By reason of her union with Christ her Spouse, the Church, prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband, has been made holy through God’s grace

At the General Audience of 8 January the Holy Father returned to his catechesis on the Church. In the 20^th talk of the series he spoke of the historical dimension and eschatological fulfilment of the Church's spousal love for Christ. Here is a translation of the Pope's address, which he gave in Italian.

1. Paul the Apostle has told us that "Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her" (Eph 5:25). This basic truth of Pauline ecclesiology regarding the mystery of the Redeemer's spousal love for his Church is taken up again and confirmed in Revelation, where John speaks about the Bride of the Lamb: "Come here. I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb" (Rv 21:9). The author had already described the preparations: " 'For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, his Bride has made herself ready. She was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment'. (The linen represents the righteous deeds of the holy ones).... Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb" (Rv 19:7-9). Thus, the image of the wedding and the wedding banquet returns in this eschatological book in which the Church is considered in her heavenly state. But she is the same Church of which Jesus spoke when he presented himself as her Spouse; the same Church of which St Paul spoke when he recalled the sacrifice that Christ, her Spouse, made for her; and the same Church of which John now speaks as the betrothed for whom Christ the Lamb offers himself. Earth and heaven, time and eternity, are united in this transcendent vision of the relationship between Christ and the Church.

2. The author of Revelation above all describes the Church-Bride in her descending phase, as a gift from on high. The Bride of the Lamb (cf. Rv 21:9) is identified as "the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, gleaming with the splendour of God" (Rv 21 :10-11), as the "new Jerusalem ... prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband" (Rv 21:2). If in the Letter to the Ephesians Paul presents Christ as the Redeemer who bestows his gifts on the Church-Bride, in Revelation John describes the same Church-Bride, the Bride of the Lamb, as receiving from him, as from her source, holiness and participation in God's glory. In Revelation, then, the descending aspect of the Church's mystery predominates: the gift from on high is expressed not only in her origin at Easter and Pentecost, but also throughout her earthly pilgrimage in the state of faith. Israel, the people of the old covenant, was also on pilgrimage and her principal sin was betraying that faith: i.e., infidelity to God who chose her and loved her as a Bride. For the Church, the new People of God, the duty of fidelity is even stronger and will perdure until the last day. As we read in Vatican II: "She herself [the Church] is a virgin, who keeps in its entirety and purity the faith she pledged to her Spouse. Imitating the Mother of her Lord, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, she keeps intact faith, firm hope and sincere charity" (Lumen gentium, n. 64). Faith is the basic presupposition of the spousal love with which the Church continues the pilgrimage begun by the Virgin Mary.

3. Peter the Apostle, who in the neighbourhood of Caesarea Philippi professed a faith full of love for Christ, wrote in the First Letter to his disciples: "Although you have not seen him [Christ] you love him; even though you do not see him now you believe in him" (1 Pt 1:8). According to the Apostle, faith in Christ means not only accepting his truth, but also being related to his Person in receptivity and love. In this sense, fidelity comes from faith, and faithfulness is the proof of love. It is, in fact, a love which is inspired by Christ and through him reaches God, in order to love him "with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength", as the first and greatest commandment of the old law says (cf. Dt 6:4-5), and was confirmed and strengthened by Jesus himself (cf., e.g. Mk 12:28-30).

4. In virtue of this love which she learned from Christ and the Apostles, the Church is the Bride "who keeps in its entirety and purity the faith she pledged to her spouse" (Lumen gentium, n. 64). Led by the Holy Spirit and moved by the power she receives from him, the Church cannot be separated from her Spouse. She cannot become 'non-faithful'. Jesus Christ himself, in giving the Church his Spirit, established an indissoluble bond. We cannot fail to note here, with the Council, that this image of the Church, indissoluble united to Christ her Spouse, finds particular expression in those who are bound to him by vows, such as religious and consecrated persons in general. For this reason they have such an essential place in the Church's life (cf. Lumen gentium, n. 44).

5. However, the Church is a society which also includes sinners. The Council is well aware of this fact and says: "The Church, however, clasping sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of penance and renewal" (Lumen gentium, n. 8). Since the Church seeks to live in the truth, she certainly lives in the truth of the Redemption wrought by Christ, but she also lives while confessing the human sinfulness of her children. But see: in the midst of the trials and tribulations of her historical journey, the Church "is strengthened by God's grace, promised to her by the Lord so that she may not waver from perfect fidelity, but remain the worthy Bride of the Lord, ceaselessly renewing herself through the action of the Holy Spirit until, through the cross, she may attain to that light which knows no setting" (Lumen gentium, n. 9). In this way the apocalyptic image of the Holy City coming down from heaven is being constantly realized in the Church, as the image of a people on the way.

6. But the Church advances on this way towards an eschatological goal, towards the full realization of her marriage with Christ described in Revelation, towards the final stage of her history. As we read in the Council's Constitution Lumen gentium: "While on earth she journeys in a foreign land (peregrinatur) away from the Lord (cf. 2 Cor 5:6), the Church sees herself as an exile. She seeks and is concerned about those things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, where the life of the Church is hidden with Christ in God until she appears in glory with her Spouse (cf. Col 3: 1-4)" (Lumen gentium, n. 6).

The Church's earthly pilgrimage is thus a journey filled with hope and is expressed succinctly in those words of Revelation: "The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come!' " (Rv 22: 17). This text appears to be a confirmation, on the last page of the New Testament, of the Church's spousal character by reason of her relationship with Christ.

7. In this light we understand better what the Council says: "The Church, 'like a stranger in a foreign land, presses forward amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God' (cf. St Augustine, De civitate Dei, XVIII, 51, 2: PL 41, 614), announcing the cross and death of the Lord until he comes (cf. 1 Cor 11:26). But by the power of the risen Lord she is given strength to overcome in patience and in love, her sorrows and her difficulties, both those that are from within and those that are from without, so that she may reveal in the world, faithfully, however darkly, the mystery of her Lord until, in the consummation, it shall be manifested in full light" (Lumen gentium, n. 8).

In this sense, "The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come!' ".