Let's walk together

Last October Pope Francis called a synod for the Italian Church which over the course of two years will involve all the ecclesial realities, all the people of God and even those far away, men and women of good will. A synod from below to identify the priorities and themes of the actual synod to be held starting from October 2023. A major consultation in search of what the Holy Spirit has to say to the Church today, through the signs of the times, read from the people of God. It is not something to be done immediately, a document or an event to be created, it is the Church itself that becomes a synod to rediscover the essence of its mission. A synod to learn to walk together, and to be everyone's Church, with everyone.

Every community, association, parish, be it small or large, can enter the synod and focus on walking together, in the diversity of age, experience and tasks. In a time when we tend to make what divides prevail instead of what unites, it is a question of letting ourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit to undertake the reverse path: listening to each other, sharing the wealth of ideas and experiences, overcoming prejudices, to investigate together what the Spirit can say to us Church today, to find a common direction in the complexities of the time we are living. A community that embarks on this journey already realizes in its own small portion of the Church the richness that the Spirit can offer to the whole Church in synod: "To make dreams germinate, inspire prophecies and visions, make hopes flourish, stimulate trust, bind wounds, weave relationships, arouse a dawn of hope, learn from each other and create a positive imagery that enlightens minds, warms hearts, restores strength to hands "(DP.32).

The first step is to recover profound communion, the unity that arises from the feeling of belonging to a people marked by the encounter with God. it happens that the heart hardens. The fact that we belong to a community, a portion of the Church, does not automatically make us better, it does not keep us safe from fragility, divisions, betrayals, falls and does not magically make us all equal. The temptation to go it alone is always upon us. It is necessary to re-read the history of one's community, a sacred history because it is a history of encounter with God, to re-read it in the light of the Word of God. The Word and the Eucharist that make the presence of the Lord alive in us and among us, make us aware of belonging to a people and that we are saved only together, in communion, in unity.

We walk together in community, encouraging the participation of all. Everyone expresses himself, we listen to each other in prayer because what each one has to say in prayer is fundamental to find indications on the way to go, answers to the questions that everyone is asking. Nobody can get out. The community is not made up of a few who know, what they do and many spectators who look more or less convinced. In the community everyone is the protagonist with his little or much of him and everyone has his share of responsibility. In the community, participation takes place within a discernment moved by the Holy Spirit where little by little one is led to a common, shared decision, also welcomed by those who started from distant positions, but placed themselves in obedience precisely to the Spirit.

Finally, we walk together in order to rediscover the impetus in the mission that the Lord always entrusts to his Church. Every community that puts the Word at the center is pushed by the Spirit to be missionary, that is, to proclaim the Gospel. Entering all fully into the mission entrusted to the individual community gives us a sense of who we do it for. The community is never closed in on itself, it is always a community for, it is always in the midst of the crowd, like Jesus and his disciples.


Rosanna Tabasso
NP November 2021