A good ol’ Oreo cookie! What comes to your mind? Childhood? Adulthood? Dunking in a glass of milk? Twisting apart the cookie layers from the rich creamy center? Delicious joy as a dessert, snack, or perhaps crumbling over some ice cream? An item to fast from during Lent? I can remember as a small child how I absolutely loved to twist apart the cookie layers and taste the smooth center cream. It made me think that I was getting two cookies out of simply one. To this day, I still twist those wonderful layers apart to appreciate their individual delight and perhaps that is what prompted my thoughts today? Hmmm... So much of this visual may conjure memories within each one of us and might make us a tiny bit hungry…but for what?
Isn’t the Church much like that Oreo cookie? God’s source of light and our connection to our loving, mutual relationship with God (the top cookie layer); the clarity of the rich, varied goodness of humanity’s backgrounds, cultures, experiences, gender, education, gifts, talents, vocations (the creamy center); the strength we need on our journey as an inclusive People of God together in the world today (the bottom cookie layer). Each part is deliciously valuable and special, yet together as one whole cookie (one whole Church) evangelizing the Gospel message through the pathways of Synodality. Just like there are individual preferences for how to “properly” eat an Oreo, so there are individual preferences for one or more of the three layers of the Church cookie. But synodality is asking us to see the Church “Oreo” as one delicious cookie, to be given to the world as nourishment. And what’s contained in that cookie that the world needs? The Holy Spirit, Jesus’ living presence in the world today, within each member/layer, and powerfully potentially present in the whole “cookie.” The Church is the Body of Christ, infused with his living presence, alive in the Spirit and called to share Christ’s forgiving, merciful, tender good news with the world. And that can be found most powerfully when the whole “Oreo” is offered to a hungry world.
Within my last blog, we shared the beauty of a cup of coffee and conversation together. What do you say if we take a little walk together on the pathway of this Oreo cookie that perhaps we may dunk it in that cup of coffee? Consider joining me as you grab that cookie and cup of coffee, so we may consider together what it means to be the Body of Christ, in all the delicious layers that make up the “Church Oreo”.
The top cookie layer: God’s light and our connection to it, covenanted through the waters of Baptism. As mentioned in the Synod on Synodality’s Final Document, “This identity is lived out as a call to holiness and as sending out in mission, inviting all peoples to accept the gift of salvation” (#15). That top cookie later produces a great light of connection, if you will, between God and God’s children and for all of God’s children to shine brightly in the world today. Now you may ask yourself, “But how do we shine that light?” If you’ve ever baked a cookie, you know it needs several ingredients and actions so that the dough holds together. The Church is no different. This top layer of light is held together in various ways. I’d like to highlight one: through the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We are reminded that a synodal missionary and merciful People of God shine in “full light” through Mary, the mother of Christ because she is the example of a Church who listens, prays, meditates, dialogues, accompanies, discerns, decides, and acts (FD #29). These eight intentional verbs call to each of us within the Marian identity of the Church. What a light of common goodness from God to all of us!
Next, we have that creamy center of the Oreo: This provides clarity about who we are as sisters and brothers in the world today. Throughout the recent Synod on Synodality process and the overall synodal journey of the Church itself, people of every place and context are being called to nurture true relationships: with God, between women and men, in families, in local communities, among social groups and religions, with all of creation. In doing so, everyone receives an opportunity to communicate, share, and be included regardless of marital status, identity, or sexuality (FD #50). How rich and meaningful is that center of the Oreo?!? During the times when we face local and global issues, challenges that affect adults and children, tragedies and loss impacting our nations and our world, we are called to pay close attention to that rich, creamy goodness of everyone, especially those who are marginalized, excluded, and dwelling on the outskirts of society.
Synodality begins with that simple hello, sharing a cup of coffee together, a reaching out and listening to one another with intentionality for this is the way that the Church may be a true sacrament or instrumental sign of intimate union with God and humanity (FD #56). The rich creamy center is created by our relationships, relationships that in the Body of Christ, cross all boundaries. In the Body of Christ, there is no Jew nor Greek, slave or free, just like in the creamy center there is no longer separate ingredients and procedures of sugar and shortening, mixing and combining. It is all done...the creamy center has been formed from the various elements of our relationships into something far greater than the sum of its parts. So, it is with the Body of Christ (the People of God) who journey in a synodal fashion.
Finally, we get to the bottom cookie layer of strength and casting that synodal net together in the world. During a synodal journey, we seek that light cast by God and appreciate the clarity of who we walk with on the journey. Now we must pray and dialogue while carefully discerning through decision-making (FD #79). Strength comes from prayer, dialogue and discerned decision-making, for all people can be conduits of the Holy Spirit. Strength comes when the Holy Spirit’s presence and gifts are trusted. Strength comes when the People of God are invited into decision-making at all levels. Synodality is about strengthening trust in the Holy Spirit, the guide for the Church. And this bottom cookie layer of strength, when combined with light and the delicious cream of heart-felt relationships, will be a treat for our world. This is the time where we, as a People of God, foster great participation in the decision-making process at all levels, particularly the local (parish and diocesan) levels. The Synod proposed that the diocesan and parish assemblies be “highly valued as bodies for regular consultation between the bishop and all the People of God entrusted to him. This should be a place of listening, prayer, and discernment, particularly when it comes to the choices pertaining to the life and mission of a local Church” (FD #108). Oh, how this bottom cookie layer of strength helps to lovingly connect the other parts of the Oreo!
Has this Oreo cookie image made you hungry for more? I do indeed hope it has nourished you a bit to consider the process for being a synodal Church in God’s wondrous world. I hope it provides you with the light, the clarity, and the strength to continue being curious, asking questions, and searching for more about synodality. I hope it assists with a sense of relatability and joy with the visual of the Oreo cookie. And most of all, I hope it provided you an opportunity to pause and reflect upon your own important, valued role as a child of God, as a sister or brother to others, and as an individual on a mission to love and serve others as Jesus loves and serves each one of us all the time. Now, dive right in and dunk those Oreos, friends!
Photo Courtesy of the Columbus Dispatch/Google Images
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