January 2022
2022, a New Year and a new start for us all.
Apostles for Today, our monthly reflection and prayer bulletin, reminds us in a timely fashion of our call and vocation to be Apostles of Jesus Christ, in the Church and in the world. The General Secretariat of the UAC proposed that we reflect and pray throughout this year on Synodality, the theme for the next Synod of Bishops which will be held in 2023. The Secretariat has prepared an outline of twelve (12) topics on Synodality which will be the material for reflection each month. Pope Francis has chosen Synodality as he believes that it is really at the very foundation of the Church and of her life and, as such, is deep in his heart.
In the Preparatory Document we read that “The Church of God is convoked in Synod. The path entitled ‘For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission’”; it is significant that it is described as ‘path’, an indication that it is a journey and a way and not only a theme. The word Synod indicates to us what is involved, it comes from the Greek and is a composite of ‘syn’ meaning ‘together with, jointly, at the same time’ and ‘hodos’ which means ‘a way, path, road, journey’. The path and the process in the Document are formulated as “journeying together”. From a reflection on the word ‘synod’ we can understand what is envisaged, that we, the members of the Church are consciously and reflectively journeying together as God’s people and identifying how this takes place in our own lives, in our church life and on all the levels of the life and mission of the Church today.
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to be an ever-present reality for us and certainly here in the northern hemisphere it impedes our coming together and enjoying full in-presence communion, and we are challenged to find means of consciously and meaningfully walking together. There are essential elements of our path to the Synod and the first of these is ‘Together’: the material prepared and circulated by the General Secretariat of the Synod places great stress on this as we are intrinsically connected and linked to one another, we belong one to another; we share life on earth together and we will share eternal life together. A phrase used several times by Pope Francis while writing on “Temptations faced by Pastoral Workers ”in Evangelii Gaudium, is “Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of ...” (EG 80, 83, 86, 92, 97, 101); the repetition of this exhortation comes to mind now in this pandemic as there is much that isolates us and keeps us apart from one another. There are things that can create division and distance and can ‘rob us’ of essential elements of our common Christian journey.
Perhaps a question can be put here, can I, can we, identify what creates distance between us and others in the UAC? Are we being “robbed of” the opportunity to journey together?
A second element is ‘Walking or journeying' and signifies onward movement, it is not a static state; we are always going towards God.
In Advent we reflected on journeys in the Nativity scenes, Mary journeying over rough terrain to be with Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph travelling to Jerusalem to comply with the census, Joseph, Mary and the child Jesus journeying into Egypt. In our Christian life we are journeying deeper and deeper into God and into the mystery of God, in Jesus. What is my/our sense of journeying or walking?
A third element is awareness of being part of the living Church; we tend to hark back to the early Church and the experience of lived communion as related in the New Testament, we can think of this as the ‘ideal’ experience; I have often thought how wonderful it would have been to live in that church in such close connection to the earthly life of Jesus. However, over the years I have realized that we are just one step away from the experience of the early Church, the Church is, and the Church is new in every generation as we receive a lived faith, make it our own and pass it on to the next generation. Can I/we come up with an image that reflects a sense of being part of the living Church?
The fourth element is one that is central to our Pallottine spirituality: Communion and cooperation are words which run through all the writings of our Founder. He experienced himself as in communion with God and with all creatures in God; he was conscious of the call to cooperation with God in all his works and in particular in the salvation of souls; “... the most holy, noble, august and divine of all divine works is the work of cooperating with the merciful designs, wishes and desires of God for the salvation of souls.”(OOCC IV).
St Vincent was ‘an apostle of a spirituality of communion’(cf. St Vincent Pallotti, Prophet of a Spirituality of Communion”, Fr Franco Todisco, SAC).In the UAC we are called to live a spirituality of cooperation and of communion which is rooted in the love of the Holy Trinity and it is part of our Pallottine heritage. What is my/our sense of living communion and cooperation in the UAC? For mission: we the members of the Pallottine family, in the condition and state of life we are in, are all called to cooperate in the mission of Jesus Christ in the Church. The General Statutes affirm that “...the multiple forms of personal vocation and the diversity of life styles, of commitment and of service are united by the founding charism, by a common spirit and mission and by the communion of the members...” (GS 6).
We are for mission; our mission is to live the Gospel in the day-to-day activities and engagement; to proclaim the Gospel and to facilitate access to the Gospel in accompanying others in their quest. How do I/we see the mission today? How do I/we see the mission in the circumstances in which I/we find ourselves?
Personally, I am excited and enthused by the path proposed to us by Pope Francis and the Secretariat of the Synod; enthused because there is no fixed agenda, nomaster-plan already laid out which we are asked to study, understand, accept and implement. The point of departure for the path is to gather together, to be together, and to talk, share, meet each other where we are and share what being Church is to us, and together share where we think God’s Spirit is leading us; what God’s Spirit wants of us. In the Vademecum prepared by the Secretariat for the Synod it is stressed that “The Synodal Process is first and foremost a spiritual process” (Vademecum 2.2). The path is exciting because something new will be born of our encounter, something which we will create together in God; the Vademecum warns against gathering with a sense of positions already taken and with viewpoints to defend or to impose; it also urges a leaving behind of prejudices and stereotypes, of ‘the virus of self-sufficiency’; to avoid temptations of ‘wanting to lead ourselves instead of being led by God’, of focusing on ourselves and our immediate concerns, on ‘problems’ and on structures. It is to be a spiritual process leading to discernment. WhileI reflected on the request to prepare this number of Apostles for Today I thought of what attitudes might facilitate my participation in the process and I came up with the following:
- A conscious awareness of the continuous call to communion, to communion with God, to communion with all others in God.
- A recognition that I/we are all protagonists in the process because I/we all have faith and my/our experience in faith and the convictions that grow out of it are valid.
- •My/our vocation is that of the Church, a vocation to evangelize which is our mission; daily reading of the Gospel will throw light on the here-and-now of the mission.
- Listening with an open ear and mind, Pope Francis gives the impression that he is listening attentively and he responds, sometimes he may trip up in his response, but he continues onwards on the path he sees as being the one the Spirit is indicating.
- In the Union of Catholic Apostolate I/we have experience of ‘walking together’ through my/our experience of being in communion in the charism of St Vincent Pallotti; my/our experience is valid and can contribute to the discernment of the Church on Synodality.
I will conclude with a quote from Lumen Fidei, Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis, and make it my prayer for our participation in the Synodal path: “The experience of love shows us that a common vision is possible, for through love we learn how to see reality through the eyes of others, not as something which impoverishes but instead enriches our vision. Genuine love, after the fashion of God’s love, ultimately requires truth, and the shared contemplation of the truth which is Jesus Christ enables love to become deep and enduring.” (Lumen Fidei 47).
-Fr. Derry Murphy, SAC.
