The third glorious mystery is the promise of Christ, the gift of love, the outpouring of God’s Spirit upon the earth. Sixty years ago, participants of the Second Vatican Council prayed to the Holy Spirit for a new Pentecost: “We come before you, Holy Spirit, having gathered in your name. Come to us, remain with us, and enlighten our hearts. Give us light and strength to know Your will, to make it our own, and live it in our lives. Guide us by Your wisdom, support us by Your power…” The Synod on Synodality, taking place at the Vatican this month, uses this same prayer to continue the work that was begun then and to connect us to the church’s birth on the first Pentecost fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection.
“Synod” means the journey that we walk together. A vital and ancient tradition recorded in The Acts of the Apostles, the first synod took place in Jerusalem during the early formation of the church in the first century so that God’s people of diverse viewpoints could listen to the Holy Spirit and one another to assure that they were walking together and along the path that Christ laid out for them. We do the same thing in our own time. What happens this month, and a year from now when the process reconvenes, will be interesting to most Catholics and earthshattering to some, as was the Second Vatican Council. Many are frightened by the process now as they were then. Yet the lesson of Pentecost—which the first disciples likewise feared—was that the Holy Spirit doesn’t want us to be guided by fear, but by love.
Some conservatives fear that the Synod will clamor for divergence from many church traditions; some progressives fear that the process will not reach out to the margins to welcome or welcome back those ostracized because of lifestyles that do not align with church teaching. Critics of Pope Francis caution followers about orthodoxy and orthopraxis to the standard form. But Francis reminds us that the church has many avenues beyond standard practice to address challenging situations which call for pastoral responses that are not condemnatory of those who suffer alienation. While acknowledging that many of us want simple answers, responses, and explanations so that we do not have to think or function beyond the standard, the answers to complex situations are usually not simple.
Francis has always contended that the Holy Spirit, not people, should guide the church—no matter how many theology degrees or ecclesial titles they hold. He also realizes that the church cannot be operated by the feelings of those who want to dispense with rules and standards. The Second Vatican Council attempted to rein back church Gnosticism, i.e., the claim to be all-knowing, self-referential, and closed in on itself. Instead, it opened the windows to let in fresh air, to welcome the breath of the Holy Spirit that Christ breathed onto the first disciples long ago and that God breathed into the first human. While the Synod might address issues like sinful clericalism and stupid prejudices that exist in our church today, it is also likely to emphasize Christ’s standard, based on love, and encourage us all to live according to that higher standard—much higher than corporate rules, institutional regulations, medieval rubrics, or bureaucratic legislation.
I believe that this month’s synod will be a pivotal time in the church that points us in a direction that the Holy Spirit desires for us. It is a direction that has been mapped out from the beginning of salvation history. Let us trust that the promise of Christ and gift of love will come to us, remain with us, enlighten our hearts, and show us the way.