During the closing Mass of the Synod Assembly, the Pope delivered the homily, in which he called on those present to return to the core of the Gospel, the love of God: "Brother cardinals, brother bishops and priests, men and women religious, sisters and brothers, at the end of this stretch of road we have traveled, it is important to contemplate the 'principle and foundation' from which everything begins and begins again: to love God with all our lives and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Not our strategies, not human calculations, not the fashions of the world, but to love God and neighbor; that is the center of everything. But how do we translate this impulse to love? I propose two verbs, two movements of the heart on which I would like to reflect: to adore and to serve.
A Church that worships
On the first verb, "to adore," the Pope commented: "Adoration is the first response we can offer to the gratuitous and surprising love of God. For it is by being there, docile before him, that we recognize him as Lord, put him at the center and rediscover the wonder of being loved by him. The wonder of worship is essential in the Church. To adore, in fact, means to recognize in faith that God alone is Lord and that on the tenderness of his love depend our lives, the path of the Church, the destinies of history. He is the meaning of life, the foundation of our joy, the reason for our hope, the guarantor of our freedom".
The Holy Father also pointed out that adoration is a way of opposing idolatry: "Love of the Lord in Scripture is often associated with the struggle against all idolatry. Whoever worships God rejects idols because God liberates, while idols enslave, deceive us and never fulfill what they promise, because they are "the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see" (Ps 115:4-5). As Cardinal Martini affirmed, Scripture is severe against idolatry because idols are the work of man and are manipulated by him; instead, God is always the Living One, "who is not at all as I think, who does not depend on what I expect of him, who can therefore alter my expectations, precisely because he is alive. The confirmation that we do not always have the right idea of God is that sometimes we are disappointed: I expected this, I imagined that God would behave like this, but I was wrong. In this way we return to the path of idolatry, pretending that the Lord acts according to the image we have made of him". It is a risk that we can always run: to think that we can "control God", enclosing his love in our schemes; instead, his action is always unpredictable, and for that reason it requires astonishment and adoration".
The Pope pointed out that there are many forms of idolatry, both worldly and spiritual: "We must always fight against idolatries; the worldly ones, which often come from personal vainglory - such as the desire for success, self-affirmation at any cost, the lust for money, the seduction of careerism - but also idolatries disguised as spirituality: my religious ideas, my pastoral skills. Let us be vigilant, lest we put ourselves at the center, instead of God. And now back to worship. Let it be central to us as pastors; let us devote time each day to intimacy with Jesus the Good Shepherd before the tabernacle. Let the Church be an adorer; let the Lord be adored in every diocese, in every parish, in every community. For only in this way will we turn to Jesus and not to ourselves; for only through adoring silence will the Word of God dwell in our words; for only before him will we be purified, transformed and renewed by the fire of his Spirit. Brothers and sisters, let us adore the Lord Jesus!".
To love and serve
Regarding the second verb he highlighted at the beginning of his homily, "to serve," the Pope emphasized that: "To love is to serve. In the great commandment, Christ unites God and neighbor so that they are never separated. There is no authentic religious experience that remains deaf to the cry of the world. There is no love of God without a commitment to care for one's neighbor, otherwise one runs the risk of Pharisaism. Carlo Carretto, a witness of our times, said that the danger, for us believers, is to fall into "a Pharisaic ambiguity, which sees us [...] withdrawn into our egoism and with our minds full of beautiful ideas for reforming the Church" (Letters from the Desert, Madrid 1974, 68-69). Perhaps we really have many beautiful ideas for reforming the Church, but let us remember: to adore God and to love our brothers and sisters with the same love, this is the greatest and unceasing reform. To be an adoring Church and a Church of service, that washes the feet of wounded humanity, that accompanies the path of the fragile, the weak and the discarded, that goes out with tenderness to meet the poorest. God commanded this in the first reading, asking respect for the least: the stranger, the widow and the orphan (cf. Ex 22:20-23). The love with which God freed the Israelites from slavery when they were strangers is the same love that he asks us to lavish on strangers in every time and place, on all those who are oppressed and exploited.
Remembering the victims of wars
On the other hand, the Pope also recalled the victims of wars: "Brothers and sisters, I think of those who are victims of the atrocities of war; of the sufferings of migrants; of the hidden pain of those who are alone and in conditions of poverty; of those who are crushed by the weight of life; of those who have no more tears, of those who have no voice. And I think of how many times, behind beautiful words and persuasive promises, forms of exploitation are encouraged or nothing is done to prevent them. It is a grave sin to exploit the weakest, a grave sin that corrodes fraternity and devastates society. We, disciples of Jesus, want to bring to the world another leaven, that of the Gospel. God at the center and next to Him those He prefers, the poor and the weak".
A "conversation of the Spirit
In conclusion, the Pope recalled the Synod Assembly, emphasizing the presence and action of the Holy Spirit during this process: "Dear brothers and sisters, the Synod Assembly is coming to an end. In this 'conversation of the Spirit' we have been able to experience the tender presence of the Lord and to discover the beauty of fraternity. We have listened to one another and, above all, in the rich variety of our histories and our sensitivities, we have listened to the Spirit. Today we do not see the full fruit of this process, but with open-mindedness we can contemplate the horizon that is opening before us. The Lord will guide us and help us to be a more synodal and missionary Church, one that worships God and serves the women and men of our time, going out to bring the comforting joy of the Gospel to all.
Brother cardinals, brother bishops and priests, religious men and women, brothers and sisters, for all this I say thank you. Thank you for the journey we have made together, for listening and for dialogue. And in thanking you, I would like to express a wish for all of us: that we may grow in the adoration of God and in the service of our neighbor. May the Lord be with us. And go forward, with joy!
Angelus
After the Angelus, during which the Pope reflected on the Gospel, the Holy Father once again remembered the victims of war and thanked those who joined the day of fasting and prayer for peace on Friday, October 27: "I thank all those who - in so many places and in so many ways - joined the day of fasting, prayer and penance that we celebrated last Friday, praying for peace in the world. Let us not give up. Let us continue to pray for Ukraine and also for the grave situation in Palestine and Israel and other war-torn regions. In Gaza, in particular, may there be room to ensure humanitarian aid and that the hostages are released immediately. Let no one give up the possibility of stopping the weapons. Let them cease fire. Father Ibrahim Faltas - I just heard him on the program "In His Image" - Father Ibrahim said, "Cease fire! Cease fire!". He is the Vicar of the Holy Land. We too, with Father Ibrahim, say: "Cease fire! Stop, brothers and sisters! War is always a defeat, always!".
