INTRODUCTION
The Holy Father concluded the Synod of the Americas, begun in November 1997 and capped with his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America released at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City in January this year on the Pope's visit to the Americas. It is the Sovereign Pontiff who has expressed a strong desire to see North, Central and South Americas to be considered "one continent" and he expresses the solidarity, communion and conversion of all nations in the Western Hemisphere in this summation of all that was discussed and decided on between Rome and the Bishops of America at the month-long synod late in 1997. We bring you, over several installments, the entire document since it is pertinent not only to the Bishops and clergy, but to the lay communicants of the Americas. To read the entire document at one time or for footnotes, go to Ecclesia in America. To the right is installment nine of ECCLESIA IN AMERICA.
|
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America
From Pope John Paul II to the Bishops, Priests and Deacons, Men and Women Religious, and all the Lay Faithful on the encounter with the Living Jesus Christ: The Way to Conversion, Communion and Solidarity in America
Installment Nine of ECCLESIA IN AMERICA: CHAPTER THREE: THE PATH TO CONVERSION
“Repent therefore and be converted” (Acts 3:19)
The urgency of the call to conversion
26. “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is close at hand: repent
and believe the Good News” (Mk 1:15). These words with which Jesus
began his Galilean ministry still echo in the ears of Bishops, priests,
deacons, consecrated men and women and the lay faithful throughout
America. Both the recent celebration of the fifth centenary of the first
evangelization of America and the commemoration of the two thousandth
anniversary of the birth of Jesus, the Great Jubilee we are preparing to
celebrate, summon everyone alike to a deeper sense of our Christian
vocation. The greatness of the Incarnation and gratitude for the gift of the
first proclamation of the Gospel in America are an invitation to respond
readily to Christ with a more decisive personal conversion and a stimulus
to ever more generous fidelity to the Gospel. Christ's call to conversion
finds an echo in the words of the Apostle: “It is time now to wake from
sleep, because our salvation is closer than when we first became
believers” (Rom 13:11). The encounter with the living Jesus impels us to
conversion.
In speaking of conversion, the New Testament uses the word metanoia,
which means a change of mentality. It is not simply a matter of thinking
differently in an intellectual sense, but of revising the reasons behind
one's actions in the light of the Gospel. In this regard, Saint Paul speaks of
“faith working through love” (Gal 5:6). This means that true conversion
needs to be prepared and nurtured though the prayerful reading of
Sacred Scripture and the practice of the Sacraments of Reconciliation
and the Eucharist. Conversion leads to fraternal communion, because it
enables us to understand that Christ is the head of the Church, his
Mystical Body; it urges solidarity, because it makes us aware that
whatever we do for others, especially for the poorest, we do for Christ
himself. Conversion, therefore, fosters a new life, in which there is no
separation between faith and works in our daily response to the
universal call to holiness. In order to speak of conversion, the gap
between faith and life must be bridged. Where this gap exists, Christians
are such only in name. To be true disciples of the Lord, believers must
bear witness to their faith, and “witnesses testify not only with words,
but also with their lives”.(68) We must keep in mind the words of Jesus:
“Not every one who says to me, 'Lord, Lord!' shall enter the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt
7:21). Openness to the Father's will supposes a total self-giving, including
even the gift of one's life: “The greatest witness is martyrdom”.(69)
The social dimension of conversion
27. Yet conversion is incomplete if we are not aware of the demands of
the Christian life and if we do not strive to meet them. In this regard, the
Synod Fathers noted that unfortunately “at both the personal and
communal level there are great shortcomings in relation to a more
profound conversion and with regard to relationships between sectors,
institutions and groups within the Church”.(70) “He who does not love his
brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1
Jn 4:20).
Fraternal charity means attending to all the needs of our neighbor. “If any
one has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his
heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?” (1 Jn 3:17). Hence,
for the Christian people of America conversion to the Gospel means to
revise “all the different areas and aspects of life, especially those related
to the social order and the pursuit of the common good”.(71) It will be
especially necessary “to nurture the growing awareness in society of
the dignity of every person and, therefore, to promote in the community a
sense of the duty to participate in political life in harmony with the
Gospel”.(72) Involvement in the political field is clearly part of the vocation
and activity of the lay faithful.(73)
In this regard, however, it is most important, especially in a pluralistic
society, to understand correctly the relationship between the political
community and the Church, and to distinguish clearly between what
individual believers or groups of believers undertake in their own name as
citizens guided by Christian conscience and what they do in the name of
the Church in communion with their Pastors. The Church which, in virtue
of her office and competence, can in no way be confused with the
political community nor be tied to any political system, is both a sign and
safeguard of the transcendent character of the human person.(74)
Continuing conversion
28. In this life, conversion is a goal which is never fully attained: on the
path which the disciple is called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus,
conversion is a lifelong task. While we are in this world, our intention to
repent is always exposed to temptations. Since “no one can serve two
masters” (Mt 6:24), the change of mentality (metanoia) means striving to
assimilate the values of the Gospel, which contradict the dominant
tendencies of the world. Hence there is a need to renew constantly “the
encounter with the living Jesus Christ”, since this, as the Synod Fathers
pointed out, is the way “which leads us to continuing conversion”.(75)
The universal call to conversion has special implications for the Church in
America, involved as she is in the renewal of faith. The Synod Fathers
expressed this very specific and demanding task in this way: “This
conversion demands especially of us Bishops a genuine identification
with the personal style of Jesus Christ, who leads us to simplicity,
poverty, responsibility for others and the renunciation of our own
advantage, so that, like him and not trusting in human means, we may
draw from the strength of the Holy Spirit and of the Word all the power of
the Gospel, remaining open above all to those who are furthest away and
excluded”.(76) To be Pastors after God's own heart (cf. Jer 3:15), it is
essential to adopt a mode of living which makes us like the one who says
of himself: “I am the good shepherd” (Jn 10:11), and to whom Saint Paul
points when he writes: “Imitate me as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor 11:1).
NEXT MONDAY: Installment ten - Chapter Three: Guided by the Holy Spirit to a new way of living
|
|