Synod of the Bishops and Mission

This past month the Synod of Bishops concluded with their focus on the Word of God and how we as a Church share this Word in relevant ways. In the final address of the Holy Father, he summarized things in this way: The voice of the Word is revelation, the face of the Word is Jesus, the house of the Word is Church, and the roads of the Word are mission. He says in mission, The embodied Word of God “issues from” his house, the temple, and walks along the roads of the world to encounter the great pilgrimage that the people of earth have taken up in search of truth, justice and peace. In fact, even in the modern secularized city, in its squares and in its streets – where disbelief and indifference seem to reign, where evil seems to prevail over good, creating the impression of a victory of Babylon over Jerusalem – one can find a hidden yearning, a germinating hope, a quiver of expectation. As can be read in the book of the prophet Amos, “The days are coming, declares the Lord God, when I shall send a famine on the country: not hunger for food, not thirst for water, but famine for hearing the word of the Lord” (8:11). The evangelizing mission of the Church wants to answer this hunger.”