Pope: true religion consists in love of God and of neighbour

(June 9, 2008) "True religion consists in love of God and of neighbour": this is "one of the summaries of the entire Christian message", said Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday, illustrating an expression of the prophet Hosea, cited by Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, when he says: "I desire love, and not sacrifice". To the 30,000 faithful present in Saint Peter's Square for the recitation of the weekly midday “Angelus” prayer, the pope recalled that the phrase occurs in the call of Mathew, a tax collector who was considered a public sinner by the Jews because he collected tax for imperial Rome. To the Pharisees who were scandalised by the fact that Jesus should go to his house together with his disciples, he replied: "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do . . . I did not come to call the righteous but sinners". The evangelist Matthew, who is always attentive to the connection between the Old and the New Testament, at this point puts on the lips of Jesus the prophecy of Hosea: "Go and learn the meaning of the words, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice'". This word of God", the Pope said, "has come down to us through the Gospels, as one of the summaries of the entire Christian message – that true religion consists in love of God and of neighbour. This is what gives value to worship and to the practice of the precepts.