A Synodal Church on Mission

October 2^nd 2024, the Feast of the Guardian Angels marked the opening of the Second Plenary Session of the Synod: A Path of Listening.  On this, the second plenary session of the Synod there is a vibrant presence of religious life there, together with the voices of Sisters from around the world marking this significant ‘synodal’ journey in the life of the Church.

As the Church continues to journey along the synodal path, Pope Francis said: “… the Lord places in our hands the history , dreams, and hopes of a great people”, the Church spread throughout the world.  He invited participants to “strive to understand the path we must follow to reach the destination the Lord desires for us”.

In order to remove obstacles to the harmony intended by the Holy Spirit, the Pope continued, we must be open to the contributions of all, in order to hear the voice of God.

“The gifts of each one of us are a great richness to the whole Church; but at the same time, we must be willing to reach out to one another, offering one another “a welcoming embrace and a place of refuge”.

“Let us resume this ecclesial journey with an eye to the world, for the Christian community is always at the service of humanity, to proclaim the joy of the Gospel to all”.

See HERE

What do you think?

During the two-day retreat on 29 September and 1 October, prior to the opening of the Assembly, Synod members from all over the world present in the Synod Hall, listened to the reflections of Sr. Maria Ignazia Angelini, OSB and Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, OP.

A Benedictine nun and former abbess, Mother Maria Ignazia Angelini offered a meditation on the reading for the Mass of the day, from Matthew’s Gospel, (Mt. 21: 28-32) asking: “What do you think?”: participation in this Synod Assembly, with its tensions and hopes, and openness to the possible and the impossible, commits us too, to answering this question.

The Lord’s vineyard is at stake, awaiting the contribution of each and every person. Having taken this question from the opening of the parable of the two sons (among Jesus’ last, and only Matthew records it), illustrating the supreme, regal confidence and at the same time the meekness with which Jesus justifies to his critics the transcendent authority that animates him.  “What do you think?” (Mt 21:28): the captivating opening captures us too she says, and pulls us in.

As recounted in the parable, the synodal path also calls for conversion. It calls for the maturation of a new readiness to serve in the beloved vineyard, in the footsteps of the meek Lord.

Mother Maria invited those present to “make room for the astonished listening that repositions us and prepares us for this new beginning of walking together”.

In her second meditation on  1 October, Mother Angelini highlighted the value of silence:

“Silence is the struggle against banality, it is the search for truth, it is the acceptance of the mystery hidden in every person and in every living being. It does not explain the suffering, but it goes through it. Silence can help us rediscover the true and authentic rhythm of synodal dialogue”.

Resurrection Scenes

Fr. Timothy Radcliffe chose four resurrection scenes from St. John’s Gospel that he said would help “shed light on how to be a missionary synodal Church in our crucified world”: “Searching in the Darkness,” “The Locked Room,” “The Stranger on the Beach” and “Breakfast with the Lord”.

This year the new focus is on: ‘How to be a missionary synodal Church.’ But the foundation of all that we shall do is the same: patient, imaginative, intelligent, open-hearted listening.

Profound listening is still the foundation of everything we shall do this year. It is, the Instrumentum laboris (IL) says, ‘the first act of the Church’ (60).  Listening to God and to our brothers and sisters is the discipline of holiness.

This year we shall be reflecting on ‘the one mission of proclaiming the Risen Lord and his Gospel’ (IL Introduction) to a world that ‘dwells in darkness and the shadow of death.’ (Luke 1:79). To guide our meditations, we shall take four resurrection scenes from St John’s gospel: ‘Searching in the dark’, ‘The locked room’, ‘the stranger on the beach’ and ‘breakfast with the Lord.’ Each sheds some light on how to be a missionary synodal Church in our crucified world.

Searching in the Darkness

Our first scene begins in the night: ‘Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb’ (20:1). This is where we too are today. Our world is even more darkened by violence than a year ago. She comes looking for the body of her beloved Teacher. We too are gathered in this Synod to search for the Lord. In the West, God seems to have largely disappeared.

We too may even feel in the dark. Since the last Assembly, so many people, including participants in this Synod, have expressed their doubts as to whether anything is going to be achieved. Like Mary Magdalene, some say, ‘Why have they taken away our hope? We expected so much from the Synod, but perhaps there will be just more words.’

The Resurrection is not Jesus’ life beginning again after a brief irruption, but a new way of being alive in which death has been conquered. And so it bursts into our lives in the gospels first as urgent questions which will not let us go on living in the same way. 

And so we must dare to bring to this Synod the deepest questions in our hearts, disconcerting questions which invite us to new life. 

Like those three seekers in the garden, we must attend to each other’s questions if we are to find a renewed way to be Church.

Open to encounter the Lord

But although it is dark, the Lord is already present in the garden with Mary Magdalene and with us. Before his death Jesus said, ‘Unless a seed falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit’ (12:24). The seed had been sown in the rich soil of the garden by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, sown in a new tomb which no one had used. It is about to flower. The dawn is near. Like Mary Magdalene, we shall receive more than we search for if we too are open to encounter the Lord.

