Pope says triumphalist Church is not of Christ

(May 29, 2013) Triumphalism brings the Church and Christians to a halt. A triumphalist Church
is a half-way Church that is happy, well-organised and efficient but denies martyrdom and does not know that martyrs are necessary for the way of the Cross. The Pope made this observation during his Mass Wednesday morning at the Santa Marta Residence in the Vatican. He based his brief homily on the Gospel episode of James and John seeking honourable places in the Kingdom of Jesus, who instead, points to the way of the Cross. The Pope said “It is the temptation of Christianity without the Cross, a half-way Church without Jesus. The Pope said that a Church that thinks only of triumphs and successes, does not follow the rules of Christ, which is about triumphing through failure, human failure, the failure of the Cross. This, he said, is something which we all have .
The Argentine Pope then recalled an episode in a dark moment of his spiritual life and asked a favour from the Lord. On the last day of an annual spiritual retreat, which he preached to nuns, an elderly nun of 80 years of age came to him for confession. As penance for the woman of God, Pope Francis asked her to pray for a special grace for him, saying if she asked anything of the Lord, He would grant it. The nun, stopped for a moment, as in prayer and said, “Of course the Lord will grant you this grace but do not be deceived – in His own divine manner. Pope Francis said that did him a lot of good, realizing that the Lord always gives what we ask for - but in His own divine way. And the divine way involves the Cross, not out of masochism, the Pope said, but for love to the very end.
The Holy Father concluded his homily with a prayer asking the Lord for the grace that the church may not be a half-way church, but a humble one that walks resolutely just like Jesus.
Source: Sedoc