THE JUBILEE OPENS TO A «NEW WORLD»

+ Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, S.D.B.

Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, President of CELAM

The year 2000 is imminent in our personal lives and in our existence as a society. For some, its arrival is not important; that is to say, for those who do not have a plan of life, for those who are incapable of dreaming, there is no date that breaks the routine that is the most painful expression of death. Instead - for us, for us Christians, for us who feel and are the Church - the Jubilee Year is wonderful, it has a meaning in itself, it is the commemoration of the Incarnation, it is redeeming life and at the same time it is an inevitable challenge of love. The Jubilee of the Year 2000 renews those dreams, those yearnings that, while demanding that we do our best, make it obvious that there is a story we have to conclude because we have been given the privilege of building it together with Him.

It is for this reason that, thanks to the wisdom of John Paul II, we are celebrating this Synod for America in order to «communicate» our dreams to one another, encourage around them «communication» of the most precious good which is that of «knowing where we are going» and of the no less decisive one of «knowing with whom we are going» and then around this knowledge give clear evidence of the «communion» (common-union) that makes us communities of God's children. This Synod is transcendental. All the intellect but above all all the faith of the Church, have been brought together in order to build, raise up and visibly reveal «the characteristics» of those who follow Jesus Christ and have taken on the task of proclaiming Him and his Gospel.

The Christian's essence is to be a herald of the «Good News» and this makes him Good News. This Synod for the jubilee year has wanted to remember this good news, the didactics that must accompany it, the methodology that must bring it to others, and this good news is the truth about someone - Jesus Christ - who through his disciples proposes a path of salvation. But the Synod does not limit itself only to reviewing «what must be said in the Lord's name»; it also wants to study with intelligence and love those it wants to speak to. And this is why we have reflected on the human being, on his needs, his sorrows and his joys, as well as on the world and its dreams, its ills and those hopes that allow him to survive in spite of himself. At the same time we have thought of «that human being who is in the world» and «of that world that is in the hands of human beings», who are crying out for a sign (signs of the times) that will allow them to overcome distrust, bewilderment, uncertainty and anxiety.

Therefore in view of the Jubilee the Synod is a generous act of love towards humanity and towards the world. How true it is that one saves only what one loves! The Incarnation of Jesus Christ is a demonstration of God's love, just as the Redemption is. The Church loves humanity and she loves the world peopled by that humanity. This is why she evangelizes and preaches that something tremendous has happened. We who are taking part in this Synod are all certain that what happened with the Lord's coming is something extraordinary; we cannot be in the Church if we think that God-with-us is simply a banality. What is great in the Pope, in priests, in men and women religious, in the laity who belong to the Church is the certainty of faith in God and in his «extraordinary action» in history.

Two thousand years later we still believe that the Gospel is «good news»; as we enter the Third Millennium we know that its power has not diminished, indeed, it has grown and we know that that «treasure» cannot be left in a vacuum, nor remain hidden, nor be left in the hands of those who do not know how to appreciate it. God manifests himself of his own accord, but he wants the human being to manifest him through «preaching», that marvellous instrument that finds the dual privileged channel of word and example which constitute the marvellous instruments of commitment and witness. The task that awaits us is boundless, enormous; but it is for this very reason that it requires generosity and enthusiasm (being encouraged by God) and knowing, too, that he who in the Lord's name is at the helm of the boat watches, has great courage and a steady hand.

This is why the Pope has said very clearly: «do not be afraid». This Synod and the Jubilee Year which it prepares are a certainty manifested in the joy of those who, guided by the Successor of Peter, walk with optimism towards the New Evangelization. Optimism, joy and hope do not mean that the actions we have to perform will be easy. This is why we are called to take on «evangelization» as a Mission and not as an obligation. The way in which we confront the Great Jubilee will mark our steps «over the threshold of the Third Millennium» and the way we behave will decide our possibility of being heard.

Globalization, Integration, Participation, Solidarity, Human Ecology, are tendencies that encourage optimism among us who are seeking a life in common that can eradicate the cultural and political «Cainism» of all those who are always ready to answer, «Am I my brother's keeper?». Foreign debt, corruption, consumerism, neoliberalism, hedonism, are themes that require the fervour of our convictions, the first of which teaches us that for us the way is the human being. Conversion, Evangelization, Church, God's Presence, Communion, are certainties we must reaffirm and which place our commitment and goal in «being more and more» in Jesus Christ. It is necessary that in this Synod and in view of the Great Jubilee we realize we are cooperating to create «a new world».

From Card. Roger Etchegaray's intervention to the Special Assembly for America of the Synod of Bishops

The problem of the international debt (so forcefully and frequently discussed in this assembly) has been of deep concern to our Congregation for eleven years. In view of the forthcoming Jubilee, we must increase our contacts on the highest levels of responsibility in the field of politics and finance, a very complex sector, in order to reach suitable solutions. Finally, I wish to testify that the local Churches, above all in America, have set out joyfully towards the Year 2000 thanks to John Paul II's Tertio Millennio Adveniente. In this I read a great sign of the Churches' vitality which the Year of the Holy Spirit will now come to invigorate for the joy and jubilation of all.