The Synodal Way and the Narrow Way

 

A prayer intention that I had not heard before was added to the mass this Sunday: “Lord, keep us in communion with the Holy Father, Pope Francis in Rome.” 

This is perhaps an indication of the turmoil in the church: schism seems a possibility, perhaps immanent. And if it happens, Francis is responsible. It is he who is stirring things up. The latest word is of a proposed reconciliation with the Freemasons. Whom prior popes stretching back centuries supposedly simply misunderstood. 

Good Catholics do not know which way to turn. If good Catholics are now to believe that the popes and councils prior to Francis got it wrong, how can we have confidence that Francis has it right? On what authority?

“The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold and it has overturned the order of the soul”

I have no sense that the local bishop, or the local priest, are particularly traditionalist. Some parishioners clearly are. The weekly bulletin dutifully reports on the synod on synodality in the same terms used by the Vatican. It calls for a “listening church,” seeking to know what the Holy Spirit wants. And reports that two representatives from the parish will be sent to a new regional synodal confab in March.

Given that there is a continuing need to know what the Holy Spirit wants, that the Holy Spirit has perhaps changed His mind on something, how does one discern what the Holy Spirit wants? How does one listen to the Holy Spirit?

The path is well known and marked. It does not have to do with meeting in groups. In such groups, one is not listening to the Holy Spirit. The voice of the Spirit is there drowned out by human voices. One goes out into the desert, alone. Or to the monastic cell.

Abraham did not hear the voice of God by listening to the polytheists around him, but by breaking away from them, packing his bags and leaving Ur. Noah likewise; his neighbours no doubt thought him mad. Lot likewise; he was not even to look back on the cities of the plain. Moses likewise; he met God in the desert, as a fugitive. Elijah or Isaiah likewise; John the Baptist likewise. 

The synodal way of breaking into small groups to discuss topics for three minutes each, is not listening to the Spirit, but to the world.