Mark’s Gospel tells a wonderful story of the healing and conversion of Bartimaeus, a blind beggar (Mk.10:46-52). As much as it is one of the many Gospel stories of Jesus healing, this one is very much an account of a conversion. In this, it helps us to recognize our own conversion process. In so many ways, Bartimaeus is all of us, personally and as a church community of faith. Mark’s story relates how Bartimaeus was gradually becoming a disciple of Jesus.
Our personal conversion has never been a point in time. It is in fact, a life-long process. Whether we were baptized as infants or as adults later in life, our relationship with Jesus the Christ is always growing and changing. It is not unlike the many relationships that we have in our personal life. No friendship endures without change and growth.
The Catholic faith community into which we entered with our baptism holds this same relational quality. If we can understand this we can begin to comprehend our current Synodal experience. Like Vatican II, the Synod on Synodality reveals a vision of a church that is always becoming in a world that is ever-changing.
In the final declaration of Vatican II, Gaudium et spes – The Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World the council expressed its openness to and its concern for the world in which our church lives and acts. The declaration’s beginning words clearly understand and express that the world in which we live is where we work to build God reign of love and compassion, peace and justice for all:
The joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the [people] of our time,
especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joy
and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well.
Nothing that is genuinely human fails to echo in their hearts.
For theirs is a community composed of men [and women] who united
in Christ and guided by the holy Spirit, press onwards towards the
kingdom of the Father and are bearers of a message of salvation intended
for all.... (Gaudium et Spes, 7 Dec 1965)
Vatican II presents us with a vision of church that is open to the world. No part of God’s creation and certainly no member of the human family is outside the concern, the care and the saving vision of the Vatican II church. Our call is to show our love and compassion to all corners of the earth. We are all God’s children. No nation, no race, no religion, no culture is beyond God’s loving care.
Vatican II presents us with a vision of church that lives in a communal, collegial relationship. We are co-responsible for responding to our call from God and serving all creation. This vision of church is less hierarchical and more respectful of the common baptism which we all share. By our shared baptism, together we are God’s People, priests and prophets, bringing God’s Reign to fruition in our world. This vision of our church in the modern world lies at the foundation of our synodal church.
Session number 2 of our current synod taking place in Rome, as well as all levels of our global church are being called to an awareness of openness, listening and accompaniment. In doing so, we are open to the Spirit who guides us in our direction and response to the needs of our world. For it is in the world that we live as disciples and it in this world where we respond to our call to build God’s reign for all
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