The Synod is Far From Over

 A few weeks ago, in the run-up to the opening of the second session of the synod on synodality, the Prayer of the Faithful in our parish offered an intention for the synod and its delegates. Together we prayed: "For the synod: that as delegates gather in Rome this week, they may carry with them the cares and concerns of the communities they represent — speaking freely, listening deeply and engaging prayerfully in their efforts to follow the Spirit's guidance."

After Mass, a parishioner stopped me in the church foyer. "Is that still going on?" they asked.

My face clearly revealed I didn't know what they were talking about.

"The synod," they retorted. "I thought that happened last year."

I paused for a moment to consider how best to respond. For all the listening sessions we had held, the events we had promoted, the language of synodality we had integrated into our liturgy and the practices we had made a part of our parish processes, this person had clearly missed the memo: The synod is far from over.

In many places, synodality has been slow to take hold, if the concept or practice was ever introduced in the first place. In the case of our parishioner, though, the added year had thrown them for a loop.

As the second session of the synod on synodality completes its second week, what has become abundantly clear is that what was once outlined as a two-year process will, in fact, take a lifetime. In short, synodality isn't going anywhere.

What the synod on synodality has made abundantly clear is that we are called to be a missionary church rooted in synodality. With its intensive listening, engaged encounter and communal care, synodality promises a radical return to the principles of faith and discernment that are so fundamental to who we are and who we're called to be as a church. Cultivating a culture of synodality is filled with promise, though not without the growing pains that come with allowing our hearts and minds to be reformed by the Spirit.

For those in tune with the happenings of the Vatican and the global church, the flurry of activity surrounding this second session of the synod points to the pain and the promise of synodality in action.

Coming into this session, speculation and urgent pleas arose. The well-founded fear that critical issues — including women and their role in the church, the pastoral need to restore women's ordained ministry as deacons, and the dignity of and ministry to the LGBTQ+ community — might somehow be swept away has stirred up cries for inclusion. In response, interviews, articles, online prayer services, and in-person gatherings have lifted up the importance of these issues. Some commentators, like Jesuit Fr, Thomas Reese, have urged the synod to set its own agenda. This would mean deviating from the prescribed plan for the second session, which seeks to define how to be a missionary church rather than engaging these forefront issues. 

One must ask, however, how the church can fulfill its missionary call without thoughtfully engaging in prayerful discernment around these key issues and marginalized populations. How can issues that repeatedly surfaced in reports from the continental phase and ecclesial group feedback be sidelined at this critical moment if the deep listening and heartfelt responding, so critical to synodality, are to be embraced?

The answers to such questions are unclear. We can't be completely sure that these issues have been put to rest as discussions occur behind closed doors. What we can be assured of, as the second session began, is that the appeals to the Holy Spirit have continued.

From the opening retreat days to the penitential prayer service held Oct. 1 to the opening Mass  Oct. 2, a Spirit-filled call for freedom from fear and for honest dialogue has rung out. As Pope Francis prayed at this session's opening liturgy, "Let us walk together, let us listen to the Lord, let us be led by the blowing of the Spirit." This is the way forward: to walk humbly with one another and with our God so that trust and dialogue might be built.

In the days since Pope Francis prayed these words, the second session has descended into the sacred space and silence of such dialogue. Beyond the gaze of onlookers, delegates are doing the hard work of synodality. While curiosity (or even cynicism) might tempt us to imagine what is transpiring in the synod hall, all we can truly be sure of (and pray for) is that all those present are speaking honestly, praying earnestly and listening deeply as they seek to follow God's will.

This is the hope of all synodal conversations: that they would be based in earnest engagement, committed listening and complete and utter dependence on the work of the Holy Spirit.

As we seek to embrace the synodal way, we must recognize that synodality is anything but static. Freedom and flexibility are par for the synodal course. Listening hearts must be open to change; they must allow themselves to be transformed by the Spirit, to ebb and flow as prayerful dialogue directs the course. Our part as people of faith is to be attentive to the Spirit's stirrings  — not only in our own hearts and lives, but in the life of the larger community and in the life of the church.

