“Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the Lord
intends?”
Those words from today’s first reading from
the Book of Wisdom about the mysterious workings of God and how far
beyond our understanding are God’s plans, got me to thinking of a
rather remarkable – inconceivable is really not too strong a word -
thing that occurred last week. In the Vatican. And it’s about us!
Yes, about our parish.
A little background. This all has to do with the upcoming global
Church Synod that’s familiar territory to all of you who
participated in our parish synodal sessions back in the spring of
this year. Many of you gathered together in small groups – some in
person, some by Zoom – and with the help of some great facilitators
you listened carefully as fellow parishioners opened up to each
other, sharing their hopes for the Church and their love for the
Church, as well as their impatience, sadness, and frustration with
how the Church can at times get in the way of the gospel of love and
mercy that Jesus came to preach.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you who took the time to
participate in those sessions had a somewhat cynical – maybe even
jaundiced – view about what would come of the effort. Would anything
you had to say ever get beyond the confines of your small group? The
Church, after all, is immense: it lives in every time zone, on every
continent, and in every nation and culture. The Church numbers well
over one billion people world-wide, and even though only a fraction
of those billion-plus people actually took part in a Synodal
session, still the numbers who did have to be staggering. And then,
there was the hard work of summarizing in an intelligent, organized
fashion the heart of what people had to say. That would have
challenged even the most gifted of editors, statisticians and social
scientists. And yet it happened. It happened here, it happened
across this country, it happened in Latin and South America, in
Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. I’m sure it didn’t happen evenly
in all those places, and I doubt it was reported evenly, but happen
it did, and reported it was.
All of this by way of background for what happened a week ago Friday
in the Vatican. The Cardinals charged with leading the preparations
for the Synod which is going to take place next fall in Rome held a
major press conference in order to bring people up-to-date on the
progress that has been made so far, and to mark the conclusion of
the worldwide listening effort. Needless to say, this was kind of a
big deal and it had the attention not only of Church leaders in the
Vatican but of Church leaders – ordained and lay – all over the
world.
At one point during the press conference, Cardinal Jean-Claude
Hollerich, the Jesuit archbishop of Luxembourg, whom Pope Francis
has put in charge of the Synod, took to the microphone to give his
summary of what has been learned so far from the innumerable
consultations around the world. The Cardinal concluded his remarks
by zeroing in on one parish in all the Catholic world. He did so by
name, and the parish was, believe it or not, St. James Cathedral
parish in Seattle, Washington! Somehow (I wish I knew how!) the
Cardinal had come across the most recent issue of our parish
journal, In Your Midst, in which we reported extensively on our
parish synodal gatherings. He liked what he saw and proceeded to
quote at length from it. And not only that, he went on to say (and I
quote) “What this parish did is what we had hoped would happen.”
Well, to be honest, I am still in almost total disbelief about all of
this, but I’m not going to call into question the Vatican New
Service!
If I’ve piqued your curiosity and you didn’t get a chance to read our
parish report in In Your Midst,
you can find it on
our parish website and I would encourage you to do so. The
report pulled no punches. It was blunt, it was frank, and it was
honest — very honest. To think it has reached the Vatican is
incredible and incredibly encouraging.
I share this with you this morning at homily time fully aware that in
no sense can this pass for a homily. But this is a
once-in-a-lifetime thing and I thought it was important for you to
be aware of it and even though it’s not a homily, it is certainly
good news! It should make you proud and give you hope. We may be in
a far-off corner of the Catholic world, and secular Seattle may be
about as unchurched a city as you can find; but the efforts so many
of you put forth in response to the invitation of Pope Francis have
travelled far, indeed, and penetrated the highest echelons of the
governing structure of the Church. Whoever would have thought!
For me it’s a reminder - if I needed one - that the Holy Spirit is
alive, active, and present here at St. James Cathedral and in the
Church – a reminder, too, that God is full of surprises.
Let me conclude by quoting once again from that reading from the Book
of Wisdom: “Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the
Lord intends?” Who indeed!
Father Michael G. Ryan
|
|
