HOMILY AT THE CONCLUDING MASS
OF THE XII SYNOD ASSEMBLY, 10/26/08
Here is a translation:
Dear brothers in the Episcopate and Priesthood,
dear brothers and sisters!
The Word of the Lord, which we just heard in the Gospel, reminds us that love summarizes all of divine law.
The evangelist Matthew recounts that the Pharisees, after Jesus had responded to the Sadducees by silencing them, assembled to put him to the test (cfr 22,34-35).
One of them, a doctor of the law, asked him: "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"
The question shows the preoccupation in ancient Jewish tradition to find a unifying principle for the various formulations of the will of God. It was not an easy question, considering that the Mosaic law contains 613 precepts and prohibitions.
How then to discern in all these what was the greatest? But Jesus had no hesitation and answered promptly: "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment" (v 37-38).
In his answer, Jesus quotes the Shema, the prayer that the pious Jew recites several times a day, especially in the morning and in the evening (cfr Dt 6,4-9; 11,13-21; Nm 15,37-41): the proclamation of the integral and total love that is owed to God as the only Lord.
The accent is on the totality of this dedication to God, listing the three faculties that define man in his profoundest psychological structures - heart, soul and mind.
The term 'mind' - diánoia - contains the rational element. God is not only the object of love, of commitment, of willingness and of sentiment, but also of the intellect, which cannot be excluded even in this matter. Indeed, our mind must confirm itself to the thought of God.
Then, Jesus adds something which was actually not asked by the doctor of the law: "The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (v. 39).
The surprising aspect of Jesus's answer was that he established a relation of similarity between the first and second commandments, which was also defined by a Biblical formulation derived from the Levitical code of holiness (cfr Lv 19,18).
And then at the end of his answer, Jesus associates both commandments together as the principal fulcrum on which the entire Biblical Revelation rests: "The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments" (v. 40),
The Gospel page on which we are meditating brings to light that to be a disciple of Christ is to put his teachings into practice, teachings which are summarized in the first and greatest commandment of divine law, the commandment of love.
Even the first Reading, taken from the book of Exodus, emphasizes the duty of love - a love that is concretely shown in the relationship among persons - a relationship of love, collaboration, and generous help.
The neighbor to be helped is also the stranger, the orphan, the widow and the indigent, all those citizens who have no 'defender'.
The sacred author goes into specific details, such as an object entrusted to one of these poor persons (cfr Ex 20,25-26). In this case, it was God himself who acted as guarantor for this neighbor.
In the second Reading, we can see a concrete application of the supreme commandment of love in one of the first Christian communities. St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, letting them understand that, even if he had not known them long, he valued them and carried them with affection in his heart.
He asks them to be "a model for all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia" (1 Thes 1,6-7). The community, which had recently been established, was not lacking in weaknesses and difficulties, but love overcomes, renews and conquers everything: the love of those who, conscious of their own limitations, obediently follow the words of Christ, the divine Teacher, transmitted through one of his faithful disciples.
"You became imitators of us and of the Lord," St. Paul wrote, "receiving the word in great affliction". "From you," he continues, "the word of the Lord has sounded forth not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has gone forth" (1 Ts 1,6.8).
The teaching that we get from this experience of the Thessalonians - an experience that is common to every Christian community - is that love for one's neighbor arises from obediently listening to the divine Word.
It is a love that accepts even difficult trials for the truth of the divine Word - and that is how true love grows, how the truth shines in all its splendor. How important it is, therefore, to listen to the Word and to embody it in our personal and communitarian life!
In this Eucharistic celebration, which closes the Synodal work, we note particularly the link that exists between loving attention to the Word of God and disinterested service to our brothers.
How many times, in the past several days, we heard experiences and reflections which prove the emerging need today for a more intimate listening to God, for a truer knowledge of his word of salvation; for a more sincere sharing of the faith which feeds itself constantly at the table of the divine Word.
Dear and venerated brothers, thank you for the contributions that each of you has offered to a deeper examination of the Synod theme, "The Word of God in the life and mission of the Church". I greet all of you with affection.
I address a special greeting to the Cardinal president-delegates of the Synod and the Secretary-General for their constant dedication.
I greet you, brothers and sisters, who have come from all the continents to bring us your enriching experiences. Returning home, please convey to all the affectionate greeting of the Bishop of Rome.
I greet the fraternal delegates, the experts, auditors and special guests, as well as the members of the Synod Secretariat and those who were responsible for relations with the media.
I address a special thought to the bishops of mainland China who could not be represented in this Synodal assembly. I wish to be their spokesman and give thanks to God for their love of Christ, for their communion with the universal Church and for their loyalty to the Successor of Peter.
