INTRODUCTION
The Holy Father concluded the Synod of the Americas, begun in November 1997 and capped with his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America released at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City in January this year on the Pope's visit to the Americas. It is the Sovereign Pontiff who has expressed a strong desire to see North, Central and South Americas to be considered "one continent" and he expresses the solidarity, communion and conversion of all nations in the Western Hemisphere in this summation of all that was discussed and decided on between Rome and the Bishops of America at the month-long synod late in 1997. We bring you, over several installments, the entire document since it is pertinent not only to the Bishops and clergy, but to the lay communicants of the Americas. To read the entire document at one time or for footnotes, go to Ecclesia in America. To the right is installment four of ECCLESIA IN AMERICA.
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Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America
From Pope John Paul II to the Bishops, Priests and Deacons, Men and Women Religious, and all the Lay Faithful on the encounter with the Living Jesus Christ: The Way to Conversion, Communion and Solidarity in America
Installment Four of ECCLESIA IN AMERICA:
Part Three CHAPTER ONE: THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE LIVING CHRIST
Places of encounter with Christ
Places of encounter with Christ
12. Trusting in the help of Mary, the Church in America desires to lead the men and women
of the continent to encounter Christ. This encounter will be the starting-point of authentic
conversion and of renewed communion and solidarity. Such an encounter will contribute
greatly to strengthening the faith of many Catholics, helping them to mature in strong, lively
and active faith.
Lest the search for Christ present in his Church become something merely abstract, we
need to indicate the specific times and places in which, in the Church, it is possible to
encounter him. Here the reflections of the Synod Fathers offered abundant suggestions and
observations.
They pointed above all to “Sacred Scripture read in the light of Tradition, the Fathers and the
Magisterium, and more deeply understood through meditation and prayer”.(24) A
recommendation was made to promote knowledge of the Gospels, which proclaim in words
easily understood by all the way Jesus lived among the people of his time. Reading these
sacred texts and listening to Jesus as attentively as did the multitudes of the mount of the
Beatitudes, or on the shore of the Lake of Tiberias as he preached from the boat, produces
authentic fruits of conversion of heart.
A second place of encounter with Jesus is the sacred Liturgy.(25) Thanks to the Second
Vatican Council, we have a very rich account of the manifold presence of Christ in the
Liturgy, the importance of which should lead to it being a theme of constant preaching. Christ
is present in the celebrant who renews at the altar the one and only Sacrifice of the Cross;
he is present in the Sacraments through which he exercises his efficacious power. When
his word is proclaimed, it is he himself who speaks to us. He is also present in the
community, by virtue of his promise that “where two or three are gathered in my name, there
am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20). He is present “especially under the Eucharistic
species”.(26) My Predecessor Paul VI deemed it necessary to explain the uniqueness of
Christ's real presence in the Eucharist, which “is called 'real' not to exclude the idea that the
others are 'real' too, but rather to indicate presence par excellence, because it is
substantial”.(27) Under the species of bread and wine, “Christ is present, whole and entire
in his physical 'reality', corporally present”.(28)
The Scriptures and the Eucharist, places of encounter with Christ, are evoked in the story of
the apparition of the Risen Jesus to the disciples of Emmaus. The Gospel text concerning the
final judgment (cf. Mt 25:31-46), which states that we will be judged on our love towards the
needy in whom the Lord Jesus is mysteriously present, indicates that we must not neglect a
third place of encounter with Christ: “the persons, especially the poor, with whom Christ
identifies himself”.(29) At the closing of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI recalled
that “on the face of every human being, especially when marked by tears and sufferings,
we can and must see the face of Christ (cf. Mt 25:40), the Son of Man”.(30)
NEXT MONDAY: Installment five - Chapter Two:
The situation of the men and women of America and their encounter with the Lord
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