Synod

“Our Faith Is not Centered on a   Book, but
Jesus Christ, the Word of God
Made Flesh, Man and History”
More than 250 Synod Fathers came from all over the world to work intensely side by side for twenty days, witnessing to what Pope Benedict XVI called “a polyphony of faith”–aiding all of us in deepening our relationship with a Fact, present here and now

by Riccardo Piol

“I do not know if the Synod was more interesting or more edifying. In any case, it was moving.” This is how the Pope thanked the participants in the assembly of bishops at the conclusion of the work. Never before this Synod was there such a breath of the universal dimension of the Church. The numbers offer us an impressive picture of the assembly, with over 250 participants representing five continents: 51 from Africa, 62 from America, 41 from Asia, 90 from Europe, and 9 from Oceania. Yet mere statistics are not enough to explain the climate that characterized (as never before) the twenty days of work. Benedict XVI explained it thus: “We have seen that no mediation, no scientific reflection can, by itself, draw forth all the treasures, all the potential that can be discovered only through the history of every life, from the Word of God.” The interventions of the Synod Fathers invited to reflect on the theme, “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church,” were those of witnesses of faith who brought experiences, questions, and concerns to Rome from the various communities entrusted to them around the world. It was “a beautiful polyphony of faith,” as the Pope defined it, which tried to show how “in comparison with reality is opened up anew even the meaning of the Word that we have been given by the Holy Scriptures.”
At first, it had seemed that the theme chosen for the twelfth assembly of the Synod of Bishops would run the risk of ending up in academic arguments, more adapted to specialists than to the Church as a whole. Instead, it was the occasion for bringing to the fore what the Pope had hoped at the beginning of the session: a new realism. While the financial crisis was showing the first signs all over the world, Benedict XVI opened the assembly by recalling that man is called to decide whether to build his house on “sand,” on tangible and visible things, on success, on career, on money, or on the “rock” of the Word of God. “We must change our concept of realism,” he said. “The realist is the one who recognizes the Word of God, in this apparently weak reality, as the foundation of all things. A realist is one who builds his life on this foundation, which is permanent.” It was October 6th. At that time, few commentators went further than noting that the Pope had defined money as “nothing.” Yet with his brief comment on Psalm 118, fifteen minutes, off the cuff, Benedict XVI had sent a clear message, both to the bishops present in the hall and to the world at grips with the global economic crisis. The Synod dedicated to the Word of God could not be simply a moment of discussion on the Holy Scriptures. Nor could it have been a repetition of the Christian discourse more and more often reduced to spiritual escapism. The Word is the event of Divine Revelation as a whole, the real expression of the Mystery who becomes an encounter for man, God who addresses His Word to man. “All of creation, in the end, is conceived of to create the place of encounter between God and His creature, a place where the history of love between God and His creature can develop.” Material reality, the Pope said, is “the condition for the history of salvation” to which man is called by God at all times.
“The Word of God precedes and goes beyond the Bible which itself is ‘inspired by God’ and contains the efficacious divine Word. This is why our faith is not only centered on a book, but on a history of salvation and, as we will see, on a person, Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, man and history.” The concluding message of the Synod did not fail to repeat a theme debated at length in the course of the discussions: the Word of God is not synonymous with Holy Scripture, a point that comes up clearly in the 53 final propositions the Fathers consigned to the Pope, and of which the Pontiff circulated a synthesis. (See, for example, no. 3 of the Analogia Verbi Dei: “The expression ‘Word of God’ is analogical. It refers in the first place to the Word of God in the Person who is the Only-Begotten Son of God, born from the Father before all time, Word of the Father made flesh (Jn 1:14). The divine Word, already present in the creation of the universe and, in a particular way, in the creation of humanity, was revealed in the course of the history of salvation, and is attested to in written form in the Old and the New Testament. This Word of God transcends the Sacred Scriptures, even if Scripture contains the Word in an entirely unique way.…”)

