At the start of his pontificate, Pope Francis, in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium,
highlighted the missionary aspect of the Church and moreover, he said that he prefers a
Church which is “bruised, hurting and dirty” rather than a Church which “is clinging to its own
security.” Today, the Church is on a special synodal journey to reflect and deepen an essential
characteristic in the Church: that is, walking together and listening to each other through the
Holy Spirit.

I personally believe that this listening process will help the Church to attend to certain
fundamental issues that require corporate decision processing. We, the holy people of God,
should allow God to speak in our lives when we receive the Eucharist so that we may find the
truth, which as Pope Benedict XVI had said can only be found through humility: “Only humility
can find the Truth, and the Truth, in turn, is the foundation of Love, from which ultimately
everything depends.” Therefore, our dialogue must be clear and accompanied by meekness.

This is the vision of the Church which I mostly connect to, and which I reflect on throughout
this Synodal journey. Let’s turn to Jesus, the true face of God, and in this special time of lent,
ask him to guide us so that we may become instruments of love, and like him, we may give
ourselves entirely, so that we may understand better the true sense of love.