Brothers in
the Episcopacy and the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
The Word of the Lord, which echoed in the Gospel earlier,
reminded us that all of Divine Law is summarized in love.
Matthew the Evangelist tells that the Pharisees, after God
answered the Sadduceans closing their mouths, met to put Him to
test (cf. 22:34-35). One of them, a doctor of law, asked Him:
“Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?” (22:36).
The question allows one to see the worry, present in ancient
Hebrew tradition, of finding a unifying principle for the
various formulations of the Will of God. This was not an easy
question, considering that in the Law of Moses, 613 precepts and
prohibitions are contemplated. How to find which is the most
important one among these? But Jesus has no hesitation, and
answers promptly: “You must love the Lord your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the
greatest and the first commandment” (22:37-38). Jesus quotes the
Shemà in His answer, the prayer the pious Israelite recites
several times a day, especially in the morning and in the
evening (cf. Dt 6:4-9; 11:13-21; Nb 15:37-41): the proclamation
of whole and total love due to God, as the only Lord. Emphasis
is put on the totality of this dedication to God, listing the
three faculties that define man in his deep psychological
structures: heart, soul and mind.
The word mind, diánoia, contains the rational element. God is
not only the object of love, commitment, will and feelings, but
also the intellect, which should not be excluded from this. Our
thinking must conform to God’s thinking. Then, however, Jesus
adds something which, in truth, had not been asked by the doctor
of law: “The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour
as yourself” (22:39). The surprising aspect of Jesus’ answer
consists in the fact that He establishes a similarity between
the first and the second commandments, defined this time with a
Biblical formula drawn from the Levitic code of holiness (cf. Lv
19:18) as well. And therefore, the two commandments are
associated in the role of main axis upon which all of Biblical
Revelation rests: “On these two commandments hang the whole Law,
and the Prophets too” (22:40).
The Evangelical page we are focusing on sheds light on the
meaning of being disciples of Christ which is practicing His
teachings, that can be summarized in the first and greatest
commandment of Divine Law, the commandment of love. Even the
First Reading, taken from the Book of Exodus, insists on the
duty of love; a love witnessed concretely in relationships
between persons: they must be relationships of respect,
collaboration, generous help. The next to be loved is the
stranger, the orphan, the widow and the indigent, that is to say
those citizens that are without a “defender”. The holy author
goes into details, as in the case of the object pawned by one of
these poor persons (cf. Ex 22:25-26). In this case, God Himself
is the guarantor for the person’s situation.
In the Second Reading, we can find a concrete application of the
supreme commandment of love in one of the first Christian
communities.
Saint Paul writes to the Thessalonians, leading them to
understand that, while having known them for such a short time,
he appreciated them and bore affection in his heart for them.
Because of this, he points to them as “an example to all
believers in Macedonia and Achaia” (1 Th 1:6-7). There is no
lack of weaknesses or problems in this recently founded
community, but love overcomes all, renews all, wins over all:
the love of who, knowing their own limits, docilely follows the
words of Christ, the Divine Teacher, transmitted through one of
His faithful disciples. “You took us and the Lord as your model,
welcoming the word with the joy of the Holy Spirit in spite of
great hardship”, the Apostle wrote. He continued: “since it was
from you that the word of the Lord rang out -- and not only
throughout Macedonia and Achaia, for your faith in God has
spread everywhere” (1 Th 1:6.8). The lesson that we can draw
from the experience of the Thessalonians, and experience that is
a common factor in every authentic Christian community, is that
love for the neighbor is born from the docile listening to the
Divine Word and accepts also hardships for the truth of the
divine word and thus true love grows and truth shines. It is so
important to listen to the Word and incarnate it in personal and
community existence!
In this Eucharistic Celebration, which closes the work of the
Synod, we feel, in a particular way, the bond that exists
between the loving hearing of the word of God and disinterested
service towards the brothers. How many times, in the past few
days, have we heard about experiences and reflections that
underline the need emerging today for a more intimate hearing of
God, of a truer knowledge of His Word of Salvation; of a more
sincere sharing of faith which is constantly nourished at the
table of the Divine Word! Dear and Venerable Brothers, thank you
for the contribution each of you offered in discussing the theme
of the Synod: “The Word of God in the Life and the Mission of
the Church”. I greet you all with great affection. A special
greeting goes to the Cardinals, the Delegate Presidents of the
Synod and the General Secretary, whom I thank for their constant
dedication. I greet you, dear brothers and sisters, who came
from every continent bringing your enriching experience. In
returning home, give everyone an affectionate greeting from the
Bishop of Rome. I greet the Fraternal Delegates, the Experts,
the Auditors and the Invited Guests: the members of the General
Secretariat of the Synod, all those who worked with the press. A
special thought goes for the Bishops of Continental China, who
could not be represented during this Synodal assembly. I would
like to speak on behalf of them and thank God for their love for
Christ, their communion with the universal Church and their
faithfulness to the Successor of the Apostle Peter. They are
present in our prayers, along with all the faithful who are
entrusted to their pastoral care. We ask the “Chief Shepherd” (1
Pt 5:4) to give them apostolic joy, strength, and zeal to guide,
with wisdom and far-sightedness, the Catholic community of China
so dear to all of us.
