CONCLUSION

            The coming Synod of Bishops affords us a unique opportunity to renew our communion with our Pastors by recognising and expressing appreciation for his ministry. It is, at the same time, a propitious occasion for strengthening our relations with them, with the priests, and the laity, because the Bishops exercise the ministry of communion with all the members of the Christian community. Together let us give account of our hope and join forces to serve the Gospel of hope.

            The roads we have to travel together are not unknown to us, but they are new roads if we set out on them in a spirit of communion and with love for this world, that is God’s handiwork.

            Let us conclude with the closing words of the Holy Father in his Apostolic Letter NMI. They are addressed to Bishops, priests, men and women religious, and to all the faithful:

“Let us go forward in hope! A new millennium is opening before the Church like a vast ocean upon which we shall venture, relying on the help of Christ. (…) The Christ whom we have contemplated and loved bids us to set out once more on our journey: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ (Mt 28:19). The missionary mandate accompanies us into the Third Millennium and urges us to share the enthusiasm of the very first Christians: we can count on the power of the same Spirit who was poured out at Pentecost and who impels us still today to start out anew, sustained by the hope ‘which does not disappoint’ (Rom 5:5)” ¹⁰³.