Papal preacher devotes 1st Advent sermon to Christ and the Church

December 04, 2015

Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the Capuchin Franciscan friar who has served as preacher to the papal household since 1980, devoted his December 4 Advent sermon to the theme of “Christ, the Light to the Nations: A Christological Reading of Lumen Gentium,” the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.

The four sections of Father Cantalamessa’s homily, preached to the Roman Curia, were entitled “A Christological Ecclesiology,” “The Church as the Body and the Spouse of Christ,” “Going from the Church to the Soul,” and “A Personal Encounter with Jesus.”

He concluded:

I said at the beginning that people do not accept Christ out of love for the Church, but they accept the Church out of love for Christ. Let us seek to love Christ and to make him loved, and we will have rendered our best service to the Church.

If the Church is the spouse of Christ, then like every spouse she will generate new children only in uniting herself to her Spouse through love. The fruitfulness of the Church depends on her love for Christ. The best service any one of us can do for the Church is therefore to love Jesus and grow in intimacy with him.

 

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Further information:

• Papal preacher delivers first Advent Sermon (Vatican Radio)