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After completing work on section B.3 of the Instrumentum Laboris on Saturday, Synod participants reconvened this morning to begin the final week of the monthlong assembly.
Fr.
Timothy Radcliffe, OP, who is acting as a “spiritual assistant” for the
Synod, opened with a reflection titled “The Seed Germinates.” Fr.
Radcliffe began to prepare delegates for the next stage of the synodal
journey after the assembly’s conclusion on Sunday.
The
Synod will gather for a second assembly in October 2024. Fr. Radcliffe
characterized the intervening 11 months as “a time of quiet pregnancy”
and “a time of active waiting.”
“It will be probably the most fertile time of the Synod, the time of germination,” he said.
The
words that Synod delegates have exchanged over the past month “are the
seeds that are sown in the soil of the church,” he said. “They will be
at work in our lives, in our imagination and our subconscious, during
these months. When the moment is right, they will bear fruit.”
Sr.
Maria Grazia Angelini, OSB, who is serving with Fr. Radcliffe as
another of the Synod’s “spiritual assistants,” followed with a
meditation on the Parable of the Mustard Seed in Mark 4:30.
The
mustard seed “is the identity card of the Kingdom,” Sr. Angelini said.
“The surprising sense of the small as the bearer of the future marks the
style of Jesus.”
Sr.
Angelini contrasted the greatness of the tree in the parable with the
humility of the seed from which it sprouts. She described the Synodal
Assembly as a “month of sowing.”
“Today—in
a culture of striving for supremacy, profit, and followers, or
evasion—the patient sowing of this synod is, in itself, like a
profoundly subversive and revolutionary act,” she said.
Fr.
Ormond Rush, a theologian from Australia and one of the Synod’s “expert
facilitators,” concluded with a theological reflection on the shaping
of the Synod’s synthesis document. His central focus was the distinction
between two interpretations of church tradition: a “static”
interpretation that is “legalistic, propositional, and ahistorical,” and
a “dynamic” interpretation that is “personalist, sacramental, and
rooted in history.”
Citing
the work of the late Pope Benedict XVI—who, as Fr. Joseph Ratzinger,
made key contributions to the theology of Vatican II—Fr. Rush spoke of
the dynamic interpretation as “seeing the past being realized in the
present, and yet open to a future yet to be revealed.” He quoted from
the Vatican II document Dei Verbum: “The tradition that comes from the apostles makes progress in the church, with the help of the Holy Spirit.”
He continued: “In Dei Verbum—and
this is important for understanding synodality and the very purpose of
this Synod—this divine revelation is presented as an ongoing encounter
in the present, and not just something that happened in the past.”
“This Synod is a dialogue with God,” he told the delegates. “God is waiting for your reply.”
In
their final week together, Synod participants will be meeting in small
groups to discuss the synthesis document. Delegates will vote on the
document Saturday evening. A separate document, “Letter to the People of
God,” will also be issued at the end of the assembly.
At
a press conference following the morning’s events, Cardinal Christoph
Schönborn, OP, archbishop of Wien, Austria, said that “Europe is no
longer the main center of the church.”
The
continent “is a bit lagging behind in the way we live synodality among
the local churches,” he said. “I think we need some stimulus to go
further.”
Cardinal
Schönborn observed how the Oriental churches have long recognized the
link between synodality and liturgy, something the Western churches can
learn from.
“The liturgy is at the heart, the celebrated faith,” he said. “There is no synodality without liturgy.”
Cardinal
Schönborn also said that of the many Synods he has attended, the
methodology and process of the current Synod “is the best I have
experienced.”
Joining
Cardinal Schönborn at the press conference were Cardinal Jeans-Marc
Aveline, archbishop of Marseille, France; Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes,
archbishop of Mexico City; and Sister Samuela Maria Rigon, SSM, superior
general of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows and professor of
psychology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
“This is going to be a decisive week for us,” Cardinal Aveline said. “We have to be careful and listen to what is growing.”
Cardinal
Aveline added that “there is a lot of room for progress” and “there are
opportunities to allow more people to participate in the synodal
process.”
Sr.
Rigon said that the Synod has helped her realize that “my viewpoint is a
window open on the horizon,” and that the numerous individual
contributions to the Synod can create “a grand mosaic.”
Returning to the morning’s theme, she said, “We have received an important seed, and God is going to make it grow.”
As the spiritual assistants expressed this morning, the next stage
of the Synod will involve “thinking with the church”—allowing the
insights of the past month to take root in heart and mind, and to begin
reflecting on practical and theological steps the church can take to
grow in synodality. We’re pleased to offer this reflection
from Gene Ciarlo today that begins asking some essential questions for
the journey ahead, and that picks up on some of the ideas of “static”
versus “dynamic” tradition introduced this morning by Fr. Rush. We’ll
have more reflections and commentary in the months to come.
A video of the live-stream from this morning's Synodal Assembly is available at the Vatican News YouTube page here; another of this morning's press briefing is available here.
Michael Centore
Editor, Today's American Catholic
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