The Wonderful Exchange

We are in the glow of the Easter season. Spring is bursting out all over, and in this North Temperate Zone, nature is dancing with liturgical time.

 What are we celebrating? New life, you say? Ah…but why is that so…? Keep watching for the mystery hidden in the readings. They are giving evidence of a wonderful exchange! Keep watch for it in the evening news too, for it is at work there.

 In very common language, you might call it a ‘new deal.’ Again, in very common language you might say it this way: We really blew it. We messed things up big time. God had this plan for humanity, and we wrecked it. Now, God, being Love, is not going to settle for us using our freedom to wreck things. God has a Plan B. It goes like this:

 “How about a new deal. You give me your DNA. With your DNA I can have a body. If I have a body, I, who am eternal, can die, OK? If I enter death, I am a poison pill. Death will be destroyed. It no longer is final. Then, in exchange, I will give you my eternal life. Then you can live safely with me forever, even though you wrecked things, OK?”

 Then, Mary, who spoke for humanity, said, “Yes!” In contrast to Eve, she said, “Yes! Of course I will give you a body. Of course I will do as you ask…of course, I’m in…it’s a deal!”

 Now this is certainly not how the scripture tells it…but this is the wonderful exchange. We give God our ‘stuff’, who in the Word takes on our humanness. Now Love, who has a body, can suffer death to break its hold on us. In return we are given life that is unending…eternal…a wonderful exchange. In theological language, this is called the New Covenant, the new deal, the new arrangement.

 This is the Good News. We who have been made disciples by our baptism, now tell the good news to invite others to become disciples. We are women and men of the good Word, the word of life, the word of the truth that does justice.

You never give up on us, do You…

Does your Love even have a Plan C…?

You give even your very self, in your Son…

And what do you ask in return?

Myself.

So take what is Yours.

I know a good deal when I see one…

A wondrous exchange…

 

The One Thing Necessary

 Sometimes Lent can be quite noisy: daylight savings time clicks in, summer sports teams get active, needs on the news continue to be overwhelming, the president puts out his budget, and I keep trying to keep true to my Lenten practices. But, what’s it all for? Why am I doing all these things?

 Thomas Merton wrote some time ago:

At the center of my being is a point of pure nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. (Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, New York: Doubleday, 1966:142)

 Maybe, just maybe, I should begin each of the remaining days of Lent just going there, just sitting there. “…the pure glory of God in us.” This means deeper than all the sin I find…this means going to the spot where God and I are joined.  This is the place of the promise. This is where my own resurrection comes from. It is growing already in me, and just waiting for me to help it along, or at least get out of its way. The one thing necessary is the truth…of who I am, and who God is. Jesus is this God-joined-to-me eastering in me…

 I so often forget.

I need a daily reminder.

Teach me again and yet again…

Today in the midst of the human struggle

You are eastering in me.

 

The Key: Listening to the Scriptures

We’ve reflected on the image of ‘Enlarge the space of your tent,’ faced the hesitations voiced by respondents, and identified the ‘pillar’ of the effort in the common dignity of the baptized, as we have considered the insights of this theological working document for the continental  stage of the synod process. This set the context for…you guessed it…touching base with the sacred scriptures. What do we learn?

The document goes straight back to the tent image, and offers the sense of exile as a start. There is the call for discernment. The many local reports envision a Church as an expansive, but not homogeneous dwelling, capable of sheltering all, but open, letting in and out, and moving toward embracing the Divine and all of humanity.

Enlarging the tent means welcoming others into it, and making room for diversity. This means ‘dying’ in a way out of love to my selfish preferences, and finding myself again in Christ, in his openness and love. This is going to be asked of us as an entire Church. “Unless the grain of wheat dies…”  (Jn. 12:24).

 The fruitfulness of the Church depends on accepting this death. It is not an annihilation, but an emptying in order to be filled. The selfishness must go, to be replaced by the Christ and his Spirit. The result is richer relationships and deeper ties to God and each other. We open ourselves to grace and transfiguration. “Have among you the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus…Who…emptied himself…” (Phil.2:5-7). This is a liturgical and Eucharistic act.

 It is only under this condition, that we, the members of the Church, each and all together, will be able to cooperate with the Spirit of God in fulfilling the mission assigned by Jesus to his Church.

Get ready. It is to this mission we will go next.

What is a ‘Missionary Synodal Church?’

 We continue our exploration into the latest document from the General Secretariat of the Synod, “Enlarge the space of your tent” (Is 54:2), Working Document for the Continental Stage.

 It is good to keep in mind that there are several stages to this Synodal Process: The Diocesan Stage (where listening sessions have taken place in dioceses all over the world), The Continental Stage (where the diocesan data is gathered at meetings in continental groups: our is Canada/USA), and the Roman Stage (where all of the continental data the from listening will be gathered and discussed in Rome in October of 2024,)

 It is also helpful to note that from the beginning of his papacy, ten years ago this year, Francis has quietly been shifting the Church from a hierarchical dominated structure to a synodal body, with intentional attention to the wide gifts of all the baptized. This does not mean that the role of the clergy is to be put aside. It does mean, however, that it will change to a more servant-leadership than in the past.

