Synod on Synodality: Bishop Flores encourages opening to the Heart of Jesus

A bishop from the United States, who participates in the Synod of Synodality in the Vatican, encouraged the faithful to open themselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus to face the challenges of today’s world, where power, violence or the desire to win the world prevails. debate of ideas.

Mons. Daniel Flores, Bishop of Brownsville, Texas, explained in an interview with EWTN in Spanish that “sharing with compassion is a central element and that is why it seems very strong to me in the providence of God that today (yesterday) the Pope has published the encyclical about the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”

“This for me is something very important because it is opening the heart to touch the reality of God, in the Heart of Jesus, and from the perspective of the Heart of Jesus to understand what we are experiencing in this world, with compassion and with the ability to invite. “This is the total summary of the Church’s way of evangelizing in this century,” highlighted the prelate, whose diocese borders Mexico, specifically with the Diocese of Matamoros, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, with which he works closely. near.

On Thursday, October 24, Pope Francis published the fourth encyclical of his pontificate, titled He loved us (He loved us), about the divine and human love of the heart of Jesus Christ.

At the Synod, Bishop Flores continued, “the faith of the Church is not in doubt,” because it is sustained by Peter, the Pope. “The question we are dealing with is how we are going to live out the charity of Christ to further promote, instill and change the environment in which we are living.”

In the face of violence and power that does not respect the poor, the prelate highlighted, “the world needs God’s mercy, but not as a word but as an attitude because, what does mercy mean? Apply the love of God in practical ways to the suffering of another.”

Bishop Flores also highlighted that the Church does not enter into the dynamics of the world about “who wins and who loses” in the debate of ideas, but rather must listen to “the Word of the Lord, because the Lord calls us to things that the world “He doesn’t understand but the Christian has to give that testimony.”

Regarding the way to respond to God, the bishop continued, it is necessary to always seek “fidelity and charity, because without charity the truth does not help us because, as Saint Paul says, charity enters the heart of the human being and is sharing. the love of God and changes the eyes.”

The Church at the service of the vulnerable

So, “what synodality asks first is that capacity of the heart to breathe, listen and recognize that what I have here is a brother or sister and we are going to see how Christ helps us together, to walk for the good of all because “The common good is something that the world needs, and the good of the human being that gives glory to God.”

“We are going to fight in the Church because the world does not so easily abandon its powers. “Power – a message from last year’s Synod and this year as well – sometimes forgets the vulnerable, and the Church has to have a voice and eyes to see and also to announce that Christ came to announce something to the vulnerable.”

To conclude, the Bishop of Brownsville highlighted that “at the end of the day we are all vulnerable because none of us will be able to say on the day of judgment ‘well no, I won’. I don’t think so, it is not the position we are going to have before the Lord judging the world.”