Photo Credit Deborah Stollery (c) 2024 Sacred Heart Catholic Church Tampa FL
This is the fourth is a series of blogs on the spirituality that underpins synodal practices. Why this and why now? As we approach the second assembly of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis has already warned us not to expect the hot button issues to be resolved. What should we expect then? Another experience of the spiritual practices that constitute a synodal Church. So these blogs will help us attune our ears and begin or continue these practices ourselves on the way to fully embracing the spiritual practices that make us synodal. The Instrumentum laboris has been released and it is a practical guide with deep spiritual roots. We'll continue to point them out in this series on the spirituaity underneath synodality.
I've spent a lot of time through my years following Christ and in service to the Church pondering what the Church is getting at when she says the Eucharist is the "source and summit of the Christian life." It's a BIG statement with a lot of elements. What I'm sharing with you today is one fruit of these ponderings, having to do with the way in which the Holy Spirit is the protagonist, the main actor, in the Eucharist. Why? Because the Holy Spirit, gift of Christ, is the protagonist, the leader, the guide for a synodal Church, and because we have the privilege of being guided and formed by this same Holy Spirit in the Eucharist. They are connected, synodality and the Eucharist, through the working of the Holy Spirit in both. How so? Well, let's see what Towards a Spirituality for Synodality and the Instrumentum laboris for the Second Assembly of the Synod on Synodality are revealing to us when we look for these ties.
First, a foundational connection. Eucharist and synodality share the concept of communion. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says this about the Eucharist: "The Eucharist is the "source and summit of the Christian life." The other sacraments and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch." (CCC, 1324) Both the Eucharist and synodality are linked through Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit in and through them both. Towards a Spirituality for Synodality says it this way, "The Eucharist is the primary locus of communion, participation and mission, the place thre Spirit brings about the interplay between these three synodal elements so that we are all drawn into this way of life." (14) It's safe to say that there is no spirituality of synodality that does not center itself on the action of Christ through the Spirit during the Eucharist. So let's look at some elements of the Eucharist and see how they are expressed through synodal practices.
Forgiveness and reconciliation. The Eucharistic celebration reminds us that we are all both in need of forgiveness and reconciliation from the Lord, and that we gather to give thanks and praise to the Lord for giving it. The need for and granting of forgiveness is a gift of the Spirit already binding us together in the Eucharist (SS 12). Synodality asks us to take this understanding of God's forgiving and reconciling nature to the margins, to the broken, to the outcast and gather them into God's embrace. We give what we have received and so are bound in communion with Christ and with our brothers and sisters. Synodality sends us forth to the peripheries with just this kind of amazing grace.
Participation in the Divine life. When we respond to God's call to come together to give thanks and praise to God in the Eucharist, we are giving an outward sign to the rest of the world that we are in communion with the Lord and with one another (CCC,1325). And by our participation in it, we unite ourselves to the heavenly liturgy (CCC, 1326). This communion, this participation in the Divine Life is the grounding reality of all Christian life, and therefore of a synodal Church. This means that communion and participation can never be reduced to a sociological phenomenon, nor can it be sustained by institutional structures alone (SS,13). Communion and participation are first spiritual works that we enact in the Eucharist and then bring out to the rest of the world, often hungry for belonging, accompaniment, and purpose.
The primary place to meet the Holy Spirit is the Eucharist. The Instrumentum laboris
reminds us of this truth when it says that "the concept of communion expresses the profound substance of the mystery and mission of the Church, which has as it source and culmination in the celebration of the Eucharist, that is, in communion with the Triune God and the unity among human persons that is realized in Christ through the Holy Spirit" (7). The Body of Christ scattered in mission is gathered by the Spirit into one Body, united by the Spirit to the heavenly liturgy. The Holy Spirit, through the ministries of the priest and the lector, bring Christ's living Word to nourish and instruct the people of God. The Holy Spirit, called down upon the gifts of bread, wine and the people's very selves, consecrates them all once again into one Body to be sent out for the life of the world. The Holy Spirit unites the Body of Christ on their pilgrim journey to commune with the Lord, and will disburse the Body of Christ to bring others into communion with the Lord.
It is the Holy Spirit that gathers the Body of Christ to celebrate the Mass, and sends it out again to gather others into the warmth of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Synodality centers this sending forth as the very essence of the Church.
It is the Holy Spirit that unites the Body of Christ in our need for forgiveness and the ability to receive that forgiveness from the Lord during the Mass. That same Spirit sends out the synodal Church to reconcile all of humankind to the Lord and one another through work such as listening, accompaniment, witness, and invitation.
It is the Holy Spirit at work through the ministries of presider and lector, speaking the Living Word into today's circumstances. It is the same Spirit sending the synodal Church to breathe the Living Word upon the poor, the outcast, the marginalized, the wounded and the suffering, in our place and time.
It is the Holy Spirit who transforms the gifts of bread, wine and our lives into the living, powerful substance of Jesus Christ. It is the Holy Spirit that sends us, this Body of Christ who holds within it the very power of Christ, out to the world to continue Christ's reconciling, healing presence until He comes again.
It is the Holy Spirit that binds the Body of Christ to the Lord and to each other, in a communion whose purpose is to see that God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven. And this same Spirit infuses the synodal Church with the gifts it needs to carry out this work within all cultures, remaining One with Christ and each other in mission and yet diverse in contexts and methods.
The communion, mission and participation that we experience during the Eucharist is the very communion, mission and participation we live as a synodal Church. Just as the Holy Spirit is the protagonist in the liturgy, so that same Spirit is the protagonist outside of the Eucharist, guiding the Church, the People of God, to see with Christ's eyes, hear with His ears, suffer with His body and heal with his touch.
There is no synodality without spirituality, and the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit is the source of that spirituality. We receive the gift of the Spirit in baptism, seal it in Confirmation and enliven it with every Eucharistic encounter. Why? For the sake of continuing Christ's mission to a world ever in need of his touch.
May you be awakened to the working of the Holy Spirit each time you celebrate the Eucharist. May you prepare to receive the Spirit's ministrations, and may you be open to the call to offer these very same gifts, in the Spirit, to your spheres of influence. This is how we become a synodal Church, a Church on mission...the real life People of God!
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