Dear Director, I propose to you my reflection on the Synod, starting with three passages of the Message to priests, deacons, consecrated men and women and all pastoral workers, sent by the CEI on 29 September last. The first concerns the nature of the Church and is taken from Pope Francis’ reflection on the Synod in his meeting with the faithful of the Diocese of Rome on September 18: “The theme of synodality is not the chapter of a treatise on ecclesiology, much less a fashion, a slogan or the new term to be used or exploited in our meetings. No! Synodality expresses the nature of the Church, its form, its style, its mission “.
The other passage is taken at the beginning of the conciliar Constitution Gaudium et Spes: “The joys and the hopes, the sadnesses and the anguish of the men of today, of the poor above all and of all those who suffer, are also the joys and the hopes, the sadnesses and the anguishes of the disciples of Christ, and nothing there it is genuinely human that you find no echo in their heart ». In these lines, the Message of the CEI sees “the meaning of the synodal journey, because the nature of the Church is concentrated there: not a community that flanks the world or flies over it, but women and men who inhabit history, looking in faith at Jesus as the savior of all and pilgrimage together with others with the guidance of the Spirit, towards the common goal which is the kingdom of Father”.
And, finally, the third step concerns listening, which “is not a simple technique to make the announcement more effective, but it is itself an announcement, because it transmits a balsamic message to the other:” You are important to me, you deserve my time and my attention, you are the bearer of experiences and ideas that provoke me and help me to grow ». Listening to the word of God and listening to brothers and sisters go hand in hand.
Listening to the least, then, is particularly precious in the Church, since it re-proposes the style of Jesus, who listened to the little ones, the sick, women, sinners, the poor, the excluded. GINO, DEACON OF VENICE
Dear Gino, your considerations (which I had to reduce for reasons of space), on the border between theology and spirituality, remind us of a truth inscribed, as you say in the rest of your letter, in the intimate nature of the Trinity, whose solemnity we have celebrated last Sunday. The first authors of dialogue and mutual listening are the three divine persons, who in this dynamic express the highest degree of love: “You are important to me, I love you”.
This dynamic is also the fundamental basis of the human, having been man created in the image of the Trinity. It is potentially inscribed in every relationship and, therefore, also in the Church. We also contemplate this capacity for listening in Jesus’ way of acting that we draw from the Gospels. Before speaking or healing, he listens to what the interlocutor has to say about him. We think of the encounter with the Samaritan woman, the journey made together with the disciples of Emmaus after the resurrection or the healing of the blind man from Jericho. And we think about our personal experience when we talk to him and we feel heard, even if not always fulfilled in the forms we would like.
Assuming the attitudes of Jesus, putting ourselves in a posture of true listening, is the basis of the synodal journey that the Church has undertaken and that she asks of her children, of each one of us. To follow this path of following one needs a “circumcised” heart, a heart that has passed through the bottlenecks of Easter, that has passed through the “death of oneself”, of one’s own self-referential thinking and attitude, typical of the natural man, to arrive to “decentralization from oneself”, fruit and anticipation of the Lord’s resurrection. This renewed way of looking at reality, the goal of a journey that each one is called to reach through different paths on which the Spirit guides us, makes us, just like Jesus, look at the merits and positive things of each of our interlocutors rather than at his limitations and defects.
It is a fundamental stage of our earthly pilgrimage, which anticipates within us the beauty of the Kingdom of God and which expands in our relationships, creating true joy.. The synodal journey is the community expression in the Church today of this dream of God for all of us
The Synod and the attitude of listening required of believers