The new Jerusalem promised is also here now, in the Church says Pope Francis

POPE FRANCIS

GENERAL AUDIENCE

St. Peter's Square
Wednesday, 15 October 2014

Speaker:

Dear Brothers and Sisters: In our catechesis on the Church, we now consider the object of our Christian hope, the fulfilment of God's promises in the coming of Christ at the end of time. Saint John speaks of this joyful encounter between the Lord and his people using the image of “the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, prepared as a bride adorned to meet her husband” (cf. Rev 21:2). This spousal imagery contains a profound truth: by taking on our flesh, Jesus united humanity to himself, and at his coming we will see the consummation of this mystic marriage in the wedding feast of heaven. The vision of the new Jerusalem also reminds us that the Church is meant in God's plan to be a City in which all men and women live at last in harmony and blessed peace. Christian hope, then, is our joyful expectation of the Lord's coming and the fulfilment of his saving plan for the human family. In every generation the Church holds high the lamp of this hope before the world. Today let us ask whether our own lamps are alight with the oil of faith, and to what extent we live as credible and joy-filled witnesses to our hope in God's promises.

I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today's Audience, including the various groups from England, Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Ghana, India, Japan, Thailand, Australia and the United States of America. In a particular way, my greeting goes to the Irish National Pilgrimage commemorating the fourteenth centenary of the death of Saint Columban. Upon all of you, and your families, I invoke joy and peace in the Lord Jesus. God bless you all!