5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today we would like to share the following text of Pope St Paul VI which is a model statement about Jesus:

“Jesus is at the summit of human aspirations,

the end of our hopes and our prayers,

the focal point of the desires of history and civilization;

he is the Messiah, the centre of humanity,

he who gives value to every human action,

who is the joy and the plenitude of the desires of all hearts;

he is the true man, the type of perfection, beauty, holiness

whom God has set up to embody the true model,

the true concept of man; he is the brother of all,

the irreplaceable friend,

the only one worthy of all confidence and love:

he is the Christ-man.

And at the same time Jesus is at the source

of all our true happiness,

his is the light by which the space of the world

takes on proportions, form, beauty, and shadow;

he is the word that defines everything, explains everything,

classifies everything, redeems everything;

he is the principle of our spiritual and moral life;

he tells us what we must do and he gives us the strength, the grace to do it;

his image, indeed, his presence reverberates

in every soul that makes itself a mirror

to receive the ray of his truth and life,

who believes in him

and welcomes his sacramental contact;

he is Christ-God, the Master, the Saviour, the Life.”

(Allocution of 3 February 1964)