[Mary Magdalene] searched for a dead body, but she found more than she could have dreamt of, the love that is alive for ever. Our God always calls us by name. ‘But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine”.’ (Isaiah 43:1)

And so our mission too is to name the God who looks for us in the dark. And to treasure each other’s name and faces too. We shall only mediate God’s presence if we are present to each other in this Synod. 

The birth of community

This synod will be a moment of grace if we look at each other with compassion, and see people who are like us, searching. Not representatives of parties in the Church, that horrible conservative Cardinal, that frightening feminist! But fellow searchers, who are wounded yet joyful. I must confess that I am terrible at remembering names, partly it is because I am deaf. That is my excuse. Forgive me!

The presence of Jesus to Mary Magdalene is not hers to own. The Resurrection is the birth of his community.

‘The People of God is never simply the sum of the baptised; rather, it is the ‘we’ of the Church’ ( IL, 3). ‘But go to my brothers and say to them: “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God”.’ This is the first time in John’s gospel that he calls the disciples ‘brothers’. Fratelli tutti! She must liberate her love from all exclusivity! Then she will be ready to preach the good news to the disciples: ‘I have seen the Lord.’

This is our challenge too. Not to cling to my English Jesus or my Dominican Jesus, but the Lord in whom we are all brothers and sisters, even the Jesuits! This synod will be fruitful if we learn to say ‘we.’ ‘My Father and your Father, my God and your God.’

Each represents a group that felt in some way excluded at the last Assembly. Mary Magdalene also reminds us of how women are often excluded from formal positions of authority in the Church. How are we to find a way forward, which justice and our faith demand? Their search is ours. At the last Assembly many theologians also felt marginal. Some wondered why they had bothered to come. We cannot get anywhere without them. And the group that was most resistant to the Synodal path was the pastors, the parish priests who especially share Peter’s role as shepherds of mercy. The Church cannot become truly Synodal without them too.

When nearly everyone feels that they are the excluded ones, there should be no competition for victimhood! The search in the dark for the Lord needs all of these witnesses, as the Synod needs all of the ways in which we love and search for the Lord, as we need the seekers of our time, even if they do not share our faith.

Only together shall we, in the words of Ephesians, ‘have the power to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, so that you may be filled with the fullness of God.’ (3.18,19).

In his second meditation, Fr Radcliffe said that “we will only be preachers of the Resurrection if we are alive in God” and invited the Synod to name the fears that impede this fullness of life: the fear of being hurt, the fear of rejection, the fear that hopes in the Church will be scorned. But these fears have no reason to exist, he said, because “the Church is in the hands of the Lord.” The Synod, he said, “is not a place for negotiations about structural changes, but for choosing life, for conversion and forgiveness.” Good theology, he said, “opens the doors of closed rooms,” and like St Thomas, “is passionate and fearless.” A synodal Church in mission, he said, “dares to teach with boldness and humility.”

“We do not gather in synod to negotiate compromises or bash opponents,” Fr Radcliffe said in his third meditation. “We are here to learn from one another what the meaning of this strange word ‘love’ is.”

When he came to the Synod last year, Fr. Radcliffe said he had believed the great challenge was to overcome the opposition between traditionalists and progressives; but he said he saw the greater challenge as how the Church can embrace all the diverse cultures of the world while remaining united. Noting that “no one culture can unite us,” he invited the Synod to “listen to one another with humility.” Different cultures are called to unity while remaining distinct, with none dominating another.

“Peter’s net,” he said, “is full of space and united by truth, delight and joy.”

Note: The Oct. 2–27 gathering of the Synod on Synodality will mark the end of the discernment phase of the Church’s synodal process, which Pope Francis opened in 2021.

LINKS to the full reflections on Vatican News

Sr Maria Ignazia Angelini, OSB

Reflection at Morning Prayer
www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-09/synod-retreat-day-1-reflection-at-morning-prayer.html

Retreat Day One
www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2023-10/retreat-day-1-sister-angelini-meditaiton-mass.html

Fr Timothy Radcliffe, OP

Synod Retreat Meditation: ‘The Locked Room’ HERE

Synod Retreat Meditation: ‘Resurrection: Searching in the Dark’ HERE

Synod Retreat Meditation: ‘Resurrection Fishing’ HERE

Synod Retreat Meditation: ‘Resurrection & Breakfast Conversation’ HERE

See also Independent Catholic News Article HERE

And Catholic News Agency on Instrumentum Laboris Goals Synod on Synodality/

The Instrumentum Laboris says: “Synodality is not an end in itself … If the second session is to focus on certain aspects of synodal life, it does so with a view to greater effectiveness in mission.”

In its brief conclusion, the text states: “The questions that the Instrumentum Laboris asks are: how to be a synodal Church in mission; how to engage in deep listening and dialogue; how to be co-responsible in the light of the dynamism of our personal and communal baptismal vocation; how to transform structures and processes so that all may participate and share the charisms that the Spirit pours out on each for the common good; how to exercise power and authority as service. Each of these questions is a service to the Church and, through its action, to the possibility of healing the deepest wounds of our time.”