Pope Francis said that one cannot be a Christian without the church in their life.

“Our Christian identity is belong to a people: the Church,” the Pontiff said during Mass.  “Without this, we are not Christians.  We entered the Church through baptism: there we are Christians.”

The Pope said that someone who says they are a Christian but not a part of the church is simply a laboratory experiment.  He pointed out that not even Jesus was 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,” Francis said.

The Pope also said that people should seek to renew the covenant of grace with God every day.