Day 1: The Jubilee of Synod Begins: A Journey of Faith, Love, and Hope

Jubilee of Synod day 1

Friday 24 October 2025

GREETINGS BY: 

* His Eminence Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the General Secretariat of the Synod

“We love the Church and that is why we are here, both in person and online. This love is not passive, it expresses itself through tenderness toward those who feel excluded and through fidelity to the Church. Love goes hand in hand with faith. We do not merely love the Church, we believe in her.

In the synodal journey, this love and faith call us to radical listening, to all the People of God, especially the marginalized. Faith anchors us in truth. Hope, meanwhile, points us toward the future. It reminds us that not everything is complete, yet it assures us that the Church has a future and so do we.

This hope denotes a sense of mission, a mission that comes from God and leads to God. It is a reminder that the future belongs to Him, and we are in His hands. Our hope is rooted in Jesus Christ and in the certainty of what He has promised. It invites us to let go, to surrender, and to trust that the future is greater than the past and present, because it is primarily God’s future.

In the synodal journey, hope sustains us. It calls us to act with liberty and humility, to do our part without limiting the future by our present understanding. We know that the future belongs to God, who heals our imperfections. As the Gospel of Luke reminds us: “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” The rest belongs to God. The future is His.

We hope because we have encountered the One who holds the future. This is key to understanding the synodal process. There is more to be done, and much will unfold in meetings and discernment. Yet not all is ours to complete. We have done our part, and the rest is in God’s hands.

The Church belongs to God. He will complete, change, and perfect what we have begun. This characterizes our Jubilee celebration, the implantation of the fruits of the Synod. It is a hope not based on our dreams or ideas, but on the conviction that the Church is God’s Church. Hope loves what has not yet come, what will unfold in the future and in eternity.”