The great danger
On the value of the Bible, its importance, and its study, the assembly of bishops registered a large number of interventions. It is an objective fact that the Bible is a book that is very widespread and little read, especially by Catholics. This is one reason the debate on how to read it and make it known was one of the points most felt and discussed. Communitarian reading, actualization of the text, critical and profound study, and other aspects came up often in the interventions of the Synod Fathers. The dialectic between exegesis and theology was always in the background, a dualism between the analysis of the text and the reading of faith. On this point, Benedict XVI intervened in the course of the discussions, to insist on two issues: “The history of salvation is not mythology but rather true history, and is therefore to be studied alongside serious historical research methods”–without faith, though, without the gaze of one who recognizes the real presence of God, “the Bible becomes solely a history book. Moral consequences can be drawn from it, history can be learned from it, but the Book as such speaks of history alone.” Separating theology and exegesis, opposing study of the text and the reading of faith generates that “great danger” that for some time has deeply scarred the Church’s unity. Cardinal Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec and General Secretary of the Synod, spoke of this “conflict between faith and reason.” In his introductory report he asserted, “We will never insist enough on this point, since the crisis of exegesis and of theological hermeneutics deeply harms the spiritual life of the People of God and its faith in the Scriptures.” The separation of exegesis from theology, of reason from faith subverts “even ecclesial communion,” said Ouellet, “because of the often unhealthy tension that reigns between university theology and Church Magisterium.”
Vebum caro factum est, the Word was made flesh. This is the “very heart of Christian faith. The eternal and divine Word enters into space and time and takes on the face of a human identity.” The Synod’s conclusive message introduces thus the second point of the text edited at the end of the session. The Word of God reveals itself to man in a relationship that has a face: Jesus Christ. The Pope dedicated one of the most moving passages of his introductory intervention to friendship with this Man. “Before we can say, ‘I am Yours,’ He has already told us, ‘I am yours.’ …With His Incarnation, He said, “I am yours.” And in Baptism, He said to me, “I am yours.” In the Holy Eucharist, He always repeats this “I am yours,” so that we may answer, “Lord, I am Yours.” This dialogue between the Creator and His creature established in reality from the beginning has become familiar, day-to-day friendship. The Synod Fathers stressed with different accents the decisive nature of this relationship. Thus emerged the profound link between this last assembly of bishops and the previous one, called by John Paul II and then guided by Benedict XVI, dedicated to “The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church” (2005). The Post-Synodal Exhortation produced after the assembly three years ago began by defining the Eucharist as a “sacrament of love,” “the gift Jesus Christ makes of Himself.” At the very beginning of this text was already partly included the trajectory of the Synod dedicated to the Word of God. In the Eucharist, the Exhortation said, “The Lord comes to meet man by becoming his traveling companion.” This companionship, this constant familiarity which opens man up to the relationship with the Word of God, has a place in history: it is called Church. The concluding message of the Synod described this in the words of the Acts of the Apostles: “They were steadfast in the teaching of the Apostles, in fraternal communion, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.” These are the “four pillars”–so the message defines them–on which is based “the spiritual building of the Church.” It is a company of men taken hold of by Christ, an historical reality made up of “those who hear the Word of God and put it into practice,” as we read in Luke’s Gospel.
The Church is the Word of God become life. The preaching, the Eucharist, the Liturgy, the prayer are all expressions of that life, of the communion with man that God willed to establish in history. It is an unavoidable fact. This the Synod Fathers documented by telling of the life of their communities in Pakistan, where Christians are a tiny minority; in the Philippines, where 80% of the population declares itself Catholic; in Cameroon, where the number of faithful is growing; and in Europe, which wants to eliminate God from life. The Church that, at the Synod, spoke many languages, is the same as in New York, or in tiny Mauritius, from where the Bishop of Port Louis came for the Synod. In his intervention, Bishop Piat reminded all bishops of a simple but decisive fact: “The Word is fundamental when it is accepted as the event of God who speaks to us of Himself and addresses us as friends so as to invite us to share His life. To propose the faith is not first of all to transmit a striking content, but an invitation that is always a promise: ‘Come and see.’”

The cry of St. Paul
“Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” St. Paul’s exhortation rang out often during the Synod. The Pope repeated it during both the opening and closing Masses. Cardinal Levada repeated it, amongst others, at the beginning of the session. “This cry of St. Paul,” the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said, “resounds again today in the Church with great urgency, and becomes for all Christians an appeal to the service of the Gospel and the whole world.”
It was, above all, the Bishops of Asia and Africa who gave testimony during the Synod of how relevant  the Apostle’s exhortation is today. From them came the witness of communities who even in situations of difficulty and oppression do not stop professing their faith, paying for it with their lives. During the assembly itself came the news of the violence against the Indian Christians of Orissa, Karnataka, and Jharkhand. From Iraq came the echoes of new terrorist attacks against the small communities that still survive in Mosul and the constant flight of Christians. The living testimony brought to the Synod from those communities joined with that of bishops of all five continents whose interventions contained an invitation to a new evangelization.
The life of the Church is mission. Many recalled Jesus’ own appeal: “The harvest is rich.” As the Pope emphasized, “[M]any people are searching, sometimes unwittingly, for the meeting with Christ and His Gospel; so many have to find in Him a meaning for their lives. Giving clear and shared testimony to a life according to the Word of God, witnessed by Jesus, therefore becomes an indispensable criterion to verify the mission of the Church.”