Jesus Listened: Starting the Year as a Synodal Church

The wedding feast at Cana has many layers of meaning relevant to our day. Like so many other miracles, Jesus only performed this one after he first, listened. In this case, he listened to his mother and then he acted. Right now, the Church is in a special listening mode to the people of God to become better aware of life experiences as we are exiting the postmodern world and entering a new, not yet named age. The Church’s magisterial teaching explains:

“The joys and the hopes, the griefs, and the anxieties of the (people) of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ” (The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 1).

As followers of Christ when we stop to actively and compassionately listen to the joys and hopes and griefs and anxieties of others, it is then these become ours as well. The magisterial teaching in this document goes on to say:

“With the help of the Holy Spirit, it is the task of the entire People of God, especially pastors and theologians, to hear, distinguish and interpret the many voices of our age, and to judge them in the light of the divine word, so that revealed truth can always be more deeply penetrated, better understood and set forth to greater advantage” (44).

Notice, like Jesus, we first must listen and “hear” before we can accompany another. We are, right now, and until mid-July, in a listening mode in the worldwide church. And this includes the Diocese of Shreveport. In every parish around our diocese and the globe, pastors and priests are sitting down in listening sessions to hear from the people of God and especially hear from those on the margins – the poor, sick, lonely, elderly, unemployed, remarried without annulments, LGBTQ+, those who have experienced or performed an abortion, immigrants, refugees, prisoners, physically, mentally, and sexually abused, captive to any addiction, ignored, women, and many more. In these listening meetings, we are especially called to listen to the religious women and men who have been caring for all these children of God on the margins for centuries.

Equally important, this way of life in the Church will not stop this summer. In August, the lessons learned from these grassroots listening sessions will be sent to the U. S. bishops who will continue to combine all these listening sessions from around our country and forward them to the Vatican. Finally, these worldwide issues will all be taken into consideration next year at the 2023 Synod of Bishops.

Don’t fret, the Church is not becoming a parliament or some type of congress by listening to the people. The truth is, the early hundreds of years of church history are littered with examples of the people of God expressing their daily experiences of life so the Church can respond. But again, it can only respond after passionate and deliberate listening.

As you read this, how are you feeling? Does a listening Church excite you, or does it evoke a sense of fear? Does it give you comfort that the Church makes itself vulnerable to hear from the broken and wounded?

As we continue to pray with and contemplate listening, you and I might consider the following evocative questions each day in prayer for the next few months:

In society, who are the people I walk with and listen to? Who are those that seem further apart? What groups or individuals are abandoned on the margins? How can I listen to them?

Listening like Jesus comes first. How is God speaking to me about having an open mind and heart where listening is concerned?

As I speak to the Church, do I feel free and unjudged to share and articulate what is on my heart? What hinders me from speaking up courageously and candidly?

How do prayer and communal life in the Church inspire and guide me to make important decisions and promote participation in liturgy and parish life?

Hopefully, this will get us all started on living as a synodal church – one that walks hand-in-hand sharing the love of Christ. Imagine listening to each other with such intensity and love that we share in the joys and the hopes, the griefs, and the anxieties of the people we accompany – of the people we minister to. Listening followed by loving and compassionate action is what Jesus did. As followers of Christ, doing the same is our only option.