VATICAN CITY – As the Catholic Church enters the Advent season, Pope Francis received a meditation today focused on the anticipation of christ’s return and the importance of spiritual preparation. Delivered by the Pontifical Household preacher, Father Roberto Pasolini, the sermon – the first of three scheduled before Christmas – explored themes of hope, divine grace, and the challenges of maintaining faith in a rapidly changing world. The meditation, delivered in the Paul VI hall, underscored the need for believers to remain vigilant and trust in God’s promise of salvation.
Pope Francis heard a reflection on the anticipation of Christ’s return during a morning meditation on December 5, as the Catholic Church prepares for Christmas. The sermon, delivered by the Pontifical Household preacher, emphasized the need for divine grace to overcome sin and find true peace.
Benedetta Capelli – Vatican City
Rather than lost travelers, believers should be “watchmen who humbly maintain trust” in the darkness, awaiting the light that illuminates all people, according to Father Roberto Pasolini. His meditation framed the Advent season as a pilgrimage toward salvation, marked by hope.
The first of three meditations on the theme “Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,” took place in the Paul VI Hall with Pope Francis in attendance. The focus was on the Parousia, or second coming of Christ, and its connection to the conclusion of the Jubilee of Hope. “Advent,” Father Pasolini explained, “is the time when the Church rekindles hope, contemplating not only the first coming of the Lord, but above all his return at the end of time.” It is a period calling for “waiting and at the same time hastening the coming of the Lord with serene and diligent watchfulness.”
Read the full text of Father Roberto Pasolini’s first Advent homily (in Italian)
Recognizing the Grace of God
Table of Contents
The term “Parousia,” used four times in Matthew’s 24th chapter, signifies both “presence” and “coming,” and Jesus compares the anticipation of his return to the days before the great flood. During that time, life continued as normal, with only Noah building the ark – an instrument of salvation. This story, Father Pasolini argued, raises essential questions for modern understanding.
Faced with new and complex challenges, “the Church is called to remain as a sacrament of salvation in a changing era.” “Peace,” Father Pasolini emphasized, “remains a mirage in many regions while ancient injustices and wounded memories find no healing, while in Western culture the sense of transcendence weakens, crushed by the idol of efficiency, wealth, and technology.” The advent of artificial intelligence, he added, amplifies the temptation of a humanity without limits or transcendence.
Pope Francis enters the Paul VI Hall to attend the first Advent meditation of 2025 (@Vatican Media)
The Mystery of a God Who Trusts Humanity
Simply recognizing a lack of peace or the dominance of efficiency in life is not enough to change the heart, Father Pasolini stated; it requires the grace of God that liberates from sin and death.
The preacher called on the faithful to see themselves not as lost wanderers, but as “watchmen who humbly maintain trust” in the darkness, awaiting the light that illuminates all people. He framed Advent as a journey toward a homeland, a path marked by hope and culminating in salvation.
To truly understand what is required of people today, he said, one must consider the story of Noah. Just as Noah built the ark, a vessel of salvation, in a world continuing with its daily routines, believers must recognize the direction in which the Kingdom of God continues to move within history, and rediscover the prophetic power of Baptism.
Erasing Evil
Father Pasolini recalled that to rediscover the face of God who accompanies “his wounded creation,” one must turn to the story of the great flood, when God saw evil in the heart of man. This evil, he argued, cannot be overcome simply through change or evolution, because humanity needs not only to realize itself but to be saved. “Evil must not simply be forgiven: it must be erased, so that life can finally flourish in its truth and beauty.”
To “erase,” in a world immersed in “cancel culture,” is not merely to destroy or eliminate what others find tiresome. “Every day we erase many things, without feeling guilty and without doing wrong,” Pasolini observed. “We erase messages, useless files, errors in a document, stains, traces, debts. Many of these gestures, in fact, are necessary to mature our relationships and make the world habitable.” To erase, he explained, means opening oneself to God from one’s own fragility and allowing Him to heal.
The Time for Good
The time of waiting, Father Pasolini concluded, is a time to sow good and await the coming of Jesus Christ. He cautioned against two temptations: “forgetting the need to be saved and thinking about regaining consensus by taking care of the outward form of our image and reducing the radicality of the Gospel.” It is necessary, he emphasized, to return “to the joy – and also the effort – of following, without domesticating the word of Christ.” Only as “watchmen on the borders of the world,” as the monk Thomas Merton wrote, can we await the return of Christ.
