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 The XII ordinary general
assembly of the Synod of the Bishops, dedicated to the Bible, has just
been concluded. Many hints emerged from the work of the synod
participated by 253 fathers of the synod together with various listeners
and experts. Now the challenge must be picked up by the entire community
of believers to live and to assimilate the Word of God in the daily
life. A good number of religious and lay faithful participated in the
work, such as Silvia Sanchini, the National president of FUCI, born in
Rimini on 27th May 1983, with a degree in Science of
Formation, a degree course on professional Educator in the University of
Bologna and at present student of the specialist biennium in the
faculty of Science of Formation, University of Rome Three. She has been
President of the FUCI group of Rimini from 2005 till 2007 and was
appointed by the permanent Council of CEI on 21st t May 2007.
We have addressed few
questions to her on the hints emerged at the conclusion of the Synod.
Among the most interesting hints emerged at the conclusion of the synod
we find that on the diffusion and enculturation of the Bible among all
the peoples on earth. Is this a task in which the families, the
missionaries, the religious and the mass media can exercise an important
role?
“The question of the
enculturation of the Holy Scriptures was one of the recurring themes in
the reflection of the Synod, at the centre of the interventions by many
Fathers of the Synod. A specific Proposition was dedicated to this
topic, which, among other things, states that “The mandate the Lord
entrusts to the Church of proclaiming the Gospel to all creatures (See
Mark 16, 15), implies the encounter of the Word with all the peoples on
earth and their culture”, and again, “the Word of God must penetrate
into many milieus so that the culture may produce original expressions
of life, liturgy and Christian thought. In this area, a specific and
privileged role can be fulfilled by some particular categories of
believers. First of all the missionaries who by definition are called to
proclaim and to witness to the Word of God in every corner of the earth,
paying a particular attention to the poor and the suffering. The
missionaries are called to an encounter with the religious and
socio-cultural diversity, sometimes difficult, but inalienable. They
must allow themselves to be guided by a listening and welcoming
attitude.
It is important for them to be guided by a non judging and imposing
style, allowing it to be born, first of all, by the knowledge and
understanding of the local context (language, culture, rites…) to the
end of announcing the Word in more adequate forms and instruments. It is
a matter of encountering the diversity in a profitable way, without
relinquishing one’s own identity.
Together with the
missionaries, all the religious live with particular intensity the task
of announcing the Gospel. In fact they are called to be, using the words
of Benedict XVI, “living exegetes of the Word of God”, by witnessing
ceaselessly with their life how the Word of God does not stop speaking
to men and women of every epoch and of the whole world. The same
concept was confirmed by the intervention by Sr. Viviana Ballarin, who
was in the Synod as a “listener” like me. She underlined the special
role of proclamation assigned to “a multitude of consecrated women
religious who are indefatigable witnesses and dispensers of the Word of
God, who is Father and mother”.
The men and women religious
experience many “frontiers” situations, living at the side of the last
ones and renewing every day their audacious and courageous task as
witnesses of God’s love. However, the proclamation of the Word is not
realised only through active life. In fact, the contemplative dimension
also offers an irreplaceable and precious contribution. The Proposition
24 states, “The monastic communities are schools of spirituality; they
empower the life of the particular Churches”, remembering the words of
Benedict XVI who has defined the monasteries as true “spiritual oasis”,
in which the Word is welcomed, celebrated and prayed in a particularly
intense way. In the light of all this and in the awareness of the very
urgent necessity of proclaiming the Word of God in every corner of the
earth, as message of consolation and hope, we cannot help bringing to
evidence also the fundamental role of the mass media as new occasions of
announcement, in a world that keeps on being changed and transformed
ever more speedily. This task has been insisted upon and forcefully
underlined in the Message to the people of God, diffused at the
conclusion of the Synod, “Communication extends a net that enwraps the
whole globe (…). Sure, the sacred word must have its first transparency
and diffusion through the printed text, with translations to be made
according to the variegated multiplicity of the tongues spoken in our
planet. However, the voice of the divine word must resound also through
the radio, the informatics arteries of Internet, the channels of the
virtual diffusion on line, the CD, DVD, pod cast and so on and so forth;
it must appear on the TV and cinematograph videos, in the printing
press, in the cultural and social events.
