"The Church does not exist for her own sake"

Pope Benedict seated beneath Bernini's "Chair of St. Peter"

An excerpt from Pope Benedict's marvelous homily for the feast of St. Peter's Chair:

"...the Church herself is like a window, the place where God draws near to us, where he comes towards our world. The Church does not exist for her own sake, she is not the point of arrival, but she has to point upwards, beyond herself, to the realms above. The Church is truly herself to the extent that she allows the Other, with a capital “O”, to shine through her – the One from whom she comes and to whom she leads. The Church is the place where God “reaches” us and where we “set off” towards him: she has the task of opening up, beyond itself, a world which tends to become enclosed within itself, the task of bringing to the world the light that comes from above, without which it would be uninhabitable."

You can read the whole homily here (h/t New Liturgical Movement).

St. Peter, pray for us.