Listening, mutual care and humility. These are the key words that the Pope asks us to take into consideration during the work of the Synod. And then he calls the participants and all those who can to accompany him next Sunday in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore to ask Mary to intercede for the gift of peace. Francis combines the Church’s commitment to walking together with the concrete commitment of illuminating the hearts of the world. He does not mention the attack on October 7th against Israeli citizens, but invites “everyone to experience a day of prayer and fasting for peace in the world”. In the opening statement of the Synodal Assembly the Pontiff clearly urges: “Let us walk together, let us listen to the Lord and let ourselves be led by the breeze of the Spirit”. On the day in which the guardian angels are celebrated, he starts from this image to say that God invites us to listen to their voice as he did with the people of Israel during the Exodus. «It is an image that touches us closely», he explains, «because the Synod is also a journey, in which the Lord places in our hands the history, dreams and hopes of a great People: of sisters and brothers scattered throughout every part of the world, animated by our own faith, moved by the same desire for holiness, so that with them and for them we try to understand which path to follow to reach where He wants to take us. But how can we listen to the “voice of the angel”?”. One way is to have respect and attention for the contributions that have been collected in the three years preparatory to the meeting. «It is a question, with the help of the Holy Spirit, of listening and understanding the voices, that is, the ideas, the expectations, the proposals, to discern together the voice of God that speaks to the Church. As we have repeatedly recalled, ours is not a parliamentary assembly, but a place of listening in communion.” And, therefore, it is not a question of fighting the majority and minority, but of understanding what God is telling us, docile to the Spirit who knows how to create harmony from our differences.
“He who arrogantly presumes and claims to have exclusive rights is not able to hear the voice of the Lord”, warns Francis. «Every word instead must be welcomed with gratitude and simplicity, to echo what God has given for the benefit of our brothers. In concrete terms, let us take care not to transform our contributions into points to defend or agendas to impose, but offer them as gifts to share, even ready to sacrifice what is particular, if this can serve to give birth together to something new according to the project of God. Otherwise we will end up closing ourselves in dialogues between the deaf, where everyone tries to “bring grist to their own mill” without listening to others, and above all without listening to the voice of the Lord”. The solutions are not up to us, but to Him «and let us remember», says the Pope, «that in the desert one cannot joke: if one does not pay attention to the guide, assuming that one is self-sufficient, one can die of hunger and thirst, dragging the others along with it. Let us therefore listen to the voice of God and his angel, if we really want to proceed safely on our journey beyond limits and difficulties.”
But the angel, in addition to referring to the voice, also refers to refuge, to the image of wings that carry upwards, but which also close to protect the little ones. «This is a symbol of what God does for us, but it is also a model to follow, particularly in this assembly moment. Among us, dear brothers and sisters, there are many strong, prepared people, capable of rising high with the vigorous movements of reflections and brilliant intuitions. All this is a richness, which stimulates us, pushes us, sometimes forces us to think more openly and to move forward with decision, as well as helps us to remain firm in the faith even in the face of challenges and difficulties.” We must, however, also be able to «relax our muscles and bend down, to offer ourselves to each other as a welcoming embrace and a place of shelter: to be, as Saint Paul VI said, “a house (…) of brothers, a workshop of intense activity, a cenacle of ardent spirituality”.
Francis refers to the ability to be able to say anything, to feel free and speak spontaneously if we feel among friends who “love you and who respect, appreciate and want to listen to what you have to say”. It is not just a technique for facilitating dialogue, but the very way of being the Church «embracing, protecting and caring is in fact part of the very nature of the Church, by its vocation a hospitable place of gathering, where “collegial charity requires perfect harmony, from which its moral strength, its spiritual beauty, its exemplary nature results”. The theme of harmony returns. «That word is important, harmony, there is no majority and minority, what is fundamental is the harmony that only the Holy Spirit who is the master of harmony can create, among many differences create a single voice, the Spirit creates harmony in differences”.
Finally the Pope presents the image of the child, which Jesus places at the center to explain who is the greatest. He shows it «to the disciples, inviting them to convert and become small like him. They had asked him who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven: He responded by encouraging them to make themselves small like a child. But not only that: he also adds that by welcoming a child in his name you welcome Him. And for us this paradox is fundamental. The Synod, given its importance, in a certain sense asks us to be “big” – in mind, in heart, in views – because the issues to be dealt with are “big” and delicate, and the scenarios within which are broad, universal. they are placed. But precisely for this reason we cannot afford to take our eyes off the child, whom Jesus continues to place at the center of our meetings and our work tables, to remind us that the only way to be “up to par” with the task before us entrusted, is to lower ourselves, to make ourselves small and to welcome each other as such, with humility. The highest in the Church is the one who stoops the most.”
