"Triumphalism in the Church," the Pope continued, "stops the Church. Triumphalism in us Christians stops Christians. A triumphalist Church is a Church half way there'. A Church that is content to be "well settled, with all the offices, everything in place, everything beautiful, efficient", but that denies the martyrs would be "a Church that only thinks of triumphs, of successes; that does not have that rule of Jesus: the rule of triumph through failure. Human failure, the failure of the cross. And this is a temptation that we all have'.
And in this regard, the Pope recalled an episode from his own life: "Once, I was in a dark moment of my spiritual life, and I was asking for a grace from the Lord. I went to preach the exercises to the nuns and on the last day they went to confession. An old nun came to confession, over eighty years old, but with clear eyes, really bright. She was a woman of God. Then at the end I saw her so much a woman of God that I said to her: 'Sister, as a penance pray for me, because I need a grace, eh? If you ask the Lord, He will surely give it to me'. She paused for a moment, as if praying, and told me this: 'Sure, the Lord will give you the grace, but make no mistake: in His divine way'. This did me so much good: to feel that the Lord always gives us what we ask for but He does it with His divine way". This way, the Pope explained, "involves the cross. Not out of masochism, no: out of love, out of love to the end".
[Pope Francis, homily st Martha 29 May 2013;
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/cotidie/2013/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20130529_trionfalismo-cristiano.pdf]