Synodality and the Church’s continuing mission

DURING the time of the apostles as they started to carry out the mission given to them by Christ, there, of course, were some problems and issues that needed to be resolved. One was when there were disturbances among the Gentile believers who were imposed with unnecessary burdens. (cfr. Act 15,22-31) 

 The apostles wrote a letter telling them: “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication.” (Acts 15,29) At this, they rejoiced. 

 Somehow, this episode illustrates the synodal nature of the early Church since it involved a kind of prayerful dialogue between the apostles, on the one hand, and the Gentile believers, on the other. More importantly, it involved a listening to the Holy Spirit that underscores that true decisions arise from listening to God through prayer and a constant commitment to conversion. 

 Pope Francis brought out this need for synodality as a way to listen to the Spirit’s voice that would promote a culture of encounter and co-responsibility. In this way, synodality can be great help in the Church’s earthly journey toward her heavenly destination, the journey of the Church Militant toward the Church Triumphant. 

 In other words, synodality guides the Church Militant toward the Church Triumphant by emphasizing mission through evangelization and spreading of the Gospel, thereby aligning the Church with its ultimate goal of unity with God. It also cultivates unity and love through dialogue and shared discernment. It encourages the need for continuing conversion. 

 This thrust on synodality has, of course, received both praises and criticisms. Those who praised it see it as a way to revitalize the Church’s mission, making it more inclusive, given the more active involvement of the laity in decision-making processes. It therefore promotes the idea of a certain co-responsibility between the hierarchy and the ordinary faithful but in different degree. 

 Those who criticized it worry that it would lead to confusion and to the watering down of doctrine that may lead to doctrinal ambiguity. Some critics expressed the fear that the process can be too focused on secular or worldly ideas at the expense of the traditional teachings. Still others fear that it would undermine the authority of the hierarchy since it can lead to the democratization of the Church. 

 I suppose that in any process there are always the good side and the not so good one, the benefits and advantages, on the one hand, and the dangers, on the other. I imagine that it will always be a matter of how to go about it with prudence. 

 To balance its benefits and dangers, I believe that the discussions should be rooted on Church teachings and Scripture to ensure alignment with core values. Everyone involved should really pray, earnestly seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance that would necessarily involve some conversion. Genuine dialogue should be fostered, encouraging respectful listening and sharing, valuing diverse perspectives while seeking unity. 

 Indeed, discernment, prayer and adherence to Church teachings can be good safeguards to keep this process of synodality achieve its real goal. So far, this process has expanded lay participation in Church governance, a fuller recognition of women’s role in the Church. It has also fostered better transparency and accountability in terms of finances and forms of abuses. 

 And yes, it has facilitated ecumenical dialogue, and hopefully, even inter-religious dialogue. It would be good if this process of synodality continues to be practiced as the Church continues with its mission amid fast changing developments in the world.

True love is always linked to sacrifice

THAT’S how true love is. Without sacrifice, love at best can only be apparent. For love to be true, it will always involve sacrifice and great effort, considering the way we really are as God’s children as well as the way we are now in our earthly condition, marked as it is by our woundedness. 

 Genuine love for one another will always involve sacrifice simply because it cannot avoid the certainty that it will always entail understanding, compassion, the willingness to bear the burden of the others, and ultimately to offer mercy and to forgive to anyone who may do us wrong. It will always involve a total self-giving that is not only gratuitous but continues to give and give even if it’s not reciprocated or, worse, contradicted. 

 For love to be true, it has to reflect Christ’s love for all of us, irrespective of how we are to him. And that’s simply because whether we are good or not to God, God will continue to love for the basic reason that we are all his children. 

 A hallmark of genuine love is when we are willing to give up our own interest for God and for everybody else, reflecting the ultimate expression of love of Christ to all of us when he made himself a sacrifice on the cross. 

