IN COMMUNION WITH OUR BISHOPS FOR THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

0.- THE CONTEXT OF THIS SYNOD

The coming Synod deals with “The Bishop: Servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ For the Hope of the World.” Its preparation offers us a new opportunity to shed light on the path of the consecrated life in our day and find new perspectives for inspiring in us a deeper awareness of our “sensus Ecclesiae” and foster a new spirituality and practice of communion, which is always a missionary communion¹.

The presence of our communities in many countries of the world and in many particular Churches makes it possible for us to have a sufficiently global view of the college of bishops and its ministry and has allowed us to have personal contact with quite a few of the Pastors of the particular Churches. Similarly, our institutes, almost all of which are of pontifical right, have as their primary reference point the Church in its universality and, therefore, feel called to maintain and foster a special bond with the Successor of Peter².

My intervention, which is based on the Instrumentum Laboris (IL), is to be interpreted from our ecclesial state of life – as consecrated persons – is not based on the context that has given rise to tension, conflict, mutual lamentation, but wherever it is possible to discern the light of a new future that nourishes communion for the sake of Christian hope.

Each Synod is a call to communion for all the members of the Church, a call to journey together in the same direction, to join forces to pursue the objective for which it has been convoked. Keeping this in mind helps the members to overcome the temptations to self-absorption and self-complacency. More than being devoted to the ecclesial relevance or praiseworthiness of the consecrated life, we must be concerned to discover the urgencies and the places in which our charismatic and prophet contribution may be more necessary. Ours is a time of unity and not of division, of going ahead and not of staying, of reconciliation and not of fighting. It is a time of “conversion,” of evangelical life, of responsibly using the grace and ministry received for the common good.

The consecrated life is not reaffirmed and renewed by defending its right, but by offering itself for its own sake³. Through the Post-Synodal Exhortation Vita Consecrata (VC), John Paul II has taught us the way to act in the Church: recognise and appreciate the gift we have received, clarify its urgent demands and foster its evangelising commitment. It is the path of affirmation and not of differentiation that spreads the Reign of God. Another thing that must be said of the consecrated life: to the degree to which it bears witness to the gift that has been received and shares it through many forms of service it is recreated and grows.

We must admit that we need a “new awareness” of the raison d’etre and the exercise of the episcopal ministry within the ecclesiology of Vatican II. At times this aspect has been overlooked in some way and that we have not been able to wisely include in the process of the renewal of our identity and mission. Just as we ask the Church to know and recognise our charism and our raison d’etre, so too we know have the opportunity to know and recognise the episcopal ministry in all its charismatic, theological and providential richness.

We are in a time of grace. The Synod journey that has been travelled has focused its attention on all the forms of Christian life and on the evangelising mission of the Church in the context of the various continents. Now, with this deeper study into the episcopal form of life and ministry, it seems that one stage concludes and we enter into a new, more complete and thorough, deeper and communicative, synthesis of the Church. It is time to make this correlation between the forms of life, the exchange of gifts, and the complementary quality of the various forms of life to bear fruit and testify to ecclesial communion and make pastoral ministry more fruitful.

The choice of the theme of the coming Synod of Bishops is more than fitting. Examining, at the beginning of the millennium, the social, cultural, economic, political and religious context of today’s world, evangelisation is seen as a proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the true hope for humanity. Our post-modern, globalised world asks for a word of hope and light to lead it into the future. Throughout history the Gospel has been, is, and will be a leaven of freedom and progress, of fraternity, unity and peace⁴.

This 10^th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod places us before the ministry of the Bishops and prepares us to rethink the relations between Bishops, priests, consecrated persons and laity in light of a more intense communion and a better articulated commitment to evangelisation. It is an invitation to continue journeying in the same direction, under the leadership of the Pastors, so as to arouse that theological dynamism proper to the Gospel so that the whole of humanity “in hearing might believe, in believing might hope, and in hoping might love” ⁵.