The Document Instrumentum Laboris (IL), in the first part on relationships, speaks to us of charisms and ministries, one of them being the ministry of accompaniment and listening.
We want and desire that our Church be a place of listening and accompaniment, where no one feels judged, but that all find a space where they can be heard and heal their wounds.
The desire of the Church in the synod is to institute this ministry in a concrete way, and hopefully, by institutionalizing it, it will not become a mere office, but something driven by the Holy Spirit: a space of listening and encounter where people feel truly welcomed and loved by the Church.
The Church must begin by opening its doors, especially by breaking with those structures that no longer respond to the needs of our times.
It is necessary to abandon the traditional office and look for spaces in which people feel at home, in family, since the road traveled so far has led us to recognize that a synodal Church is a Church that listens, capable of welcoming and accompanying, of being perceived as home and family (IL 33).
If we want to exercise this new ministry proposed by the synod, we must begin by opening the doors of our communities.
We have to look for spaces for reflection and self-knowledge, as well as listen to those confreres who do not approach our communities because they do not perceive an open door.
Let us open our doors to grasp what is happening outside; with the door closed, we cannot perceive the action of the Spirit in the world, nor open spaces of encounter and dialogue, not even among ourselves.
Moreover, in a house with a closed door, what remains inside can grow old and rot, because no fresh air enters, and everything begins to smell of storage, of decay.
Let us open our doors so that the Spirit of God who makes all things new may really enter.
We, the Augustinian Recollects of this century, cannot remain idle in the face of this invitation of the Church: that our communities be open doors, a space of accompaniment and listening.
Our father, St. Augustine, taught us with his life and writings the importance of welcome, building a hostel for pilgrims; therefore, as Augustinians, we cannot let down the Augustinian charism and the ministry of welcome.
St. Augustine exhorts solidarity and the practice of charity with those who are in need and lack a place to sleep.
In a sermon preached in the winter of 411 or 412, St. Augustine invited his faithful to act like Zacchaeus, welcoming Christ into their homes in the person of the migrant:
“Behold, with God’s favor, we are in winter. Think of the poor, how to clothe the naked Christ. While the Gospel was being read, did we not all consider Zacchaeus blessed because, climbing a tree, attentive to see who was passing by, Christ looked at him? Indeed, how could he expect to have him as a guest in his house? (…) Almost all of you imagined yourselves to be Zacchaeus and that you could receive Christ (…) Each one of you expects to receive Christ sitting in heaven; see him lying in a doorway; see him hungry, cold; see him poor, a stranger. Do what you are accustomed to do, do what you are not accustomed to do. Let knowledge be greater, let good works be more.”
In welcoming a brother in need, we welcome Christ himself:
“Let us feed the hungry Christ on this earth, let us give him drink when he is thirsty, let us clothe him if he is naked, let us welcome him if he is a pilgrim, and let us visit him if he is sick. These are necessities of the journey. Thus we are to live in this pilgrimage, where Christ is in need. Personally he is full, but he has need in his own. He who is personally full, but in need in his own, brings to himself those in need. There there will be no hunger, no thirst, no nakedness, no sickness, no pilgrimage, no fatigue, no pain” (Sermon 236. 3).
To promote the reception of both pilgrims and the sick, St. Augustine built a hostel/hospital, which would become the second hospital or “city of charity” in the history of universal solidarity and charity, after the Basilica of Caesarea in Cappadocia, built by St. Basil the Great around the year 373.
In short, the legacy left to us by St. Augustine cannot be lost sight of at this moment in history, because the Church has been inviting us for some time now to be a Church with open doors, a welcoming Church and a community that listens to and accompanies the most vulnerable.
Let us not disappoint either St. Augustine or the Church.