This is Jean's final blog in this series entitled "Synodality and the Spirit of Peaceful Discontent." But it's not the last time you'll hear from her. She's graciously agreed to continue blogging as we make the pathway for others on the #synodjourney. Thanks Jean, for your insights, for your courage to speak out with love, and to share how you live in peaceful discontent!
I sit here muddling through, still looking at the skewed LEM certificate hanging on my wall. I have acknowledged the need for change based upon my own experience, and I wonder, “Where will this go?” Well, NEWSFLASH: This is only the beginning! Here is what this Spirit-inspired peace is showing me: It is ok to be transitional, in flux while reflecting and pondering. It is ok, even expected, to not have all the answers immediately. The Spirit’s peace gives me, and our entire Church, the courage to inquire, to plan, to develop, to grow. In other words, to be “peacefully discontent.” The pieces of the puzzle come together one at a time at exactly the right time.
There is a hope and a dream for our Church nestled in the spirit of true synodality. Synodality provides nourishment, inclusivity, compassion, and vibrance all existing together within the tapestry of who we are as Christians in mission. According to the Final Document of the Continental Stage in North America (57) that developed from the most recent Synod on Synodality,
The gift of being together in one place and listening to each other is the best lesson learned…(because) ‘People enjoyed sharing, rather than just being talked to—there is no going back.’ The benefits of being intentionally synodal was a common theme. As was mentioned by a bishops’ group, ‘The synodal process has not been perfect, but it has been good.’
There is HOPE! It is not only my dream, but it is the dream that we are all together on the way to bringing to reality the synodal Church in mission!
There is not one single pathway to achieve this. There are indeed many paths to thriving and achieving a vital community of faith, hope, and love as God created us to be. Why? Because according to The Synod of Synodality’s Instrumentum Laboris: Part 2 Pathways (54), “A synodal Church in mission is grounded in the ability to listen, which requires recognizing that no one is self-sufficient in the Church’s mission and that everyone has a contribution to offer and something to learn from others.” There are many pathways because we do this together, arms linked, ears listening, dialogue happening, the Spirit stirring and moving. Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini once said, “We don’t get to choose how we come into the world, but God gave us the freedom to choose how we live in it…focus on the mission and the means will come.”
The means will not come without opposition. I know what moving into the vision of the Church in mission will demand. Facing clergy who are opposed to shared power and authority, those believing in themselves as solely equipped to teach, sanctify, and govern. Facing clergy opposed to designating others officially...creating another ministry or order with which they will have to collaborate. This is what moving into synodality will demand.
There is another opposition that needs to be faced…all the rest of the baptized who choose to believe that the priest is somehow bestowed with a supernatural kind of knowledge, skill, and practice that makes him uniquely suited to the work such that no one else could ever possibly do or strive toward. Ahh, those darn Lay Ecclesial Ministers who are foiling their plan and getting in the way! “Who do they think they are anyway?” This oppositional force is quite real and active in the Church in much of North America. I have experienced it and so have other LEMs. We are called, gifted, formed, and even sort of designated, yet still without the kind of shared leadership a co-responsible Church needs.
I wish I had a nickel for every time I shared a piece of my story of being overlooked or dismissed, and the response was, “I’ve never heard of such a thing!” followed by, “Are you sure this is what happened?” Why haven't they heard? LEM's often remain silent about their experiences. This great silence, enormous woundedness and the loss of gifts is a travesty, a sin. And yet this is still practiced. Without some sort of repentance that starts with acknowledging this level of clerical abuse, then a co-responsible, recognized role for LEM's alone may not be enough.
I do not yet know how this will unfold for me as a LEM and for my fellow LEM’s, but I do know there is work to be done and that is where my focus, my research, my discussions, my writing, and my listening remains. A synodal Church in mission requires new ministries, new types of leaders, and a fresh outlook at the foundations and gifts already present. The Spirit is nudging me and all of us toward this.
These blogs begin a first step toward the process of: acknowledging of what is “off”, proclaiming the truth surrounding it and clearly describing at least one part of the current reality based in fact and experience, and then facing the opposition with courage, strength, grace, and dignity. All this work is ongoing while LEMs across the US Church continue to allow the Spirit to guide and infuse their service to the People of God. They are continually serving, but a synodal Church requires their autonomous service to be supported by authority as fully co-responsible for the vitality of the Church in mission.
Alas, friends! When my brain is heavily inundated with that “traffic” I spoke of previously, I realize that I must rest, breathe, take a break, and recharge to be able to keep forging on. This is when I color in a coloring book while dreaming of the future days of our synodal Church in mission, relishing in the joy of the path that I have traveled thus far, praying for strength to navigate the challenges that myself and others face…all within the comfort of my home, my back yard, at a park, in a coffee shop, or wherever…lifting my hot air balloon fired by the wind of the Spirit, led by the sunlight of creation, and always remaining steadfast and diligent…peacefully discontent in the solace of divinely-inspired scripture, “As for me, I will always have Hope” (Psalms 71:14).
Blessings to all of you,
Jean
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