. This was announced by the pope himself as he addressed 30,000 worshippers present in St Peter's Square for today's audience. He said that once the cycle of reflections dedicated to the Psalms and Canticles of the Lauds and Vespers is over, he will dedicate himself to illustrating the "relationship between Christ and the Church, starting from the experience of the Apostles, in the light of the task entrusted to them".

The Church, said Benedict XVI, "was built on the foundation of the Apostles as a community of faith, of hope and of charity. Through the Apostles, we go back to Jesus himself. The Church started when some fishermen from Galilee met Jesus and allowed themselves to be conquered by his look, by his voice, by his warm and strong invitation: "Follow me, I will make you fishers of men!" (Mk 1:17; Mt 4:19)". The mission which started thus "is not however isolated, it has a place in the mystery of communion, which involves the entire People of God, and is implemented in steps spanning the old to the new Covenant. Something that must be said in this regard is that the message of Jesus is completely misunderstood if separated from the context of faith and hope of the chosen people: like the Baptist, his immediate precursor, Jesus turns first and foremost to Israel (cfr Mt 15:24), for the "harvest" in the eschatological time which has come with him."

Describing as "baseless" an "individualistic interpretation of the proclamation about the Kingdom made by Christ", the pope-theologian stressed that the "evident sign of the intention of the Nazarene was to unite the community of the covenant" in the "institution of the Twelve". If their number is a clear reference to the ancient tribes of Israel, "by their very existence, the Twelve – called from diverse origins – become an appeal to all Israel to convert and to allow itself to be gathered into the new covenant, a full and perfect fulfillment of the old one. By entrusting them with the task of celebrating his memory in the Supper before his Passion, Jesus showed that he wanted to transfer to the whole community, in the person of his leaders, the mandate of being a sign and instrument of eschatological oneness throughout history, started in him. In this light, one understands how the Resurrected One conferred upon them – with the effusion of the Spirit – the power to forgive sins (cfr Jn 20:23). The 12 Apostles are thus the most evident sign of the will of Jesus regarding the existence and mission of His Church, the guarantee that between Christ and the Church, there is no contraposition." He added: "Between the Son of God made man and this Church, there is a profound, inseparable and mysterious continuity, and through this, he remains ever present in his people, and in a special way in the successors of the Apostles."