They are present in our prayers, along with all the faithful entrusted to their pastoral care. Let us ask the 'Supreme Shepherd of the flock' (1 Pt 5,6) to give them joy, strength and apostolic zeal to guide with wisdom and farsightedness the Catholic community in China who are very dear to all of us.
All of us who took part in the work of the Synod carry with us a renewed awareness that the priority task of the Church at the start of this new millennium, is above all to nourish itself with the Word of God, in order to make effective our commitment to a new evangelization, to announcing the Gospel in our time.
This ecclesial experience must now be brought to every community. It is necessary that we understand the need to translate to acts of love the word we have heard, because only then can the announcement of the Gospel be credible, notwithstanding the human frailties that mark us. This requires in the first place a more intimate knowledge of Christ and an ever more obedient attention to his word.
During this Pauline Year, adopting the words of the Apostle, "Woe on me if I do not preach the Gospel" (1 Cor 9,16), I wish with all my heart that this desire of Paul may be heard in each community with ever firmer conviction, as a call for Gospel service to the world.
At the start of the Synodal sessions, I recalled the words of Jesus, "The harvest is great" [but the laborers are few] (Mt 9, 37) - an appeal which we must never tire of responding to, despite the difficulties we may encounter.
So many people are in search, perhaps even without knowing it, of an encounter with Christ and his Gospel. So many need to find in him the sense of their life.
To give a clear and shared testimony of a life lived according to the Word of God, attested by Jesus, thus becomes the indispensable criterion to validate the mission of the Church.
The readings that the liturgy offers today for our meditation remind us that the fullness of the Law, as of all divine Scriptures, is love. Thus, whoever believes he has understood Scriptures, or at least a part of it - but without committing himself to build, through one's intelligence, the double love for God and neighbor - actually shows himself to be far from having heard its profound sense.
But how do we put this commandment into practice? How can we live the love of God and our brothers without a living and intense contact with Sacred Scriptures? The Second Vatican Council states "it is necessary that the faithful have wide access to Sacred Scripture" (Dei Verbum, 22), so that in encountering the truth, they may grow in authentic love.
This is an indispensable requirement today for evangelization. And because not rarely, an encounter with Scripture risks not being 'a fact' of the Church, but is exposed to subjectivism and arbitrariness, a robust and credible pastoral promotion of Scriptural knowledge becomes indispensable in announcing, celebrating and living the Word within the Christian community, in dialog with the cultures of our time, at the service of truth and not of current ideologies, increasing the dialog that God wants to have wit4h all men (cfr ibid., 21).
To this end, special attention must be given to the preparation of pastors for the necessary activities of spreading Biblical practice with timely assistance. Present efforts to encourage the Biblical movement among laymen, for the formation of group leaders, with particular attention to young people, must be encouraged.
Likewise to be supported is the effort to make the faith known through the Word of God even to those who are 'far' from us, especially those who are in sincere search for the sense of life.
There are many other reflections that could be added, but I will limit myself finally to underscore that the privileged place for the Word of God which builds the Church, as stated many times during the assembly, is without doubt, in liturgy.
Liturgy shows that the Bible is a book of a people for a people: a legacy, a testament handed down to its readers, so that they may actualize in their life the story of salvation that the writings bear witness to.
That is why there is a relationship of vital reciprocal belonging between people and Book. The Bible remains a living Book among the people who read it - and who are its subject. The People do not subsist without the Book, because they find in it the reason for being, their vocation, their identity.
This mutual belonging between people and Sacred Scripture is celebrated in every liturgical assembly, which, thanks to the Holy Spirit, listens to Christ, because it is he who speaks when Scripture is read in church, when we welcome the alliance that God renews with his people.
Scripture and liturgy converge, therefore, in the single end of bringing the people into dialog with the Lord and to obedience to his will. The Word coming from the mouth of God and testified to in Scriptures returns to him in the form of a praying response, of a lived response, of a response overflowing with love (cfr Is 55,10-11).
Dear brothers and sisters, let us pray so that in renewed attention to the Word of God, under the action of the Holy Spirit, there may come forth an authentic renewal of the universal Church and of every Christian community.
Let us entrust the fruits of this Synodal assembly to the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary.
I also entrust to her the II Special Assembly of the Synod for Africa which will take place in Rome next October.
It is my intention to go to Cameroon in March in order to present to the representatives of the bishops' conferences of Africa the
Instrumentum laboris for that special assembly.
From there, God willing, I will proceed to Angola for the solemn celebration of the 500th anniversary of that country's evangelization.
Most Blessed Mary, who offered your life as a 'handmaid of the Lord' so that everything could be fulfilled according to divine wishes (cfr Lk 1,38), teach us to recognize in our life the primacy of the Word which alone can save us. Amen!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/10/2008 15:55]