The pontiff said the Church is a pilgrim people called to proclaim Christ’s salvation while rejecting all that wounds human life.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV continued his catechesis on the documents of the Second Vatican Council at his Wednesday general audience, reflecting on the dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium and the Church as “pilgrim in history towards the heavenly homeland.”
Speaking May 6 in St. Peter’s Square, the pope said that “the Church, in fact, journeys through this earthly history always looking towards her final destination, which is the heavenly homeland.”
“This is an essential dimension which, however, we often overlook or downplay, because we are too focused on what is immediately visible and on the more concrete dynamics of the life of the Christian community,” he said.
The pope explained that “the Church lives in history in the service of the coming of the kingdom of God in the world.”
“She proclaims the words of this promise to all and always; she receives a pledge of it in the celebration of the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist; she puts its logic into practice and experiences it in relationships of love and service,” he said.
Leo said Lumen Gentium makes an important affirmation about the nature and mission of the Church.
“The Church is the ‘universal sacrament of salvation’ (LG, 48); that is, the sign and instrument of that fullness of life and peace promoted by God,” he said.
“This means that she does not identify perfectly with the kingdom of God but is its seed and beginning, for its fulfillment will be granted to humanity and the cosmos only at the end,” the pope continued.
Because of this, he said, Christians journey through history “without being either deluded or despairing,” guided by the promise of the One who will “make all things new.”
The Church, Leo said, carries out her mission between the “already” of the kingdom’s beginning in Jesus and the “not yet” of its promised fulfillment.
“As the guardian of a hope that enlightens the path, she is also invested with the mission of speaking clearly to reject everything that mortifies life and prevents its development, and to take a position in favor of the poor, the exploited, the victims of violence and war, and all those who suffer in body and in spirit,” he said.
The pope emphasized that the Church must always point beyond herself to Christ.
“As the sign and sacrament of the kingdom, the Church is the pilgrim people of God on earth who, drawing precisely on the final promise, reads and interprets the dynamics of history through the Gospel, denouncing evil in all its forms and proclaiming, in word and deed, the salvation that Christ wishes to bring about for all humanity and his kingdom of justice, love, and peace,” he said.
“The Church, therefore, does not proclaim herself; on the contrary, everything within her must point to salvation in Christ,” he added.
From this perspective, Leo said, the Church must recognize “humbly the human fragility and transience of her own institutions,” which, while at the service of God’s kingdom, “bear the fleeting image of this world.”
“No ecclesial institution can be treated as absolute; indeed, since they exist within history and time, they are called to continual conversion, to the renewal of forms and the reform of structures, to the continual regeneration of relationships, so that they may truly fulfill their mission,” the pope said.
Leo also reflected on the communion between Christians still carrying out their earthly mission and those who have already completed their earthly lives and are in purification or beatitude.
He said Lumen Gentium affirms that all Christians form “a single Church” and that there is “communion and sharing of spiritual goods” founded on believers’ union with Christ.
By praying for the dead and following the example of those who lived as disciples of Jesus, the pope said, Christians are strengthened on their own journey.
“Marked by the one Spirit and united in the one liturgy, together with those who have gone before us in faith, we praise and give glory to the Most Holy Trinity,” he said.
The pope concluded: “Let us be grateful to the Council Fathers for reminding us of this most important and beautiful aspect of being Christian, and may we strive to cultivate it in our lives.”
This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
