With Shannon Mullen

Baltimore, Maryland, November 12, 2024 / 16:30

The greatest challenge facing U.S. bishops today is to move faithful Catholics from private faith to missionary commitment to lead others to Christ, the apostolic nuncio to the United States said Tuesday.

Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States, launched a new encyclical on the Holy Spirit in his address Nov. 12 at the opening of the bishops’ annual fall general assembly in Baltimore, reflecting on a momentous year highlighted by the National Eucharistic Congress in July. The heart of Pope Francis and the completion of the three-year Synod on Synodality in October and final preparations for next year’s jubilee year for the worldwide Church.

In a pastoral style, Pierre presented an overarching theme that ties all these endeavors together: Christ’s call to “turn to one’s heart” and then move outward from this personal encounter to heed his call to spread the Gospel.

“All these experiences will bear fruit, provided we return to that holy place, the heart of Christ, where human longing and divine love meet,” Pierre told the bishops.

“There, in the heart of Christ, is where we rediscover in a personal way kerygma “What we preach is: Christ became one of us, suffered and died to heal our wounds, rose again, and now lives with us by the Spirit,” he said.

“The deeper we delve into his heart, the stronger we will become to preach the good news together: the news of a hope that does not disappoint, despite everything in this world.”

Pierre was among the featured speakers at the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, the first such event in the United States in 83 years. He stressed, as he did in July, that the congress, the result of years of planning, should no longer be seen as a finished event but merely a beginning.

“When we encounter the love of Christ in this way, we are compelled to share it with others,” he said of the intense encounters with the Eucharistic Lord experienced by many participants there.

Building on this momentum, Pierre said the country’s bishops must now “help the Church find answers to the questions posed at the end of the Eucharistic Congress: How do we move from personal encounter to mission?” Where are the new directions the Holy Spirit is leading us in our evangelism? What new paths do we need to open in church life?”

Pierre added: “After all, a broad Eucharistic Resurrection can only happen if we can live the Eucharist in all its dimensions: not only by coming together to worship, but also by going out on mission so that Christ can encounter others.”

Pierre said the title of Pope Francis’ new encyclical on the Sacred Heart: Dilexit Numbers  (On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ), as an example of someone who connects the Eucharistic encounter with Christian mission, is St. He quotes John Henry Newman.

“What Newman discovers is what each of us discovers in our own encounter with both the Eucharist and the ‘beating heart’ of the Lord that we feel when we receive the gift of prayer,” Pierre said.

“This experience yields a deeper knowledge than any doctrinal formula: Christ lives among us and desires to be united with us. “This has the power to transform our lives, first on an individual level and then as members of the Body, the Church.”

Pierre noted Pope Francis’ desire for the Church to become more “synodal” as another expression of this sense of mission.

“Even though it has been several years since our synodal journey as a church, some still ask, ‘What is synodality?'” Pierre said. ” he asks.

“Perhaps the language of devotion to the Sacred Heart can give us a way to understand,” he suggested. “The Synodal Church is a gathering of people who have entered into relationship with the heart of Christ and who journey together to share that relationship with others.

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“This Synod on Synodality was never about completing a ‘to-do list,’” Pierre continued.

“As Pope Francis always says, synodality is not about predicting specific outcomes. Instead, it is about inviting greater participation in the missionary understanding of the Church and at the same time deepening our common involvement with the Lord,” he said. “Therefore, we should not judge the ‘success’ of the synod by what decisions were made or whose vision of the Church prevailed. What the synod ‘achieved’ ‘, we must instead look at how conversations occur at various levels in the Church. Is everyone participating who needs to participate? Is listening taking precedence over competition?

“Establishing dialogue in this way requires constantly ‘returning to the heart,’” he said. “This takes a lot of discipline! It does not give instant ‘results’ and does not win quick and decisive ‘victories’.”

On the contrary, synodality offers something “stronger in terms of unity,” Pierre noted.

“When we turn first to our own heart, we find what is really there: our true desires, hopes, dreams, thoughts and judgments. We also encounter our fears, disappointments, disdain, and hostility. “By opening our hearts and all that is in them to the heart of Christ, we allow him to unite his heart with ours, which both confirms and purifies our hearts as we become one with his,” he said.

“With a heart more united to the heart of Christ, we have a greater capacity to commune with the hearts of others.”

Finally Pierre spoke expectantly 2025 JubileeA year-long celebration featuring a series of special events in Rome and around the world.

Describing it as an antidote to a deeply polarized political climate, Pierre said, “The Jubilee is exactly what our world and our country need right now, but it is something that no secular power or political solution will ever achieve.” war.”

Borrowing a phrase from the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, Pierre called on believers to make their hearts a “guesthouse” for another person with whom we disagree.

“This will be a synodality exercise,” the cardinal said. “This will also be a jubilee work: a work that will help us, as bishops, to give our people a more reliable testimony to the hope that does not disappoint.

“This is the work to which we are called in the coming jubilee year,” Pierre told the bishops.

Shannon Mullen is editor-in-chief of the National Catholic Register.