Synodevaders - 25 oktober 2008
The synodal fathers, at more than 40 years after the promulgation of the dogmatic constitution on the divine revelation "Dei Verbum" to the work of the Vatican II ecumenical council, acknowledge with gratitude the great benefits contributed by this document to the life of the Church, at the exegetic, theological, spiritual, pastoral and ecumenical level.
Throughout the history of the "intellectus fidei" and of Christian doctrine, this constitution brought to light the Trinitarian and historic salvific horizon of revelation.
In these years the ecclesial awareness has undoubtedly grown that Jesus Christ, God's Word incarnate, "by the very fact of his presence and with the manifestation he makes of himself with words and works, with signs and miracles, and especially with his death and his resurrection from the dead, and at last with the sending of the Spirit of truth, fulfills and completes Revelation and corroborates it with the divine testimony, that is that God is with us to deliver us from the darkness of sin and death and resurrect us for eternal life" ("Dei Verbum," 4).
All this has allowed for further reflection on the infinite value of the Word of God that is given to us in sacred Scripture, as inspired testimony of revelation, which with the living Tradition of the Church constitutes the supreme rule of faith (cf. "Dei Verbum," 21). It is this same Word that is kept and interpreted faithfully by the Magisterium (cf. "Dei Verbum," 10), which is celebrated in the sacred Liturgy and which gives itself to us in the Eucharist as bread of eternal life (cf. John 6).
Treasuring all that emerged in these years, the Church feels today the need to reflect further on the mystery of the Word of God in its different articulations and pastoral implications. Hence, this synodal assembly expresses the hope that all the faithful will grow in the awareness of the mystery of Christ, only savior and mediator between God and men (cf. 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 9:15), and the Church renewed by the religious hearing of the Word of God might undertake a new missionary season, proclaiming the Good News to all men.