 Yes, we can say that true love expresses itself in sacrifice. In other words, given our wounded condition here on earth, sacrifice is the very language of love. Love cannot truly be love without sacrifice. 

 This means that unless we love the cross, we can never say that we are truly loving. Of course, we have to qualify that assertion. It’s when we love the cross the way God wills it—the way Christ loved it—that we can really say that we are loving as we should, or loving with the fullness of love. 

 We have to be wary of our tendency to limit our loving to ways and forms that give us some benefits alone, be it material, moral or spiritual. While they are also a form of love, they are not yet the fullness of love. 

 So, let’s be clear about this point. Love will always require sacrifice. Where there is no sacrifice, there cannot be love. Love grows only to the extent that we are willing to make sacrifices. Without sacrifice, we sooner or later will be swallowed up by our own egoism, our own selfishness. 

 And this selfishness can take the form of laziness, attachment to certain things to the point of self-absorption, etc. We have to be ready to do battle against these anomalous tendencies of ours. 

 We should always remember that the very essence of love is self-giving. In love, the lover needs to lose himself in his beloved. He has to be identified with his beloved. And this will always involve self-denial. 

 The self-giving and losing that love requires would actually enrich the person in his dignity. This way of loving conforms to what Christ himself said: “Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 16,25) 

 That’s why Christ himself said that if anyone wants to follow him, that person has to deny himself and, in fact, should carry the cross also. Otherwise, he cannot love. And true love is personified in Christ himself. 

 In other words, we can only love truly when we identify ourselves with Christ who precisely commanded us to love one another as he himself has loved us. That is why, he once said: “As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love.” (Jn 15,9)

“Abide in me as I abide in you”

WORDS of Christ, addressed to his disciples and now to all of us, that clearly spell out how our ideal condition of our life here on earth should be. (cfr. Jn 15,4) They practically tell us how we can be truly fruitful in this life, and lead of life of purpose, joy and fulfillment. 

Truth is Christ is always with us. As our creator and the pattern of our humanity as well as the redeemer of our damaged humanity, he is always with us. We just have to learn how to be always with him too so we can be what we ought to be. 

This, in effect, can only mean that we should unite our will to God’s will, letting go of our own desires and plans. We should also stay rooted in God’s love and teachings as revealed to us in full by Christ, applying them in our daily life. 

Thus, we should continually ask ourselves: Are we truly abiding in Christ? Do we always give priority to my connection with him? This way, we can aspire to produce spiritual fruit like love, joy and peace. We can be sure that we are properly guided as we go through life’ challenges and trials, finding strength in our weakness and comfort in trials. 

And more importantly, by abiding always in Christ, we can have a clear and driving sense of purpose and direction. It is in this area where most of us fail, thereby giving an easy opening for our weaknesses and the temptations to dominate us. 

When we manage to abide with Christ, we would know and live by the real and ultimate purpose of our life. Such knowledge would help in giving the proper shape, direction and consistency to our life that is now being pushed and pulled in any which way by the many confusing elements in our life today. 

We have to realize the grave duty we have to know and live by this existential purpose of ours, since this will assure us that we are going in the right direction, even if we do it in different ways, paths, forms and manners. 

Especially these days when many people are confused and lost as to what really should be the ultimate goal of their life, we have to make this duty more known and appreciated. We cannot deny that many people do not have a clear purpose in life, or that their worldview is limited, distorted, if not wrong. 

And what is this existential purpose of ours? It’s none other than to give glory to God. It can be expressed also in many other ways. It’s about, as our Catechism would put it, knowing, loving and serving God. In fact, this is the very first point of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

“God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself,” it says, “in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength…” 

All this business of our existential purpose is lived and summarized by Christ himself, the son of God who became man to save us. He commanded us to love one another as he himself loved us, which he did to fully carry out the will of his Father. 

And so, it should behoove us to know more and more about Christ to such an extent that not only would we know his life, his teachings and example, but that we also would live his life, his teachings and example as well.