Vatican City, 30^th August 2015 – “Truth, love and kindness, that belong to God, make a pure man. We can find truth, love and kindness in the Word of God, that releases us from carelessness in a world that doesn’t care about God”. This is what the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said this morning during the mass in the Church of the Teutonic Cemetery, in the Vatican City. There were the members of the Schülerkreis (the group of Ratzinger’s students) and of the new Schülerkreis, who joined together in the previous days in Castel Gandolfo to reflect upon the issue “How can we talk about God today?”, guided by the Czech priest and philosopher Tomás Halík.

In the homily in German, the Pope Emeritus talked about the Gospel of Mark, that was read today. Benedict XVI began underlying that three years before, in the meeting of the Schülerkreis, they had read the same Gospel and cardinal Schönborn, during the homily, had asked the question: “Don’t we need a self-purification, along with the purification from the outer world?” Benedict didn’t remember the answer the cardinal had given in that occasion, but he said the question was very interesting. And he made his reflection upon this issue. “To chose a right answer – he argued – we have to widen the question and consider the whole Gospel, not only this passage”.

Is the world menacing us? This is the meaning of the question that the Pontiff made. We have to be purified from the dangers we find in the world. “We can say that we have to answer to the many diseases and plagues with our purification”. It is important to have this kind of responsibility and to struggle against Death, the Pope said. But this is not enough, because we have also to struggle against “ the disease of the heart”. It is an inner disease, that brings corruption and other bad things. Worship and ethos - that is “self-purification” - have got a great importance. “What does a pure man do?” “Which is the real purification force?” “How do we get to the purification of our heart?” the Pope Emeritus asked. “In another passage of the Gospel – the Pope argued – God says to his followers: “You are pure thanks to the words I said”. We become pure thanks to the Word of God. “Truth, love and kindness that belong to god make a pure man. We can find truth, love and kindness in the Word of God, that releases us from ‘carelessness’ in a world that doesn’t care about God”. “The Word of God has a deeper value than the simple words, because it is through the words that we can find the Word of God and God himself. We can find the Word of God in those who reflect God, show us His face and His openness, kindness, sincerity”. “We hope that God will give us the purification of the heart . It is because of the Truth that comes from Him: this is the purification force”.

During the Prayer of the Faithful all people asked God to take care of Pope Francis during Holy Year of Mercy.