Before the document was written in the final stages of the Synod of Bishops, the priest Timothy Radcliffe highlighted the absolute independence of the participants in the synod, being “free children of God.”
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We reach the final stretch of our final work, where we have to consider, amend and vote on the final document. Today we prepare to fulfill this heavy responsibility. How can we do this? In our complete freedom. Saint Paul wrote to the Galatians: “For freedom, Christ made us free.” Our mission is to proclaim and embrace this freedom. Freedom is the DNA of the Christian. First, let us say what we know and believe in our freedom and listen to others without fear, with mutual respect. It is the freedom of the children of God to speak boldly, with parrhesia, just as the disciples boldly proclaimed the Good News of the Resurrection in Jerusalem. Thanks to this freedom, each of us can say “I.” We have no right to remain silent.
This freedom resides in the deep freedom of our hearts, the inner freedom when we seek the decisions that are made. We may feel disappointed by the decisions of the Synod. Some of us will find them confusing or even incorrect. But we have the freedom of those who believe, as Saint Paul wrote to the Romans: “God works good for those who love him” (Romans 8:28). We expect the same from those who don’t. We can live in peace because “’Nothing can separate us from the love of God’, not even insufficiencies, not even mistakes. Thanks to this freedom, we dare to join the church and say “we.”
The core of our decision making is this double circle of graceful freedom. Because God’s freedom works deep in our free thinking and decision making. Saint Thomas Aquinas tells us that grace perfects nature. It doesn’t destroy it. When Saint Thomas asked how the Three Wise Men arrived so quickly in Bethlehem, he responded that it was due to the grace of God and the speed of the dromedary.
The priest Timothy said to briefly consider each dimension of this blessed freedom. Once a priest, beginning his sermon at evening Mass, said: “This morning I didn’t have time to prepare and so I had to trust in the Holy Spirit. “Now I have time to think about myself and I hope to do better.” Believing in the Holy Spirit does not prevent us from using our minds when we seek the truth. Thomas stressed that not thinking about decisions and, for example, winning the lottery would be an insult to the Holy Spirit. Vivian Boland OP says: “We are children of God, so in our thinking, will, fear and pleasure, the Holy Spirit is also at work.”
In A Man for All Seasons, St. Thomas More urges his daughter Meg to respect her God-given ability to think: “Listen, Meg, God made angels to show his glory, just as he made animals.” for his innocence and the plants. for its simplicity. But he created man to serve him in the confusion of his mind, in his wisdom.”
Rome silenced Yves Congar. He was also exiled to England, a terrible misfortune for a Frenchman. The strange thing is that he never appreciated our dishes. In the depths of this crisis, he wrote in his diary, that the only answer to this persecution was to “tell the truth.” In a judicious manner, without unnecessary provocations or slander. But continue to be an authentic and pure witness of the truth.
Timothy said that we should not be afraid of disagreement, because the Holy Spirit works in it. One day, a man went to the rabbi to complain about his wife. At the end of the conversation the rabbi told him: “My friend, you are absolutely right, you are justified.” That same afternoon the man’s wife went to the rabbi and complained bitterly about her husband. At the end of the conversation, the rabbi told the woman: “You are absolutely right, you are justified.” When the woman left, the rabbi’s wife told him: “But you are absolutely wrong. “You cannot say that they are both right, that they are both justified.” And the rabbi said to his wife, “You’re right.”
This is our freedom to think, speak and listen without any fear. But it is nothing unless we have the freedom to believe that “God works for the good of those who love God.” So that we can live in peace with it, whatever the outcome. As the 14th-century English mystic Julian of Norwich said: “All will be well; All kinds of things will be fine.” God’s grace works slowly and quietly, even when things seem to be going wrong.
God’s grace is woven into the story of our salvation from the beginning. The fall of Adam and Eve by the grace of God led to Felix Guilt, which leads to the advent of God. The Lord’s terrible death on the cross leads to Christ’s victory over death. So even though you may be disappointed with the outcome of the synod, God’s grace is at work in this council, guiding us toward His kingdom in ways only God knows. His desire for our well-being cannot be frustrated.
He said that many times we are not aware of how God’s grace is working in our lives. We do what we believe is right and the rest is in God’s hands. This is just a religious meeting. There will also be other religious gatherings. We don’t have to do everything, just try to take the next step. Saint Teresa of Ávila wrote at the end of her long and difficult life: “It is we who have begun the work; It depends on the people who keep starting.” We don’t know how. This is our job now.
Like Congar, Henry de Lubac SJ endured persecution before the council. But in the midst of that suffering he wrote the beautiful and serene Meditation sur l’Eglise, a muse of love for the same Church that persecuted him. He wrote: ‘Instead of losing patience, the nagger will try to keep the peace and will make a great effort to do that difficult job for himself: maintaining a mind bigger than his thoughts. He will “develop the kind of freedom through which we go beyond the things that most ruthlessly involve us… He will avoid the ‘terrible self-sufficiency that leads him to see himself as the embodiment of conservatism’ because he will put “above everything.” all things the indivisible bond of Catholic peace…”.
The priest Timothy said that if we were free to defend only our position, we would be influenced by the arrogance of those who, in the words of De Lubac, see themselves as “the touchstones of orthodoxy.” We will continue to beat the drums of ideology, whether left or right. If we only have the freedom of those who trust in God’s grace but dare not discuss their beliefs, we will be irresponsible and will never grow. The freedom of God acts at the root of our freedom, it springs within us. The more it is, in fact, God’s, the more truly it is ours. As independent children of God, each of us can say “I” and together we can say “we.”
