During the opening Mass of the Synod of Synodality that took place this morning, Pope Francis stressed that this event is not “a reform plan” and urged to work for a Church that does not fall into “lukewarmness” nor “ “surrenders to the fashions of the world.”
This morning in St. Peter’s Square, still covered in flowers and vegetation since the ecumenical prayer vigil held on Saturday, September 30, Pope Francis met with the new cardinals created in the recent consistory to celebrate a Holy Mass on the occasion of the beginning of the Synod of Synodality, which begins this October 4.
The Synod of Synodality was convened in the month of October 2021 under the motto “For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission.” 365 people are invited to the session that will take place this October in Rome, including bishops, religious, priests, deacons and lay people. For the first time, non-bishops – including 54 women – will have the right to vote.
After the arrival of the cardinals, religious and numerous lay people of different nationalities, the Holy Father began the celebration by asking for the intercession of Saint Francis of Assisi, whose feast day is celebrated today.
Given the imminent start of the Synod of Synodality, the Pontiff warned: “ We are not here to hold a parliamentary meeting or a reform plan. No. We are here to walk together, with the gaze of Jesus, who blesses the Father and welcomes all those who are afflicted and overwhelmed,” he stressed.
Reflecting on the readings, the Holy Father highlighted that “Jesus does not allow himself to be overcome by sadness and difficulties,” but rather “is capable of discerning the hidden good that grows, the seed of the Word welcomed by the simple.”
Starting from the “look of Jesus” shown in the Gospel, Pope Francis explains that it is “a look that blesses and welcomes.”
This, according to the Pope, “helps us have an immanent view, made of human strategies, political calculations or ideological battles. Whether the Synod will give ‘this permission, or open this door’. This does not work”.
“The Synod,” he insisted, “is not a parliament, the protagonist is the Holy Spirit. We are here to walk together, with the gaze of Jesus, who blesses the Father and welcomes all those who are afflicted and overwhelmed. Let us start, then, from the gaze of Jesus, which is a gaze that he blesses and welcomes . The look of Jesus is like this, he blesses and welcomes.”
Likewise, he pointed out that the Lord “also invites us to be a Church that, with a joyful heart, contemplates the action of God and discerns the present; who, in the midst of the sometimes agitated waves of our time, does not lose heart, does not look for ideological escapes, does not entrench himself behind acquired convictions, does not give in to comfortable solutions, does not let the world dictate its agenda.”
The Holy Father reiterated that the Church must not face “the challenges and problems of today with a spirit of division and conflict,” but, on the contrary, must turn “its eyes to God who is communion and, with wonder and humility ”.
The Pontiff recalled that “we belong to Him” and that the Lord “is the only reason for our existence to bring Him to the world.”
“This is enough for us, He alone is enough for us. We do not want earthly glories, we do not want to look good in the eyes of the world, but rather to reach it with the consolation of the Gospel, to better witness, and to all, the infinite love of God,” he stressed.
Pope Francis stressed that the main task of the Synod is “to put God at the center of our gaze again, to be a Church that sees humanity with mercy.”
“A united and fraternal Church,” he continued, “or at least that seeks to be united and fraternal, that listens and dialogues; a Church that blesses and encourages, that helps those who seek the Lord, that shakes the indifferent healthily, that sets in motion itineraries to instruct people in the beauty of faith. A Church that has God at the center and, therefore, does not create division internally , nor is it harsh externally. This is how Jesus wants his Church, his Bride.”
Next, he insisted that “the wise do not recognize the work of God” and specified that Christ “rejoices in the Father because he reveals himself to the little ones, to the simple, to the poor in spirit.”
According to the Successor of Peter, this look of Jesus “also invites us to be a Church that welcomes, not with closed doors. In a complex time like the current one, new cultural and pastoral challenges arise, which require a cordial and kind interior attitude, to be able to confront ourselves without fear.”
“In the synodal dialogue, in this beautiful ‘march in the Holy Spirit’, which we carry out together as the People of God, we can grow in unity and friendship with the Lord to observe the current challenges with his gaze,” he remarked.
In this sense, Pope Francis clarified that the Church must not be rigid, “a customs house that shields itself against the world and looks to the past” and neither “a lukewarm Church, which surrenders to the fashions of the world ” nor a “tired, withdrawn into herself.”
Later, he recalled that Saint Francis of Assisi, whose name day is celebrated this October 4 , “in a period of great struggles and divisions between temporal and religious power, between the institutional Church and heretical currents, between Christians and other believers “He did not criticize or attack anyone, he only embraced the weapons of the Gospel: humility and unity, prayer and charity,” and urged everyone to imitate his example.
“And if the Holy People of God with their pastors, coming from all over the world, nourish expectations, hopes and even some fears about the Synod that we begin, let us remember once again that it is not a political meeting, it is not a parliament, but of a convocation in the Spirit; not from a polarized parliament, but from a place of grace and communion ”, He insisted.
Furthermore, he pointed out that “the Holy Spirit often undoes our expectations to create something new that surpasses our predictions and negativities.”
The Holy Father explained that “the moment of greatest fruit in the Synod are the moments of prayer, where the Lord acts in us. Let’s open ourselves and invoke the Holy Spirit, He is the protagonist. Let Him be the protagonist of the Synod,” the Pope concluded.