As the second session of the Synod on Synodality is coming to a close, we, as baptised persons and forming part of the People of God, cannot but reflect on this process, especially when the whole global Church is participating.
This is a process of listening, dialogue and discernment with more than 356 participants who have convened at the Vatican to rethink and make the Church a more participative one.
Before Jesus went for His Passion, He prayed to his Father “that they will be of one mind and heart’’ (John 17: 21-23). This prayer was meant for all believers. It is this unity of ‘mind and heart’ among the People of God, however diverse they are, that the Synod is trying to discover and strengthen.
In ‘Instrumentum Laboris’, a working document for this Synod, it is stated: “The Synodal process has developed a deeper awareness in us of what it means to be the People of God gathered as the Church for every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, living its journey towards the Kingdom in different contexts and cultures.’’
It goes on to stress that “the pluralism of cultures and the fruitfulness of the encounter and dialogue between them are a condition of the Church’s life, an expression of and not a threat to its Catholicity”.
Many seem to reason that by giving importance to the various specific cultures and traditions of individual Churches, the Universal Church’s unity is being jeopardised.
Cardinal Mario Grech, general secretary of the Synod, in an interview with a Swiss newspaper last March, was quoted in The Pillar to have said that he believes that Synodality can help the Church move from “uniformity of thought’’ to “unity in difference’’, while reshaping the exercise of authority within global Catholicism. Grech went on to emphasise that “the future is the Synodal one: the whole People of God must be able to find a way to walk together because it brings the presence of the Holy Spirit as wealth, and only together will we be able to discern its voice”.
It is this togetherness that is being emphasised in the Synod. Together, as one mind, does not necessarily mean uniformity of thought but reaching the same goal through different paths and in different contexts. That is why there is a stress on discernment and on ‘we’ rather than ‘I’. This can only come about if we are divested of our own personal interests and our own individual way of thinking.
Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas insisted that participants in the Synod were to find the “cohesive voice’’ that expresses the life of the Church. “There’s a ‘we’ involved essentially in the work of the Synod, even more important than the many ‘I’s that are there,’’ Flores emphasised. “We are searching for the ‘we’ and it’s the work that goes on in these smaller groups and it’s a work in progress.’’
In order to make the Church more participative it was reported in the National Catholic Herald that Fr Ormond Rush, an Australian theologian, had been advocating “inverting the pyramid’’ of the Church’s structure. This change of structure was being proposed to give more meaning to “the sense of the faithful’’, especially when determining doctrine.
The Synod is not a parliament where one debates and a majority vote is taken- Ray Azzopardi
Such changes can only come about after deep reflection and enlightenment from the Holy Spirit. No wonder that, throughout the Synod, emphasis was being given to listening and dialogue. When the sense of communion is being felt, then there is bound to be uniformity in the way one reasons and acts.
In the preface of a book entitled The Conversation in the Spirit – The art of discernment and the practice of Synodality by Jesuit Fathers Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves and Oscar Martin Lopez, published in April this year, Pope Francis elaborates: “Listening to the Spirit requires a certain internal attitude. Conversation in the Spirit, discernment and synodality can only take place if we try to empty ourselves to fill ourselves with the Spirit; if our freedom loosens our material ideological and emotional moorings, allowing the Spirit to guide us more effectively, if we cultivate within ourselves attitudes of humility, hospitality and welcome, and at the same time we ban self-sufficiency and self-referentiality. Only in this way can our communion and our mission be strengthened.’’
No wonder that the pontiff had remarked on more than one occasion that the Synod is not a parliament where one debates and a majority vote is taken. Synodality is a process, and once it is a process it needs discernment and adaptation. But, as has been pointed out, this process takes time and can only come about through prayer and reflection.
Sr Lucia Valladares, director of the Communications Department at the Camillas Pontifical University, was reported in the Crux that when speaking of the toxic polarisation of online social media platforms, said that it was a reality that everyone lived with, but synodality “proposes a change of internal attitude, a personal change’’. Valladares stressed: “It’s not something that’s fast. The Synod, we will understand, years after it closes. It’s much deeper than changing laws and structures; we have to change hearts.’’
Let us, we, as the People of God, join in this journey – this pilgrimage – and with an open mind and heart discern the voice of the Holy Spirit and act accordingly.
Ray Azzopardi is a former headmaster.