 This document is the middle stage. With deliberate reference to the scriptural foundation of “widening your tent,” and taking us back to our common base in baptismal identity, the document gives us a clear vision: Towards a Missionary Synodal Church. This is a call…to what we shall be. The first thing we need to notice is that the very ground beneath our feet is shifting. We have been standing within a hierarchical/clerical structured Church. It is in this shift to a more Synodal structure that we will feel the very ground beneath us shift. I urge you to feel it rather than just read it. Its signs are

•                 Listening that becomes welcoming
• ·      Sisters and brothers for mission
• ·       Communion, participation and co-responsibility
• ·       Synodality takes shape
• ·       Synodal life and liturgy
•  

Can you feel it? There is no reference here to only one class in the Church…the clergy. The word “we” meaning the entire body of the Church, precedes each of these steps. We will consider only the first sign here, and reflect on the other four in May. In June, we will consider the steps to get there and a summary.

Listening that becomes welcoming: The Italian continental summary offers us, “The Church-home does not have doors that close, but a perimeter that continually widens…” The dynamic of home and exile, of belonging and exclusion, is felt as a tension in the reports. There is a dream for living a unity in diversity. The submissions avoid two temptations: to remain trapped in conflict, or to just avoid the tension by becoming spiritually detached from the tensions involved…to just go our own way. The reports realize that the path to greater inclusion – the enlarged tent - is a gradual one. Deep listening requires that we recognize others as the subjects of their own journeys. Then others feel welcomed, not judged. The synodal listening process has been for many the first time they felt recognized by the Church. Structural obstacles were brought up, clerical cultures that fragment relationships between clergy and laity. Poland reports that when priests do not want to listen, estrangement arises in the faithful, born of a clerical fear to engage pastorally. At the same time, the reports reveal a real need among the clergy to negotiate the dimensions of their own emotional and sexual lives. The list is long, of those seeking shelter in the wide tent: women and children of priests, the disabled, young people, women, especially those who have had abortions, remarried divorcees, LGBTQ and trans-people, migrants, addicts, prisoners, prostitutes, There is a cry “…to meet people where they are, to walk with them rather than judge them, and to build real relationships through caring and authenticity, not…superiority.” (USA) The reports abound in cries for solidarity, dialogue, accompaniment and welcome. More to come…!

The Continental Document: Synodal Life taking Shape, and the Role of Liturgy

 

The Continental Document: Synodal Life taking Shape, and the Role of Liturgy

 It’s good to remember that we are in the second of three stages of a process. The document we are reflecting on (The Working Document for the Continental Stage) is a summary of hundreds of diocesan listening session reports. God bless those who have been going through all this material trying to catch all the emerging concerns and dreams…! The final section, “Next Steps” we will consider next month. This month we take a look at some final emerging concerns and the  question, “What has all this to do with how we pray?” (Sections 60-97)

 Are you surprised? There are six whole sections (60-65) on the role of women for the future church. Yes, from all over the world came this huge concern. The call is for women to participate fully in the entire life of the Church, coming from all continents. There is concern that women in some cultures are not understood, and their charisms and contributions not valued. From Israel comes the voice that major decisions continue to be made by men, and women are often relegated to the “prophetic edge,” where they observe what happens in the life of the Church. Yet they represent the majority of practicing members and are the most active member of the Church. The Korean Church raises the same concern.

 In every area of their lives women call on the Church to be at their side while they suffer violence, impoverishment and diminishment. They call on the Church to become for women a place of flourishing, active participation, and belonging. The New Zealand respondents called this lack of equality a stumbling block for the entire Church in the modern world. This concern includes both women religious and lay women, and is reflected in wages and the undervaluing of religious life without the habit. There is no united solution offered, however. There is a call for ongoing discernment regarding the active role of women in governance, preaching, and the female diaconate. There is much diversity on the question of women’s ordination. A key recognition is present that women religious can be teachers of synodality within the Church.

 Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Mexico raise the reality of a laity uneducated in co-responsibility, and thus they do not feel a full identification with the Church. They continue in a view of the Church centered in ordained ministry. Many reports refer to the recognition and promotion of lay ministries, but admit that the “margins for maneuver” are unclear. The charisms of the Holy Spirit given to the baptized are not separate from the hierarchical gifts linked to the sacrament of Orders. Clarification on how they are both to be celebrated is one of the major tasks of the Synod.

 These and other tensions surfacing in the synod process need to articulated and addressed, particularly those of governance and Canon Law. The new vision will need to be supported by a spirituality of synodality. This will keep us from reducing our reality to mere technical-organizational issues. This continental stage has revealed that in general the Church lacks established synodal practices at the continental level. This conclusion is not a ploy, but a challenge that corresponds to the incarnation at work in the Gospel itself. The Gospel takes root in specific communities. It produces ecclesial communities with particular features linked to each culture. Each is a privileged sphere for the sharing of gifts and the creation of new pastoral options. The Roman Curia and Episcopal Conferences too, face this same challenge. How are all decisions to be made through communal discernment rather than on the majority principle used in democratic regimes? This is going to require Synodal Formation on every level of Church life and seminary formation.

The Eucharist is key to this incarnational openness to diversity. It must not be used as a source of division within the Church, a reason for confrontation, ideology, rift, or as a weapon for denial of access. We need sincere celebrations that offer inspiration and help to live the faith in personal, family, and professional life. The document’s conclusion at this Continental Stage is very clear. We have just begun.