All of us who have taken part in the work of the Synod will
carry with us the renewed knowledge that the Church’s principal
task, at the start of this new millennium, is above all to
nourish ourselves on the Word of God, in order to make more
effective new evangelization, the announcement of our times.
What is needed now is that this ecclesial experience reach every
community; we have to understand the necessity of translating
the Word we have heard into gestures of love, because this is
the only way to make the Gospel announcement credible, despite
the human weaknesses that mark individuals. What this requires
first of all is a more intimate knowledge of Christ and an
ever-more docile acceptance of his Word.
In this Pauline year, making the words of the Apostle our own:
“I should be in trouble if I failed to [preach the Gospel]” (1
Cor 9:16), I hope with all my heart that in every community this
yearning of Paul’s will be felt with ever more conviction as a
vocation in the service of the Gospel for the world. At the
start of the Synod, I recalled the appeal of Jesus: “The harvest
is rich” (Mt 9:37), an appeal we must never tire of responding
to whatever difficulties we might encounter. So many people are
searching for, sometimes unwittingly, the meeting with Christ
and His Gospel; so many have to find in Him a meaning for their
lives. Giving clear and shared testimony to a life according to
the Word of God, witnessed by Jesus, therefore becomes an
indispensable criterion to verify the mission of Christ.
The Readings the liturgy offers us today to meditate on remind
us that the fullness of the law, as of all the Divine
Scriptures, is love. Therefore anyone who believes they have
understood the Scriptures, or at least a part of them, without
undertaking to build, by means of their intelligence, the
twofold love of God and neighbor, demonstrates that in reality
they are still a long way from having grasped its deeper
meaning. But how should we put into practice this commandment,
how can we live the love of God and our brothers without a
living and intense contact with the Holy Scriptures? Vatican
Council II asserts it is necessary that “easy access to Sacred
Scripture should be provided for all the Christian faithful”
(Cost. Dei Verbum, 22), so that persons, on meeting the truth,
may grow in authentic love. This is a requisite that today is
indispensable for evangelization. And since often the encounter
with Scriptures is in danger of not being “a fact” of the
Church, but informed by subjectivity and arbitrariness, a robust
and credible pastoral promotion of the knowledge of Holy
Scripture, to announce, celebrate and live the Word in the
Christian community, becomes indispensable, dialoguing with the
cultures of our time, placing ourselves at the service of truth
and not of current ideologies, and increasing the dialogue God
wishes to have with all men (cf ibid 21). With this in mind,
special care should be paid to the preparation of pastors, ready
then to take whatever action is necessary to spread Biblical
activity with appropriate means.
Ongoing efforts to give life to the Biblical movement among lay
people should be encouraged, along with the formation of group
animators, with particular attention being paid to the young. We
must also support the effort to allow faith to be known through
the Word of God to those who are “far away” as well and
especially those who are sincerely looking to give a meaning to
their lives.
Many other reflections should be added, but I will limit myself
to underlining that the privileged place where the Word of God
rings out, that builds the Church, as has been said many times
during the Synod, is undoubtedly the liturgy. In this is where
it appears that the Bible is a book of a people and for a
people; an inheritance, a testament handed over to readers so
that they can put into practice in their own lives the history
of salvation witnessed in the text. There is therefore a
reciprocal relationship of vital belonging between the people
and the Book: the Bible remains a living Book with the people
which is its subject which reads it; the people cannot exist
without the Book, because it is in it that they find their
reason for living, their vocation and their identity. This
mutual belonging between people and Holy Scripture is celebrated
in every liturgical ceremony, which, thanks to the Holy Spirit,
listens to Christ since it is He who speaks when the Scripture
is read in the Church and welcomes the Covenant that God renews
with his people. Scripture and liturgy converge, therefore, with
the single aim of bringing the people to dialogue with the Lord
and to the obedience of the Lord’s Will. The Word that leaves
the mouth of God, witnessed in the Scriptures, returns to Him in
the shape of prayerful response, of a living answer, of an
answer of love (cf Is 55:10-11).
Dear brothers and sisters, let us pray that from this renewed
listening to the Word of God, guided by the action of the Holy
Spirit, an authentic renewal of the universal Church may spring
forth, as well as of every Christian community. We entrust the
fruits of this Synodal Assembly to the motherly intercession of
the Virgin Mary. I also entrust to Her the II Special Assembly
of the Synod for Africa, that will take place in Rome in October
of next year.
Next March I intend to go to Cameroon to deliver the
Instrumentum laboris of that Synodal Assembly to the
representatives of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa. From
there, God willing, I will go on to Angola to celebrate solemnly
the 500th anniversary of the evangelization of that country.
Most Holy Mary, who offered your life up as the “servant of the
Lord”, so that everything would happen in accordance with the
divine will (cf Lk 1:38) and who told us to do whatever Jesus
tells us to do (cf Jn 2:5), teach us to recognize in our lives
the primacy of the Word that alone can grant us salvation. Amen!
"Our
Thinking Must Conform to God's Thinking"