Friendship. Encounter. Synodality. Transformation. These were the key points for reflection offered by author and speaker Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP last Friday 15 March at a session held for seminarians of Corpus Christi College and staff of Catholic Theological College.
Appointed by Pope Francis as the retreat master of the most recent Synod of Bishops (Synod on Synodality), the former Master General of the worldwide Dominican Order focused his remarks on the way of synodality and the power of the Holy Spirit to transform and move people out of their comfort zones. ‘This is what the Holy Spirit does,’ he said. ‘And you could see this happening at the Synod—the largest listening exercise in the history of humanity—and I don’t think we’ve really begun to register yet what a profound challenge it is.’
Yves Congar, that great Dominican theologian, always said, ‘Remember that synodality is the ordinary form of Catholic government.’
Fr Timothy described three ways in which the Spirit was and continues to be the protagonist of the synod.
‘First of all, mainly in this first session [of the synod], through friendship and encounter. Secondly, through moving us out of our comfort zone—the Spirit is the great discombobulator!
‘And thirdly,’ he said, looking towards the next assembly (to take place in October 2024), ‘the Spirit is the one who leads us into all truth.’
The Holy Spirit as protagonist
Fr Timothy began by saying that despite the common perception, synods are not new to the Catholic Church. ‘Synods greatly vary, I might say, in form—insisted on in Trent, fading a bit perhaps in the 19th century, and then revived by Pope Paul VI in 1967. And so, there’s nothing really extraordinary about holding synods.
What was at issue was not a struggle for power ... What was at issue was trying to live a transformation in our understanding of power—power not as the imposition of one’s will, but the power of the Spirit animating us all.
‘Yves Congar, that great Dominican theologian, always said, “Remember that synodality is the ordinary form of Catholic government.”’
This latest synod is Fr Timothy’s fourth, and he says it’s the most ‘unique’ so far given its focus on synodality itself.
‘Pope Francis is insisting that we learn to come together as a community, attentive to the Holy Spirit, [to be] drawn beyond the divisions which are crucifying our Church in so many places—that polarisation of traditionalist and progressive, which is so alien to Catholicism. And this is of such importance now in a world which is increasingly divided, in which people are increasingly unable to communicate across ideological boundaries,’ he said.
‘And so, this is a time where we gather as a Church, not just in hope for our poor, battered Church, but also for humanity. Pope Francis has always insisted that the synod is above all at the service of the hope of humanity.’
Despite this, Fr Timothy said the temptation was too great—especially in parts of the media—to label the synod as a ‘power struggle’ between various groups in the Church, instead of what it was: an event of the Spirit.
Through these encounters, we were being touched by the Lord. The conversations that we had around the table, eleven to each table, changed who people were. The divine friendship is transformative.
‘I think we too … wobbled between different ways of understanding what was happening. But what was at issue was not a struggle for power. A struggle for power would just rearrange deck chairs on the ecclesiastical Titanic. What was at issue was trying to live a transformation in our understanding of power,’ he said—‘power not as the imposition of one’s will, but the power of the Spirit animating us all. Pope Francis insisted time and again that the Spirit is the protagonist of the synod.’
Divine friendship is transformative
‘Our religion is above all a religion of the human face,’ reflected Fr Timothy, ‘of a God who took a human face. So much of the formation in the seminary, he said, is about ‘learning to be and to see the face of God’.
‘And so much of our ministry is grounded in learning to be and to read the human face,’ he said, reflecting on the variety of voices present at the synod and the conversations he had with fellow participants.
‘I’ve been to three previous synods, but this was so different, because through these encounters, we were being touched by the Lord. The conversations that we had around the table, eleven to each table, changed who people were. The divine friendship is transformative.’
Will these conversations make any difference?
Fr Timothy believes that ‘gently, quietly, it moves us beyond that clericalism which Pope Francis so detests’—a clericalism that misunderstands the divine call and conceives it more as a privilege than a service, ‘and which is manifested as a refusal to be held accountable.’
Moving us out of our comfort zone
A second way in which, according to Fr Timothy, the Holy Spirit was ‘at work and transforming’ participants in the synod was by moving people out of their comfort zones.
‘We Westerners went with our “hot button agenda”—our topics—the things that we wanted people to address. And then we discovered people whose challenges were quite different—our brothers and sisters from Africa, who struggle to survive, for whom the threat is war, poverty and violence. And I think the big challenge—and we’re only slowly grasping it—is how not to see things just through Western eyes.’
The ‘extraordinarily profound challenge’ that lies ahead, Fr Timothy believes, is how to become ‘a Church of all the world—fratelli tutti—in which we are truly citizens of the kingdom. I don’t think we’ve begun to imagine what that will cost us.’
