+COMMUNITY LIFE AS BEING SYNODAL IN NATURE 24 Sep. 2023
What I would like to share this morning is some more reflections based on the document Instrumentum Laboris that is being used in preparation for the coming Synod in Rome this October 4th-29th. I based my last reflections at the end of July on this document, and want to add a few more. Some of our own Cistercians and some Benedictines have pointed out synodal aspects of our own way of life, how we form authentic community when we walk together as the people of God.
Ever since Vatican II, there has been a stress on the common dignity and mission of all the baptized for understanding the mystery and mission of the Church. We have just been hearing in the refectory of the importance a shared community life if it is to be healthy and true to its religious calling. The early fathers of the Church considered the word “synod” as a synonym for church as recently pointed out by Blasé Cupich the archbishop of Chicago. For St. John Chrysostom the “church” is the name for “walking together”, the very meaning of synod.
The document Instrumentum Laboris quotes St John Paul II teaching: “Communion and mission are profoundly connected with each other, they interpenetrate and mutually imply each other, to the point that communion represents both the source and the fruit of mission: communion gives rise to mission and mission is accomplished in communion”. It is our relationships or communion within the Church that make our proclamation of the word credible.
If one reflects on the nature of a healthy monastic community we see the truth of what it is offering to our Church. This runs all through the Rule of St Benedict, how our relationships with one another and with God are constantly being sighted. For example in chapter 19 of the Rule on our presence in choir where Benedict tells us to consider, “how we ought to behave in the presence of God and his angels, and…to sing the psalms in such a way that our minds are in harmony with our voices.”
In chapter 34, Benedict tells of how the distribution of goods are to be made to each one as he or she has need. “By this we do not imply that there should be favoritism—God forbid—but rather consideration for weaknesses. Whoever needs less should thank God and not be distressed, but whoever needs more should feel humble because of his weakness, not self-important because of the kindness shown him. In this way all the members will be at peace.”
In Chapter 31 on the qualifications cellarer of a monastery is to have, Benedict tells us that: “If any brother happens to make an unreasonable demand of him [the cellarer], he should not reject him with disdain and cause him distress, but reasonably and humbly deny the improper request.” This sensitivity to relationships runs all through the Rule, giving clear indications of what synodal life in a community is to be, if is going to be true to our calling and mission.
A little further on in the Vatican document preparing for the coming Synod, we have the following:
Ancient tradition tells us that when a synod is celebrated it begins with the invocation of the Holy Spirit, continues with the profession of faith, and arrives at shared determinations to ensure or re-establish ecclesial communion. In a synodal assembly Christ becomes present and acts, transforms history and daily events, and gives the Spirit to guide the Church to find a consensus on how to walk together towards the Kingdom and to help all of humanity to move towards greater unity
The Holy Spirit is the constant guide in the life of the Church and any Christian community. Through the Holy Spirit we arrive at “shared determinations” that ensure ecclesial communion. Through this communion our history is transformed, helping one another and all of humanity to move toward greater unity. It is only in listening to one another, listening to God’s Word through one another that we are able to grow into that kind of Church or community that gives promise of everlasting life.
As a final quote from the Instrumentum Laboris, let me offer the following. The mission of the Church:
“is not the marketing of a religious product, but the construction of a community in which relationships are a manifestation of God’s love and therefore whose very life becomes a proclamation. In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter’s discourse is immediately followed by the account of the life of the primitive community, in which everything became an occasion for communion (cf. 2:42-47), which made the community attractive.”
In a community where “relationships are a manifestation of God’s love, there will be no lack of new members as happened in the early Church. So let us pray that the coming Synod and our own community may be ever more open to the presence and working of the Holy Spirit.