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 part three of ECCLESIA IN AMERICA.
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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 Three of ECCLESIA IN AMERICA:
Part two CHAPTER ONE: THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE LIVING CHRIST
Encountering Christ in the time of the Church
Encountering Christ in the time of the Church
10. The Church is the place where men and women, by encountering Jesus, can come to
know the love of the Father, for whoever has seen Jesus has seen the Father (cf. Jn 14:9).
After his Ascension into heaven, Jesus acts through the powerful agency of the Holy Spirit,
the Paraclete (cf. Jn 16:17), who transforms believers by giving them new life. Thus they
become capable of loving with God's own love, which “has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). God's grace also enables
Christians to work for the transformation of the world, in order to bring about a new
civilization, which my Predecessor Paul VI appropriately called “the civilization of love”.(15)
Indeed, “the Word of God, by taking on our human nature in all things save sin (cf. Heb
4:15), manifests the Father's plan by revealing to each human person the way to realize fully
his or her vocation. Thus Jesus not only reconciles man with the Father, but also reconciles
man with himself and thus reveals his true nature”.(16) With these words the Synod
Fathers, taking up the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, reaffirmed that Jesus is the
way which leads to full personal realization, culminating in the definitive and eternal
encounter with God. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father,
but by me” (Jn 14:6). God has predestined us “to be conformed to the image of his Son, in
order that he might be the first-born of many brethren” (Rom 8:29). Jesus Christ is thus the
definitive answer to the question of the meaning of life, and to those fundamental questions
which still trouble so many men and women on the American continent.
We encounter Jesus through Mary
11. At the birth of Jesus, the Magi came from the East to Bethlehem and “saw the child with
Mary his Mother” (Mt 2:11). At the beginning of his public life, at the marriage of Cana, when
the Son of God works the first of his signs, awakening faith in the disciples (cf. Jn 2:11), it is
Mary who intervenes and directs the servants towards her Son in these words: “Do
whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). In this regard I once wrote that “the Mother of Christ
presents herself as the spokeswoman of her Son's will, pointing out those things which must
be done so that the salvific power of the Messiah may be manifested”.(17) For this reason
Mary is the sure path to our meeting with Christ. Devotion to the Mother of the Lord, when it
is genuine, is always an impetus to a life guided by the spirit and values of the Gospel.
How can we fail to emphasize the role which belongs to the Virgin Mary in relation to the
pilgrim Church in America journeying towards its encounter with the Lord? Indeed, the Most
Blessed Virgin “is linked in a special way to the birth of the Church in the history ... of the
peoples of America; through Mary they came to encounter the Lord”.(18)
Throughout the continent, from the time of the first evangelization, the presence of the
Mother of God has been strongly felt, thanks to the efforts of the missionaries. In their
preaching, “the Gospel was proclaimed by presenting the Virgin Mary as its highest
realization. From the beginning — invoked as Our Lady of Guadalupe — Mary, by her
motherly and merciful figure, was a great sign of the closeness of the Father and of Jesus
Christ, with whom she invites us to enter into communion”.(19)
The appearance of Mary to the native Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac in 1531 had a
decisive effect on evangelization.(20) Its influence greatly overflows the boundaries of
Mexico, spreading to the whole Continent. America, which historically has been, and still is, a
melting-pot of peoples, has recognized in the mestiza face of the Virgin of Tepeyac, “in
Blessed Mary of Guadalupe, an impressive example of a perfectly inculturated
evangelization”.(21) Consequently, not only in Central and South America, but in North
America as well, the Virgin of Guadalupe is venerated as Queen of all America.(22)
With the passage of time, pastors and faithful alike have grown increasingly conscious of
the role of the Virgin Mary in the evangelization of America. In the prayer composed for the
Special Assembly for America of the Synod of Bishops, Holy Mary of Guadalupe is invoked
as “Patroness of all America and Star of the first and new evangelization”. In view of this, I
welcome with joy the proposal of the Synod Fathers that the feast of Our Lady of
Guadalupe, Mother and Evangelizer of America, be celebrated throughout the continent on
December 12.(23) It is my heartfelt hope that she, whose intercession was responsible for
strengthening the faith of the first disciples (cf. Jn 2:11), will by her maternal intercession
guide the Church in America, obtaining the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as she once did for
the early Church (cf. Acts 1:14), so that the new evangelization may yield a splendid
flowering of Christian life.
NEXT MONDAY: Installment Four: Part Three of Chapter One: Encountering Christ in the time of the Church - Places of Encounter with Christ
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