By Justin McLellan
Synod members must imitate Jesus’ patience and acceptance toward others as they prepare to exchange contrasting visions for the future of the Catholic Church, an archbishop and synod member has said.
“We cannot afford to be ignorant of Christ, or forgetful of him, as we seek to discern together just what it is that God is asking of the Church at this time,” said Australian Catholic Bishops Conference President and Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB.
In his homily during Mass with Synod members on 30 September, Archbishop Costelloe urged synod participants to look to Jesus’ many relationships and interactions recounted in the Gospels “to get glimpses of what truly and deeply human encounters look like.”
“We can think of the endless patience which Jesus demonstrates toward those, especially toward his closest disciples, who continually fail to understand him and who so often disappoint him,” he said. “His patience prevents them from giving up.”
The 368 members of the Synod of Bishops were gathered at the Vatican for a two-day retreat ahead of the opening of the Second Session of the Synod on 2 October and celebrated Mass together at the Altar of the Chair in St Peter’s Basilica. Earlier in the day, participants listened to spiritual reflections from Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe and Benedictine Mother Maria Ignazia Angelini OSB.
The synod process, which began in 2021 and included the first session of the Synod of Bishops a year ago, has led the church to “a deeper understanding of the meaning of synodality,” Archbishop Costelloe said in his homily. “Now, at this stage of the journey, we are being asked to reflect not so much on what synodality is but rather on how we are to live it at every level of the life of the church,” as individuals and in communities.
Archbishop Costelloe said the synodal journey thus far “has confirmed for us this profound truth: that in the creative design of God we are made for each other, that we are meant to depend on each other, and that it is in and through our relationships that we come to be the people God has created us to be.”
Moving forward, to become a “welcoming and hospitable church,” a “poor and humble church,” a church “in mission” and a “listening church,” synod members must look to Christ as their model, he said.
Following Christ along the synodal journey “will console us, at times it will confuse us, and at times it may even confront or frighten us,” but “the church is Christ’s, not ours,” he said, citing St John XXIII, the Pope who convened the Second Vatican Council.
Archbishop Costelloe began his homily by recalling the feast of St Jerome, a doctor of the church credited with translating biblical texts into Latin from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.
St Jerome, Archbishop Costelloe said, is remembered as “a passionate and difficult man, someone who did not find it easy to tolerate what he saw as the shortcomings of others,” while also recognising his own faults in his approach to people.
“He would, perhaps, have been a difficult character to manage if he were a member of a synod which calls us to deep and respectful listening to each other,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
Yet he cited a famous saying attributed to the saint, a “precious gift he offers us as we enter into all that lies ahead” in the month-long synod: “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”