Vatican Radio: There is no such thing as a Christian without the Church, a Christian who walks alone, because Jesus inserted himself into the journey of His people: This was Pope Francis reflection at Mass this morning in Casa Santa Marta. Emer McCarthy reports: 
Beginning with the first reading of the day, Pope Francis said that when they proclaimed Jesus the apostles did not begin with Him, but the history of the people. In fact ” Jesus does not make sense without this history” because He “is the end of this story, [the end] towards which this story goes, towards which it walks”. So “you cannot understand a Christian outside of the people of God. The Christian is not a monad”, but “belongs to a people: the Church. A Christian without a church is something purely idealistic, it is not real”.
“But you cannot understand a Christian alone, just like you cannot understand Jesus Christ alone. Jesus Christ did not fall from the sky like a superhero who comes to save us. No. Jesus Christ has a history. And we can say, and it is true, that God has a history because He wanted to walk with us. And you cannot understand Jesus Christ without His history. So a Christian without history, without a Christian nation, a Christian without the Church is incomprehensible. It is a thing of the laboratory, an artificial thing, a thing that cannot give life”. Read more here.