This may or may not mean that everything I think should happen will. In fact, by the nature of the communal discernment at the heart of synodality, we know that it won't. Instead, we must allow ourselves to let go of what is "ours" individually for the communal need and desire of the larger body.

We trust that this is what is transpiring in the synod hall as we hold vigil outside. We pray that delegates are speaking forthrightly, carrying communities with them and fostering community with one another. No doubt, the Spirit is stirring. We must trust that what the Spirit desires for the church and all the people of God will not be denied. 

Does this mean that everything will be sorted out by the time the second session of the synod on synodality concludes Oct. 27? Of course not.

Likely, Oct. 27h will leave us with more questions than answers. Some will be disappointed in what was once seen as a movement of great hope and promise. Some will say that we never should have had any hope at all. Some will confess that their synodal hearts are broken. With a synodal spirit, we must hold all these feelings. We must offer our needs and desires, anxieties and anticipations, heartbreaks and hopes to God. And we must hold one another, resting assured that the synodal way is not one of tectonic shifts but of step-by-step journeying together toward communal change.

With this in mind, we need to resolve ourselves to see that Oct. 27 is not an end, but a step on the synodal way. We have come this far together; dialogues have been opened, and with them, hearts and minds have been, too. Women and men, lay people and clerics, young and old from around the world have stood side by side as delegates. This is monumental.

Our job now is to ensure that the work begun in this synodal moment is not confined to a select group or a specific space. With patience and practice, we must continue these conversations. We must listen attentively and affectionately to one another. We must welcome the Spirit in our midst and reform our structures to allow every voice to be heard. We must continue to practice the skills of synodality and the discipline of synodal listening. Only then will we feel the freedom that the Spirit brings, embracing the transformative power of the Gospel and discovering what it truly means to be the synodal church we're being called to be, both now and forever.

Originally published by Global Sisters Report

When hearts walk together: A Lenten invitation to accompaniment

 Tell me: What did you give up for Lent? Chocolate, swearing, time on your phone … The list is endless. Or maybe, you are someone who took something on. Are you practicing patience? Trying out a new prayer practice? Giving money to a favorite charity? 

Whatever way you choose to mark this sacred season, there is something to be said for the ways in which we travel through the season of Lent. Lent, after all, is not about a destination. It is about intentionally making our way deeper into the heart of Jesus through the pathways of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. 

These practices are the routes that draw us deeper by bringing us into contact with God, ourselves and our neighbors. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving, when practiced with intention, are meant to free us, lightening our load and directing our path. Yet, without a keen eye toward intention, it is these same practices that can easily devolve into an obstacle course of instructions and restrictions: "You can do this and you can't do that."

What if this Lent, instead of holding tight to a roadmap marked with tasks or rules, the invitation was to a more free-range traveler's point of view, to explore the art of accompaniment as it plays out in our everyday lives?  

As Pope Francis writes in Fratelli Tutti, "we want to be a Church that serves, that leaves home and goes forth from its places of worship, goes forth from its sacristies, in order to accompany life, to sustain hope, to be the sign of unity… to build bridges, to break down walls, to sow seeds of reconciliation." If this is the church we want, then we must learn to be pilgrims who journey with others, who allow the spirit of the tasks we undertake — the spirit of the law — to draw us deeper into relationship with God and our neighbors.

A friend and canon lawyer once advised me, "Before anything else, consider the people before you. Get to know them. Come to love them. And then, walking with them, you will be able to find a way forward." In essence, he was saying that people have stories and it is only by entering into their stories and intertwining our own with theirs that can we truly serve the people of God.

The law, it would seem, seeks to serve the Gospel and not the other way around. 

This fact becomes readily apparent when we turn to Jesus' interactions with rule sticklers throughout his ministry. These are the ones who were diligently trying to find a way to the final destination (or in some cases trying to trip Jesus up on the law of love he was proposing). 