Even the
women exercise a primary role of transmitting faith in the families and
catechesis. Do you share the auspice, often expressed in the final
propositions, of entrusting to women the ministry of the Biblical
lectorate?
“I think that the women hold a primary role in the proclamation of the
Word and in the transmission of faith not only in the family and
catechesis, but also in many more fields of life. I think of the many
women, of the lay youths as well, committed to the ecclesial and civil
fields, and capable of witnessing their experience as believers, with
coherence of life and of faith, in many places and contexts: from the
world of politics to that of economy, in the world of school, university
and education in general, in the most different professions, like that
in the study of exegesis and theology. In all these environments, I am
convinced that women know how to be heralds of the Word in a special
manner, with a particular sensitivity and competence. Seen in this
optics, even the possibility of entrusting to women the ministry of
lectorate is surely propitious. Of course, the evaluation of the role of
the woman within the Church must not be limited to a formal recognition
or to some simple concessions: it must permeate every ecclesial area and
context: it must become a normal and shared praxis”.
In reiterating the bond between the Word of God and liturgy, in the
final list of the proposition of the Synod, they underlined the
importance of the homilies inspired by the divine Word. For this reason
the Fathers of the Synod auspicated the elaboration of a directory on
the homily, capable of helping the preachers in the ministry of the Word
of God. What do you think about it?
“I find meaningful and very much positive the fact that the fathers of
the synod have paid very much attention to the theme of the homilies,
recognising the limits and difficulties that often even today we find in
the homilies of many preachers. In fact, it is just in the Sunday Mass
that the faithful have the main contact (sometimes unique) with the
Word. Thus, we need efficacious homilies to the point, capable of
favouring the comprehension of the Sacred Scriptures and of helping the
faithful to see that the Word may effectively become “performative”
reality, capable of incising in the existence of each person and of
renewing it. In fact, the homily, as a proposition says, tries its best
to see that “the proclaimed Word be actualised”, and renews the
exhortation addressed to the Church of being ever more missionary. In
this sense, the fundamental unbinding point is the formation of the
priests. To this purpose it would suffice simply to remember the
apostolic post-synod exhortation “Pastores dabo vobis”, which
reminds the priests their task of being “servants” of the Word. This
theme is amply underlined in the message to the people of God, “the
vertex of preaching is the homily, which even today for many Christians
is the main encounter with the Word of God. In this act the minister
should be transformed also into a prophet. In fact, in a limpid,
incisive and substantial language, he must not only “proclaim the
wonderful works of God in the history of salvation” with authority, but
also actuate it in the times and moments lived by the listeners, and
cause the appeal to conversion to bloom in the hearts together with the
vital commitment, “What must we do?” (Acts 2, 37).
Considering the importance
and urgency of these themes and the centrality they hold in the life of
our particular churches and of the universal Church, I find desirable
and important the possibility of elaborating a homiletic directory as a
further and specific instrument for the formation of the preachers of
the Word. However, all this cannot and must not substitute the first
fundamental task of te priests who are called to love the Word of God
deeply and to nurture themselves with it assiduously, so tat they may
know how to explain and to transmit it always better.
How to make the Word of God familiar to
the youths was the centre of reflection in the Synod. It is a not easy
objective especially today, but to approach the youths, hope of the
Church, is a duty to be actuated by listening to their voice in the
community and in a constant journey of accompaniment. Would you, please,
explain better to us how all this can concretely be done? Through which
languages and modalities?
“I think that the youths must be educated ever more to an encounter with
the Word that may be realised in a double dimension: personal and
communitarian. Personal, because the authentic encounter with the Word
is really capable of renewing and transforming the existence; nothing
can substitute this intimate and private encounter with the Holy
Scriptures. The first fundamental step is that each believer, the youths
first of all, may have and safeguard the Bible, reading it daily and
praying it, following the rhythm and breath of the universal Church, as
St. Augustine wrote, “The Bible must be read on the knees of the
Church”. A useful instrument can be that of favouring and stimulating
the prayer of the liturgy of the hours. This aspect leads us to the
necessity that our approach to the Scriptures may assume also a
communitarian form. The role of the adults here becomes fundamental, as
well as that of the educators who must be “true passionate witnesses of
the Word of God” (Proposition 34). It is necessary that the experience
of contact with the Word may hold a central role also in the youth
groups and associations, through the practice of the Lectio Divina or
other listening experiences and prayer of the Word. We say this so that
the role of the Word, as indispensable instrument of discernment, may
be more and more acknowledged, particularly in the years of youth, time
of serious and important choices, needful of being enlightened by the
light of the Gospel. This fundamental horizon has been recently
indicated also by Benedict XVI, “Dear youths, I exhort you to acquire
familiarity with the Bible, to have it at easy reach, so that it may be
for you like the mariner’s compasses indicating the way to follow”.
The proposition 22 is fundamental. It
recommends the practice of the Lectio Divina and asks that the
communitarian prayerful reading of the Scriptures be followed by a
commitment to charity. Does it recommend this old practice also to the
youths?
“As already mentioned in the previous answer, the Lectio Divina
(personal and communitarian) is probably one of the most efficacious
documents for the Biblical animation of the youths. In fact, the
reading of the Holy Scriptures cannot be a simple hermeneutic and
intellectual exercise; it must necessarily open to a prayerful and
spiritual dimension. Only like this the experience of our encounter with
the readings can change into an unceasing dialogue with God, who through
the Scriptures speaks to us and shows us more clearly the journey to be
made, helping us to re-read the events of our life through his vision.
It is possible to fetch from the prayerful reading the necessary
strength for our own service, in every area. In this sense, I think that
the sensitivity of the youths for the commitment to charity is
particularly strong. In fact, many youths reveal themselves attentive
and desirous of committing themselves to themes like peace, justice,
safeguarding of creation, attention to the poor and the needy.
Therefore, a concrete and coherent commitment must be in syntony with
the listening to the Word. This is why, in his homily at the conclusion
of the Synod, the Holy Father stated, “it is necessary to understand the
needs of translating the Word listened to into gestures of love, because
it is always like this that the proclamation of the Word becomes
credible”.
At the conclusion of the works, can you
tell us something of your experience in the Synod and, if it has been
positive, why? How will this experience be profitable in your daily
commitment?
“As far as it concerns me, the participation in the Synod has been an
extra-ordinary experience of sharing and ecclesial communion, a unique
occasion to feel the breath and the heart-beats of the universal Church.
In fact, the Synod has seen the participation of the Bishops, of
experts, of listeners from all parts of the world. To this confrontation
dimension among various cultures, the possibility of dialogue with the
fraternal delegates of other churches was added. The Synod has been for
me also an extra-ordinary and instructive opportunity of education to
the inter-religious and ecumenical dialogue. At the conclusion of the
synod I feel a strong responsibility and a desire of narrating, of
sharing this experience and of transmitting it to many coetaneous, so
that youths may learn always more how to re-discover the primacy of the
Word of God in their existence. The true challenge of the Synod,
therefore, starts today, with the necessity and the duty to translate
many developed reflections into concrete and visible experience
The synod has underlined also the
importance of forming the readers for the readings. In practice, one
must know how to read during the liturgy. Those who read during the Holy
Mass must do it well, so that the whole assembly may hear the Word of
God well. Moreover, it must be avoided that the Word might go lost
because of the poor acoustic or because the reader does not read well.
Would you narrate to us your experience in this sense?
“The first simple remark that I allow myself to underline is the
necessity of avoiding improvised readers during the celebrations. Before
reading in a celebration, the reader should have already tasted and
meditated the readings in advance, possibly during an entire week, to
the end of transmitting the love for the Biblical text also through the
reading and to proclaim it in as clear, efficacious and comprehensible
way, in the optics of a precious service to the assembly gathered in
prayer”.
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