In his Lenten message this year, Pope Francis affirmed the path of synodality as the road we must take in our journey to Easter. Reflecting on the Transfiguration of Jesus, he indicates the deep connection between the penance of Lent and the Synodal path of the Church. In our journey from Lent to Easter, “we are invited to ascend ‘a high mountain’ in the company of Jesus, and to live a particular experience of spiritual discipline… as God’s holy people.”
“Lenten penance is a commitment, sustained by grace, to overcoming our lack of faith and our resistance to following Jesus on the way of the cross.” The Pope tells us that the disciples needed to do this. “To deepen our knowledge of Christ, to fully understand and embrace the mystery of his salvation, accomplished in total self-giving inspired by love, we must allow ourselves to be taken aside by him and to detach ourselves from mediocrity and vanity.”
