Our church is currently in the midst of a synod. The first session took place last October. The second session begins this month. The synod, taking place in Rome, is a gathering of the whole church, laity and clergy, women and men. It has its roots in the Second Vatican Council which took place some 60 years ago. That council was an effort to discover the pastoral mission of the global Catholic church in our era. The Synod on Synodality, seeks to carry this task forward now in the 21st century. It might help us to look at a little of the history that has brought us to this time.
Our faith community has a story, in fact many stories. These stories constitute our history, how we became the community of faith that we are today. The history is not static and unchanging. Like all life, our Church is continually evolving, changing in response to the place, culture and needs of the time in which we are living. Right from the very beginning, the followers of Jesus (disciples) were called upon to take the Good News (Gospel) out and share with their world and its peoples.
It was through their sharing of the Gospel in the places and among the people of their own time that the first disciples began their mission to build the Reign of God as Jesus had done. This had been the mission of Jesus. Now, after the Resurrection, it was the task of new disciples, in fact of many new disciples.
Over the course of more than 2400 years, the world has changed. In fact, it is no longer anything like the world in which those first disciples began to share the message and mission of Jesus. One of the ways in which our church sought to adjust and respond to the changing world was through synods and councils.
Looking at the history of the Catholic Church’s general council reveals to us how for some 20 centuries they have been the church’s way of responding to the challenges and opportunities of the times in which it lived. In some ways the first 20 general councils responded with a common format. They attempted to define doctrine and establish practice in the church. The 21st such council, the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, faced the challenges and possibilities of the 20th century in a different way. Its was pastoral. The church of Vatican II sought to speak to the peoples of the 20th century in the light of their current environment, addressing their concerns with sensitivity.
It was from these roots in Vatican II that Pope Francis came to summon the current Synod on Synodality. In his opening address to the first session, he identified the connection. He noted the character which should mark the synod: The Synod has three key words: communion, participation and mission. He then went on to express the hopes for the synod. In brief these hopes included: That of moving not occasionally but structurally towards a synodal church…where all can feel at home and participate…. That we become a listening church… that we listen to the Spirit [and] to our brothers and sisters speak of their hopes and of the crises of faith present in different parts of the world, and of the need for a renewed pastoral life. Then he went on with a final hope for the Synod: It offers us the opportunity to become a church of closeness. [That we] keep going back to God’s own ‘style’, which is closeness, compassion and tender love.
As we enter the second session of the Synod on Synodality, perhaps our thoughts and prayers over the next weeks could be for the many delegates in Rome as they enter into conversation in the Spirit for us all. At home, in our own local communities, may we undertake the same openness, listening and sincerity, with faith and courage.
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