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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “We should remember that the Lord passes by every day. The Lord always passes by and pauses in order to attend to our blindness”. And the most appropriate image of the synodal Church is that of the community of disciples who, having received the gift of his healing, begin to follow Jesus "along the road" and not "in the labyrinths of our thoughts", and on the way "hear the cry of men".
With a solemn Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis concluded the XVI General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, dedicated to the theme "For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission".
In his homily, Pope Francis refers to the encounter between Jesus and the blind Bartimaeus, reported in the Gospel of the day, to describe the source and essence of ecclesial synodality, the dynamism of a "missionary Church that travels with the Lord on the roads of the world".
Bartimaeus - as the Gospel of Mark reports - was sitting and begging by the roadside. And when he felt Jesus passing by, he began to call out to him to get his attention and ask to be able to see again. "It is good," commented Pope Francis, "if the Synod is urging us as a Church to be like Bartimaeus: a community of disciples who, hearing that the Lord is passing by, feel the joy of salvation, allow ourselves to be awakened by the power of the Gospel, and to cry out to him."
In this "cry" addressed to the Lord, continued Pope Francis, who also addressed the 368 Synod participants present in the Basilica, the ecclesial community is also called to "take up the cry of all the women and men of the world, of those who wish to discover the joy of the Gospel, and of those who have turned away; the silent cry of those who are indifferent; the cry of those who suffer, of the poor and marginalized, of children who are enslaved in so many parts of the world for work." "We do not need a sedentary and defeatist
Church, but a Church that hears the cry of the world – I wish to say this even if some might be scandalised – a Church that gets its hands dirty in serving," added the Bishop of Rome.
After Bartimaeus got up and miraculously regained his sight, the Pope continued, linking the commentary on the Gospel to the reflections on the theme of the Synod Assembly, he began to "follow Jesus on his way." This also applies to us, said Pope Francis, "whenever we are seated and settled, when as a Church we cannot find the strength, the courage or the boldness to arise and continue along the way, let us always remember to return to the Lord and his Gospel. We always need to return to the Lord and the Gospel. As he passes by again and again, we need to listen to his call so that we can get back on our feet and he can heal our blindness; and then we can follow him once more, and walk with him along the way.”
The story of Bartimaeus, who follows Jesus on his way, continued the Successor of Peter, “is an image of the synodal Church: the Lord is calling us, lifting us up when we are seated or fallen down, restoring our sight so that we can perceive the anxieties and sufferings of the world in the light of the Gospel. And when the Lord puts us back on our feet, we experience the joy of following him on the way.”
“We follow the Lord along the way, we do not follow him enclosed in our comforts or we do not follow him in the mazes of our minds. We follow him only along the way.” To walk in history as a “synodal Church” does not mean “traveling alone or according to worldly criteria,” but “to walk on the way alongside him.” Only the following of Christ can make the ecclesial community a "missionary Church, traveling with the Lord on the roads of the world".
At the end of the celebration, the Pontiff paused in silence before the Chair of Saint Peter, the wooden throne symbol of the Petrine primacy. On the occasion of the restoration of the monument of the same name that decorates the apse of the Vatican Basilica, the historical relic was extracted from the bronze case designed by Bernini and, at the Pope's request, will be on display for visitors to the Basilica until Sunday, December 8. The Synod that has just concluded - the Pope explained yesterday afternoon, Saturday, October 26, in his closing speech on the synodal works - will not see, as is customary, the publication of a post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the theme of the Synod, because - the Pontiff said - "the final document is enough. Everything is there". (FB-SM) (Agenzia Fides, 27/10/2024)
