Synod about learning from Christ, not producing document, bishop says

IMAGE: CNS photo/Vatican Media

By Anne Condodina

VATICAN
CITY (CNS) — The point of the Synod of Bishops on young people is not primarily
to produce a document, but instead is to learn from Christ how to “bring
God’s mercy into the world,” Bishop Frank J. Caggiano of Bridgeport,
Connecticut, said in a homily at the synod.

“We
have come to sit at the feet of the ‘Divine Physician’ and learn from him how
to become physicians of broken hearts, among youth, young adults, and all God’s
people,” the bishop said Oct. 18.

Each
day a different bishop is chosen to give a homily during midmorning prayer at
the synod. Speaking on the feast of Saint Luke, Bishop Caggiano began by
asking, “How can one heal a broken heart?”

“It
is a question that no disciple of the Lord can avoid asking, since it was to
heal broken hearts that our savior came among us,” he said.

The
young physician, Luke, was among the many doctors who sought to “remedy
the brokenness of life” with their own skills and tools. But he learned
that there was a better way to heal after the Holy Spirit inspired him: He
unlocked the power of divine mercy, the bishop said.

God’s
mercy offered through the life and death of Jesus healed “hearts burdened
by the frailty of disease and old age, hearts that struggle with doubts and
fears, hearts that question whether I am either lovable or will ever be loved
by anyone,” he said.

“My
friends, we cannot truly heal anyone on our own,” Bishop Caggiano told
synod members. “Only Christ brings authentic and lasting healing. Luke
understood this and lived his life serving as a simple channel of Christ’s
mercy.”

St.
Luke also “gave voice to the poor, the Samaritan, the prodigal son and the
women forgotten by society” in a world that had grown blind to the needs
of the helpless, he said.

“His
Gospel compels us to walk into the shadows of our modern world and become
channels of Christ’s mercy for those whom the world has left behind,”
Bishop Caggiano said.

“Let
us bring God’s mercy into the world, one broken heart at a time.”

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