… The same Peter who confessed Jesus Christ, says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. I will follow you, but let us not speak of the Cross. This has nothing to do with it.” He says, “I’ll follow you on other ways, that do not include the Cross.” When we walk without the Cross, when we build without the Cross, and when we profess Christ without the Cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly, we are bishops, priests, cardinals, Popes, but not disciples of the Lord.
I would like that all of us, after these days of grace, might have the courage – the courage – to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the Cross of the Lord: to build the Church on the Blood of the Lord, which is shed on the Cross, and to profess the one glory, Christ Crucified. In this way, the Church will go forward.
My hope for all of us is that the Holy Spirit, that the prayer of Our Lady, our Mother, might grant us this grace: to walk, to build, to profess Jesus Christ Crucified. So be it.
Read it all
[if interested the homily in this video of this last mass of the Conclave in the Sistine Chapel can be watched here 37 minutes in, in Italian]
Never a truer word.
But I would encourage all Christians to read this sermon. It embodies sound scriptural teaching, with elegant simplicity.
Are we on a roll here pope-picking wise or what?? 🙂
MichaelA:
I loved that quote too, but the one that really struck me was just ahead:
“When one does not profess Jesus Christ, one professes the worldliness of the devil.”
Whoa. That one stopped me dead in my tracks and had me ask for God’s mercy.