They are like the scholar of the law who asks, "Who is my neighbor?" after clarifying the call to love God fully and your neighbor as yourself (and prompts the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 29-37)). These folks want to know the parameters of following Jesus; they are the ones who find comfort in the security of details. They are the dear hearts that seek a plan even when it means missing the details of the important paths that guide the way in between.

In the same category is the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18-30), who seems to have everything and to have done everything right and yet, still feels the absence of something more. When this pilgrim asks Jesus what more they must do, Jesus' reply is succinct: Sell everything and give it to the poor. 

(How is that for prayer, fasting, and almsgiving?)

Considering a call to accompaniment this Lent, it is the latter part of this command — "give it to the poor" —  that piques my interest. Selling everything is a big ask. It requires complete and total surrender, but what's more is Jesus' call to give it to the poor. That act is the very first step in true following. It is more than making a donation — it is a call to accompaniment.

Take all that is yours and make it ours, Jesus is instructing. In this context, "giving" is an invitation to relationship, to search out those most in need and to join them in their poverty, to give oneself to accompany and be accompanied in the act of giving that lies at the root of genuine relationship.

In this way, those in need (and really anyone we truly accompany) become our teachers and our companions. Opening ourselves to their need exposes our own neediness and at the margins of our meeting we are pushed not just to reach out but to unite our story with theirs. 

Unified in this way, we mourn and laugh together, we seek justice and hunger for what will nourish together, and ultimately, we follow Jesus and find renewed hope and strength in the promises of God together. 

In this togetherness, we accompany one another. We realize that the aid we offer one another is not a one-way street, just as no relationship can be. "True faith in the incarnate Son of God is inseparable from self-giving, from membership in the community, from service, from reconciliation with others. The Son of God, by becoming flesh, summoned us to the revolution of tenderness," Pope Francis reminds us in Evangelii Gaudium. Tenderly walking with one another, we are evangelizers ever in need of evangelization.  

Good News, it turns out, is for all. No one has exclusive rights as giver or receiver. In fact, if we see ourselves as both, we may just find that as we open ourselves to one another, we are more naturally open to God's activity in us and around us.

Such openness brings forth a vulnerability, equanimity and humility that predisposes us to mercy and grace. These qualities bond us together. They require us to take a long hard look at our motivations and intentions. As Australian artist and activist Lilla Watson famously attests, "If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together." Truly, our salvation is bound up together. 

As we journey through the wilderness this Lent, we must realize that we cannot journey alone. As sure as we are called to accompany others, God is accompanying us. God listens and loves us, as my lawyer friend would say, intertwining the story of salvation with our own personal narrative. After all, we follow the Way of Jesus not just in reflecting on the stories of his life, death and resurrection, but by sensing that the Way — Jesus Christ — walks with us. Every step that we take in accompaniment with others is a step we take with Jesus. And just as we are one with others, we are invited into greater oneness with Jesus — coming to know God and know ourselves more fully in the holy act of accompaniment.

While accompaniment is meant to be part of our everyday lives, the 40 days of Lent give us a concentrated time to practice what we preach: to meet our neighbors, to put aside our ego and to unite with others in our need for and dependence on God.

At the end of these days, we will not have reached a destination, but with any hope, we will find ourselves further along the Way, more deeply embedded in grace and more fully disposed to give everything that we are and everything that we have to God and our neighbors. Ultimately, this is the call of accompaniment: that we might follow Jesus wherever he calls, giving all that it takes and taking on all that it requires, so that we might find our hearts walking hand in hand toward the transformative new life of Easter. 

Originally published by Global Sisters Report

Catholic Women Preach

This Sunday, I was honored to preach for Catholic Women Preach, a wonderful project that lifts up the voices of women in the Catholic Church and encourages an expansive sharing of the Word. Join me in reflecting on our true calling and how God calls each of us to authenticity. Watch or read more at https://www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/01282024

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Preaching on the readings for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B: