The Mass readings are always so inspiring. Today and tomorrow, we read two pieces by the prophet Baruch. He is a disciple of Jeremiah. It seems that he was not deported into exile, but he was taken to Egypt, as tradition also says of Jeremiah.
In the passage we read this morning, the prophet recognizes himself as a sinner together with all his people and therefore deserving of divine punishment, that is, the conditions of defeat of that moment. The passage that we will read tomorrow (perhaps we will not read it, because it is the feast of the Holy Rosary) announces as consolation the imminent liberation by God. I cannot help but apply these messages to our case, when an unprecedented Synod is gathered in Rome. We are all eager to resolve the present difficulties of the Church. The prophet says that all the difficulties come, because he and his people did not obey the word of God and the prophets and consoles the people by saying that, if they return to obeying the word of God and the prophets, liberation will soon come.
I have the impression that someone sees the present difficulties of the Church as coming from a “clericalism” that does not listen to the people, that distances and excludes sinners. The prophet’s words must make us think that perhaps the cause lies in not having listened to the word of God found in the Bible, in the tradition of 20 centuries, especially in the recent Magisterium of the Second Vatican Council, faithfully respected by the Popes, the greatest of whom, John Paul II, chose as his name the one left by his predecessor: John Paul, by this he meant that he would not have his own program, but that of the two promoters of the Council, Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI.
Unfortunately, not everyone followed the hermeneutic of continuity. Some went to the right, some went to the left. Neither one nor the other saved our Church. Some have become schismatic, others believe they are even more faithful to the Council than those who hold firm to the faith that comes from the Apostles. Lefevre’s disciples were few, but those who chose to follow the current of the world are now attempting to dominate the Church.
It is time to return to the word of God, of the Apostles, especially Saint Paul, of the Popes, especially the recent ones, not just the present one. On this word we must weigh all the proposals that present themselves as medicines for a renewal of our Church.
I take this opportunity to say that it is a misunderstanding that the Easter Churches take the word “synodality” as meaning “the walking together with the people of God” (and by this they mean the laity). Eastern Catholics tell us that with the “Synod” they never directly intended the walking together of all the people, but “the walking together of the Bishops with Our Lord Jesus Christ”.
Tomorrow, the feast of the Holy Rosary, we will read the Acts of the Apostles which describe the prayer of the primitive community with the presence of Our Lady. Please, don’t mind if I recommend you a traditional prayer of the Church: “Sub tuum praesidium” and a prayer composed by Saint John Bosco: “O Mary, Virgo potens”.
