ROME, OCT. 25, 2005 (Zenit.org).- An official of the recent Synod of Bishops says the key fruit of the assembly was to arouse a missionary dynamism linked to the encounter with Christ in the Eucharist.
At the end of the synod on the Eucharist, its relator general, Cardinal Angelo Scola, made a brief assessment of the three-week event for a group of journalists, including two of ZENIT’s writers.
«The missionary dynamism of the Church» stems from «the beauty of a meeting,» said the patriarch of Venice, Italy.
In the synod, Cardinal Scola was responsible for writing the introductory report and the report that followed the interventions of the participants, and for collaborating in the writing of the 50 propositions that the assembly sent to Benedict XVI.
Speaking from the terrace of the Augustinianum Institute that overlooks St. Peter’s Square, the cardinal said that the synod launched a «new evangelization of humanity from the Eucharist.»
«One does not become a missionary with the muscles of his will,» but after having experienced the «wonder» that the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist awakens, he explained.
«One becomes a missionary if one has found something, or rather someone, who has changed one’s life,» the prelate added. «In this way, one freely communicates gratitude for this free gesture one has received.»
Wonder
According to the patriarch, one of the most original aspects of the synod’s reflection was to launch the «wonder» or surprise awakened by the Eucharist.
Hope comes from the experience of «a great joy,» of «having received a great gift,» he noted. «In the wake of this wonder, a responsibility arises: This wonder becomes a task.»
Thus, according to the synod, the life of every baptized person must become Eucharistic, it must have a «Eucharistic style,» the cardinal said. «This mission affects all the dimensions of life, as the Church is called to allow the face of Jesus Christ to shine, light of the Gentiles. She does not exist for herself, she is not an organism to produce propaganda.»
Cardinal Scola noted that the synod was preceded by the Year of the Eucharist and by two key documents of Pope John Paul II.
«Every time we depart from this vision that the great John Paul II gave us and we enter the logic of a project, a plan, a scheme, a program and a duty,» the cardinal said, «we become boring and can then understand why the people do not follow us.»
