The title of the present reflection comes from the first section of the Instrumentum Laboris (IL) of the Synod of Bishops, which contains five fundamentals that can invite us to reflect, and thus be able to respond to a fundamental question: How to be a missionary synodal Church?
Within this ecclesial context, I would like to start from this first subtitle to make a small meditation from an Augustinian approach.
Although many centuries later, St. Augustine offers us something today in the face of this synodal present.
How to be a missionary synodal Church?
The Church as a people walks towards God; each one does not do it at his own pace and separately, but we all walk along the same path and towards the same goal.
In this journey we go with hope towards God, we go together.
What happens in the ecclesial community is that each one wants to go his own way.
This does not unite, it separates; and what is sought is communion among all: that we may all be one, as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are One.
This unity of the people of God takes place in baptism under the action of the Holy Spirit, who puts the Christian in communication with the Head and in relationship with the other members of the people of God.
For St. Augustine, the most important thing is not incorporation into the Church, but unity as the fruit of abiding in charity.
And thus no one can be one in the body of Christ, if he is not in communion with him. .
“No one can be one in the body of Christ, if he is not in communion with Him.” (St. Augustine)
The Church, the people of God, begins to live unity through the Holy Spirit.
The risen Jesus sends the Spirit to the Church and unifies it; hence, the great desire of St. Augustine: to form one soul and one heart directed to God.
Indeed, he longed for unity and charity to reign in his monasteries.
For this reason, the communities founded by the Bishop of Hippo were communities of charity, living the Christian life with greater love and generosity.
The saint encouraged the monks to make the vow of common life, a thought that we find reflected in the Rule as the end and foundation of the Christian life: First of all, since you have come together in community for this purpose, live in the house with one accord, and have one soul and one heart oriented toward God.
Live, therefore, all of you in union of heart and soul, and honor God in one another, whose temples you have been made.
The Document
IL highlights that, In Christ, the light of all nations, we are one People of God, called to be a sign and instrument of union with God and of the unity of the human race. We can remember the thought of St. Augustine when he refers to
unity in the total Christ; neither in the Document nor in Augustinian thought is there talk of uniformity, but rather of unity in diversity, since he affirms: “The synodal process has developed an awareness of what it means to be the People of God gathered together as ‘the Church of every race, language, people and nation’:
The synodal process has developed an awareness of what it means to be the People of God gathered together as ‘Church of every race, language, people and nation‘ and in no. 11 he says: ” Throughout the synodal process, the Church’s desire for unity has grown along with its awareness of the diversity of which it is the bearer.
It was precisely the sharing among the Churches that reminded us that there is no mission without context. “. And St. Augustine, when he wishes to emphasize diversity, affirms that two realities are essential to the community: diversity of members with different functions, and unity of life in a common principle.
Diversity is indispensable for the fulfillment of one’s own mission within the common life; unity, for the influence of one on the others, for the benefit of a common action.
The unity of love is the strongest bond of charity, and charity is reflected in the mission that each one has in the Church, the people of God.
We cannot forget the importance that the sacrament of love and unity has for St. Augustine in the mystical union with Christ.
The Eucharist is the sign of unity par excellence.
This same idea is taken up in the IL Document: The dynamism of ecclesial communion and, therefore, of the synodal life of the Church finds its proper model and realization in the Eucharistic liturgy.
St. Augustine expresses it in this way: The matter of the Eucharist begins by being already a sign of unity: since Christ has entrusted to us his body and blood, in order to live in communion with him and with the brethren .
Por una parte, muchos granos forman realmente una hostia; y, por otra, un único vino proviene de múltiples racimos, that is, to remain in the body of Christ, to commune in love with all those members who live by their own Life, the life of God..
¡Oh sacramento de amor, oh signo de unidad, oh vÃnculo de caridad!
Certainly, we could conclude by saying that this thought of St. Augustine makes us realize that the IL Document is faithful to the doctrine of the Second Vatican Council and to the tradition of the Church when it affirms: Christ is the light of the peoples (LG 1), and this light shines on the face of the Church, which is ‘in Christ as a sacrament, that is, a sign and instrument of intimate union with God and of the unity of the whole human race‘(LG 1).
In other words, the unity of love is the strongest bond of charity, and charity is reflected in the mission that each one has in the Church, the people of God.