The Synod Fathers took part this morning in the prayer of the liturgical hour of Terce. During this mid-morning prayer, the Archbishop of Barcelona (Spain) shared some thoughts.
We are gathered in the name of the Lord to serve the people of God with the celebration of this Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. Pope Francis has convoked us for ecclesial work and we begin this work by praising the Lord with the prayer of the psalms.
This morning, the Apostle Paul, in the words of the second letter to the Corinthians which we have heard, gives us recommendations which offer us the spirit and demonstrate the manner in which our work in these days of the Synod should be characterized.
At the conclusion of the second letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle once again pours out his entire heart for the sake of the faithful of that Church exhorting them to live among themselves the fraternity that is proper to Christians, with the consequences of peace and unity among them (cf 1 Cor 1:10-17). Saint John Chrysostom predicts the result that is yet to come: Live in unity and in peace, and God will certainly be with you, for God is a God of love and a God of peace, and there he places his delights. His love will produce your peace and every evil will be banished from your Church (Homily on 2 Corinthians, 30).
Our synodal work is an ecclesial service and should be fully evangelizing because, as Paul VI used to recall, the Church exists for evangelization. Let us share the joy of the gospel and the joy of evangelization, as Pope Francis explains in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium. This is the joy that is wished by the Apostle: be happy. Jesus has made known to us all that he has heard from his Father (Jn 15:15), and this is the most profound reason for our joy. The Lord himself says: I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete (Jn 15:11). And it is also a joy to communicate these things that Jesus has told us, so that others may have complete joy. The Pope affirms that it is a delightful and comforting joy to evangelize (EG, 9).
Joy is an essential characteristic for a truly Christian life: the joy that comes from faith in God and the knowledge that he has forgiven us and is always ready to forgive if we ourselves do not grow tired of taking refuge in his mercy and asking him to forgive us for our sins, weaknesses and omissions.
We recover and augment the fervour of evangelization even when we must sow it in the midst of tears. And heaven forbid that the world today - which is searching, at times in anguish and at times with hope - might receive the Good News, not through dejected or discouraged impatient or anxious evangelizers, but from ministers of the gospel whose lives radiate the fervour of those who have received, above all within themselves, the joy of Christ (Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 75, cited in Evangelii gaudium, 10).
The Pope has convoked this gathering for reflection, dialogue and debate on the challenges facing the family in the context of evangelization. To meet this challenge, the Apostle Paul calls us to exhort and to call upon the Spirit to illuminate us in our synodal work for the good of couples and of families, for as the Second Vatican Council says: the well-being of the individual and of human and Christian society is closely tied to the prosperity of conjugal and family life (Gaudium et spes, 47).
Paul recommends that in contributions and in dialogue, we maintain the same sentiments, the same joyous and grateful convictions of being members of the one single Church of Jesus Christ, extending from the East to the West. That we have the same sentiments as the Good Shepherd who cares for the ninety-nine sheep and goes in search of the lost sheep, aware of the fact that today in different latitudes of the Church, this number is being inverted and we can also experience the sentiments of the good Samaritan who sees the wounded traveller, draws close to him and helps him, offering him what he needs at that moment in order to recover his health.
The Apostle Paul's advice that we should live in peace is always useful. We will speak of the beauty of the family which God has created and which Christ has elevated to the dignity of a sacrament and we should always keep before us the families who have not succeeded in experiencing the beauty of an intimate community of life and of love in their marriage. As good shepherds and good Samaritans, we must do everything we can, counting on Paul's recommendations that the God of love and peace may be with us to bless our synodal work, so that we might offer Pope Francis our advice for the love and peace which will help him in his ministry as the Successor of Peter for the good of the entire Church of Jesus Christ.
Homily shared by His Eminence, Lluís Martínez Sistach
Archbishop of Barcelona (Spain)
During the prayer of Terce
We are gathered in the name of the Lord to serve the people of God with the celebration of this Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. Pope Francis has convoked us for ecclesial work and we begin this work by praising the Lord with the prayer of the psalms.
This morning, the Apostle Paul, in the words of the second letter to the Corinthians which we have heard, gives us recommendations which offer us the spirit and demonstrate the manner in which our work in these days of the Synod should be characterized.
At the conclusion of the second letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle once again pours out his entire heart for the sake of the faithful of that Church exhorting them to live among themselves the fraternity that is proper to Christians, with the consequences of peace and unity among them (cf 1 Cor 1:10-17). Saint John Chrysostom predicts the result that is yet to come: Live in unity and in peace, and God will certainly be with you, for God is a God of love and a God of peace, and there he places his delights. His love will produce your peace and every evil will be banished from your Church (Homily on 2 Corinthians, 30).
Our synodal work is an ecclesial service and should be fully evangelizing because, as Paul VI used to recall, the Church exists for evangelization. Let us share the joy of the gospel and the joy of evangelization, as Pope Francis explains in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium. This is the joy that is wished by the Apostle: be happy. Jesus has made known to us all that he has heard from his Father (Jn 15:15), and this is the most profound reason for our joy. The Lord himself says: I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete (Jn 15:11). And it is also a joy to communicate these things that Jesus has told us, so that others may have complete joy. The Pope affirms that it is a delightful and comforting joy to evangelize (EG, 9).
Joy is an essential characteristic for a truly Christian life: the joy that comes from faith in God and the knowledge that he has forgiven us and is always ready to forgive if we ourselves do not grow tired of taking refuge in his mercy and asking him to forgive us for our sins, weaknesses and omissions.
We recover and augment the fervour of evangelization even when we must sow it in the midst of tears. And heaven forbid that the world today - which is searching, at times in anguish and at times with hope - might receive the Good News, not through dejected or discouraged impatient or anxious evangelizers, but from ministers of the gospel whose lives radiate the fervour of those who have received, above all within themselves, the joy of Christ (Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 75, cited in Evangelii gaudium, 10).
The Pope has convoked this gathering for reflection, dialogue and debate on the challenges facing the family in the context of evangelization. To meet this challenge, the Apostle Paul calls us to exhort and to call upon the Spirit to illuminate us in our synodal work for the good of couples and of families, for as the Second Vatican Council says: the well-being of the individual and of human and Christian society is closely tied to the prosperity of conjugal and family life (Gaudium et spes, 47).
Paul recommends that in contributions and in dialogue, we maintain the same sentiments, the same joyous and grateful convictions of being members of the one single Church of Jesus Christ, extending from the East to the West. That we have the same sentiments as the Good Shepherd who cares for the ninety-nine sheep and goes in search of the lost sheep, aware of the fact that today in different latitudes of the Church, this number is being inverted and we can also experience the sentiments of the good Samaritan who sees the wounded traveller, draws close to him and helps him, offering him what he needs at that moment in order to recover his health.
The Apostle Paul's advice that we should live in peace is always useful. We will speak of the beauty of the family which God has created and which Christ has elevated to the dignity of a sacrament and we should always keep before us the families who have not succeeded in experiencing the beauty of an intimate community of life and of love in their marriage. As good shepherds and good Samaritans, we must do everything we can, counting on Paul's recommendations that the God of love and peace may be with us to bless our synodal work, so that we might offer Pope Francis our advice for the love and peace which will help him in his ministry as the Successor of Peter for the good of the entire Church of Jesus Christ.
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