Today in the General Audience, Pope Benedict returned to the catechesis on the great figures of the early Church – recall that he began with the Apostles, moved on to other notable Christians of the apostolic era, and has of late, with the Easter interruption, been taking us through the Fathers of the Church. Today Clement of Alexandria. According to AsiaNews, he spoke to around 45,000 in St. Peter’s Square:

Illustrating Clement Alexandria’s works which “accompany the baptised catechumen’s journey step by step”, Benedict XVI attributed him with having “rebuilt” the second great occasion for dialogue between Christianity and Greek philosophy, after the first occasion, conducted by Paul “failed in may ways”.

In his thoughts, reason leads to knowledge, in Greek gnosi, but only Knowledge of the truth which is Christ Jesus, is real knowledge: “authentic gnosi is a development of the faith within the soul that he has converted”. But “knowledge of Christ is not just a thought, it is also love which opens the eyes and transforms man and creates union with  Logos”, which is God. This is how contemplation is reached.  But in order to arrive at the contemplation of God “the practice of virtues” are also needed; intellectual knowledge is not enough: in the journey towards perfection clement  “gives as muck importance to moral requirements as to intellectual ones” and as a result “good deeds must accompany one on one’s life journey, just as a shadow follows the body: they are never separate, true gnosi cannot coexist with evil deeds”.

According to Clement the heart of a “true gnostic” contains two virtues: “freedom from passions” and love which “assure an intimate union with God and with contemplation”. “Love – continued the Pope – gifts perfect peace, and enables the true gnostic to face even the greatest of sacrifices, even the supreme sacrifice, and thus helps him on step by step towards the heights of virtues. Thus the ideal of ancient philosophy, that is the freedom from ones passions, is redefined by Clement and joined together with love, in the man’s constant journey to liken himself to God, which represents the journey of knowledge of true gnosi”.

Thus, in the Pope’s words, we come to what Clement defines as man’s primary aim: “to liken himself to God” and this “is possible thanks, because we are made in the likeness of God” in the moment of creation.

At the end of the audience Pope Benedict XVI blessed the “John Paul II” torch of peace which will be carried from Bethlehem to Jerusalem in a marathon-pilgrimage on April 23to 28th. Palestinian and Israeli students will join the IV edition of the run along with 200 Italian students from across Italy.