By Most Rev Prakash Mallavarapu
Archbishop of Visakhapatnam
The Synod 2021-2023 and the Synodal process that is initiated by the Church under the guidance and leadership of our Holy Father Pope Francis is actually calling on us, the members of the Church, individually and as communities to see if what characterized the Apostolic Community could be re-discovered: “Communion, Participation, and Mission. We have lost the dynamic of being Christian communities following “the way of Christ” which is different and unique, which is challenging and demanded change, conversion and transformation. How do we want to be the Church today?
This question is not easy to answer but we have to face this question. Only then there is some chance for reaping the expected fruits of the Synod 2021 – 2023 and synodal process, and become a “Synodal Church.” We appreciate how the “Early Christians and Christian Communities” strived to follow the “Way of Christ,’ the Christian way, and how they were prepared to sacrifice and suffer for the what they found in “the new way’ with new attitudes and a new way of relating to God and to one another,
Dear priests, men and women religious, and the lay faithful, it is time to come with concrete initiatives as a response to the call of the Synod 2021 – 2023 in order to be a Christian community where “Communion, Participation, and Mission” are evidently present. The real challenge is the change and conversion for becoming the Synodal Church.
This change and conversion has to be at every level! Given the kind of long history behind us and the inherited attitudes towards the Church and our life in the Church, it might truly look that this change and conversion are very difficult. But, in the Risen Christ we all should believe and say, “well, it is difficult and challenging but it is possible” and therefore, we must take initiatives in concrete ways to be a Church in which there is the dynamic of “Communion, Participation, and Mission.”
Where do we start? With oneself and with the local community to which we belong to. It is not doing what we want but what we need to do as a Christian community.
This is what Vademecum for the Synod on Synodality says: In this sense, it is clear that the purpose of this Synod is not produce more documents Rather, it is intended to inspire people to dream about the church we are called to be, to make people’s hopes flourish, to stimulate trust, to bind up wounds, to weave new and deeper relationship, to learn from one another, to build bridges, to enlighten minds, warm hearts, and restore strength to our hands for our common mission (PD,32). Thus the objective of this Synodal Process is not only a series of exercises that start and stop, but rather a journey of growing authentically towards the communion and mission that God calls the Church to live out in the third millennium.This journey together will call on us to renew our mentalities and our ecclesial structures in order to live out God’s call for the Church amid the present signs of the times.
Listening to the entire People of God will help the Church to make pastoral decisions that correspond as closely as possible to God’s will(ITC, Syn., 68) The ultimate perspective to orient this synodal path of the Church is to serve the dialogue of God with humanity (DV,2) and to journey together for the kingdom of God (cf. LG, 9; RM,20). In the end, this Synodal Process seeks to move towards a Church that is more fruitfully at the service of the coming of the kingdom of heaven.”
Conclusion:
“Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions,, but everything they owned was held in common.
With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”) He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” (Acts 4:32-37)