On the one hand, Pope Francis urges us to open ourselves to all the cultures of the world. On the other hand, the Pope also asks us to open ourselves to all the marginalised people in our own society ... But what happens if this produces a tension?
It is here, Fr Timothy said, that we encounter ‘a complex tension’.
‘On the one hand, Pope Francis urges us to open ourselves to all the cultures of the world. On the other hand, the Pope also asks us to open ourselves to all the marginalised people in our own society—the divorced and remarried, transgender, gay, whatever. But what happens if this produces a tension? What happens if some of the cultures to which we should open ourselves do not share or wish to share that welcome?
‘The Gospel is always countercultural,’ said Fr Timothy. ‘And, sure, it’ll be misunderstood. But wasn’t Jesus always misunderstood? Couldn’t you say Jesus died, in part, because he was misunderstood? This man, who feasted with prostitutes and tax collectors, healed on the Sabbath a drunken and a glutton ... was misunderstood.’
The complexity of issues raised by the synod—and by living the synodal way—is not to be turned away from, Fr Timothy offered, but rather something to be grappled with lovingly and with respect for ‘the other’, especially as the Church turns its attention to the next stage of the synod.
‘There are complex issues, and this will require reflection. The word reflect occurs 21 times in the final document. This means that we have to think together. Our society is not very given to thinking any longer ... It means nobody else’s views can be just dismissed as nonsensical.’
‘In the first session, we focused a lot on encounter in friendship. Now, increasingly, questions of truth arise,’ he said.
It is at this point of the synodal journey that Fr Timothy believes the work and experience of theologians must be relied upon.
‘[The Australian] Fr Ormond Rush gave an excellent lecture to the synod on the nature of tradition, which was much appreciated. And I think we must now increasingly integrate theologians into the synodal conversation,’ said Fr Timothy. ‘We need people who devote their lives to careful study and academics because they protect us from using the Word of God or the teaching of the Church for our own end.’
We need this pursuit of truth, especially in a society which is seduced by fake news, mad conspiracy theories, and which no longer believes in the power of argument.
Indeed Fr Timothy’s latest book, Questioning God (2023), was a collaboration with fellow Dominican and biblical scholar Fr Łukasz Popko OP. ‘He’s one of the top Hebrew scholars in the world, and it was wonderful because he kept bringing me back to what the Word of God actually says ... bringing me back to the Hebrew and to the Greek. And that’s necessary if we are to learn what St Paul calls “the obedience of faith”.’
In approaching the complexities of faith, Fr Timothy believes in the necessity for ‘a theology which is in dialogue with contemporary society,’ recalling Pope Francis’ words to the Grand Chancellor of the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Faculty of Theology: ‘Do not settle for a desktop theology. Your place for reflection is the frontier ... Good theologians, like good shepherds, have the odour of the people and of the street.’
‘We need this pursuit of truth,’ Fr Timothy says, especially ‘in a society which is seduced by fake news, mad conspiracy theories, and which no longer believes in the power of argument.’
The adventure of faith
Listening to and trusting the Spirit also lies at the heart of any vocation, Fr Timothy reflected, sharing that his own pathway to the priesthood was sparked by the witness of his uncle, a Redemptorist priest who was sent as a chaplain in the First World War. ‘He was an old man when I knew him,’ Fr Timothy said, ‘and although he was disfigured and maimed, he was filled with joy, which even as a child I knew came from God.’
I think one always has to entrust our happiness to God. He’s better at looking after it than I am!
‘When I came up to solemn profession, the big question for me was: Will I be happy? But I think one always has to entrust our happiness to God. He’s better at looking after it than I am!
‘I think part of the challenge for us is that when we embark on whatever our vocation is, we don’t know where it will take us, and that’s wonderful, because it’ll take us beyond all we can imagine. And when I look at young people, I want to imagine that we’re going to invite them on an adventure that is perilous and that may even lead to their death … We don’t know. But at least it’s not boring!
‘The most popular book of the 20th century is The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. And only a minority of people realise that for Tolkien, it is the story of the Eucharist. He said this explicitly to his son Michael. Now I think the big problem for all of us is that if we’re to preach the Gospel, we should be inviting the young to do something terribly dangerous and not know what it’ll mean or what it’ll cost.’
‘God said to Ezekiel, I will take your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I think a lot of our vocation is acquiring hearts of flesh, hearts that feel. And they will feel joy, and to some extent pain too—they’re inseparable—but above all, joy.
‘And as the Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin once said, “Joy is the infalliable sign of the presence of God.”’
