From the Bishops Media missed synod’s testimonies of joy

Oct 30, 2014

In the days since the Synod on the Family ended, I have hadsome people tell me they are confused or worried about the results of thegathering. Many of them have listened to the secular media reports that openlyadvocate for the Church to change her teaching on marriage and human sexuality,but they did not read the actual documents.

Outside of the media spotlight, the synod heard beautifultestimonies from couples and bishops around the world who had experienced thetruth of the Church’s teaching on marriage. But since those stories didn’t fitthe media narrative, they didn’t make it into the newspapers or nightlynewscasts.

The joy of the Gospel of Marriage is alive! This wasespecially clear in Pope Francis’ remarks at the conclusion of the synod.During the synod, he said, the testimonies provided moments of “consolation andgrace and comfort.” The couples who spoke shared “the beauty and the joy oftheir married life,” and they bore witness to a journey “where the strongerfeel compelled to help the less strong, where the more experienced are led toserve others, even through confrontations.”

The media never reported on the strong witness given tomarriage and the stories of the joy that comes from living out of the Church’steaching.

Still, the tone and content of some of the discussionsworried some people.

The great Catholic writer and thinker G.K. Chesterton oncewrote in his book “The Everlasting Man:” “Christendom has had a series ofrevolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity hasdied many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of thegrave.”

Jesus knew the way out of the grave, and he assured St.Peter the “gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against” the Church (Mt16:18). We live in particularly challenging times where secularism is rampant,but that makes it the perfect time to trust in the guidance of the Holy Spiritand Christ’s promise to St. Peter. It is the perfect time to speak the truth ofthe Gospel with joy and to urge people to encounter Jesus Christ.

Pope Francis noted this, too, in his opening address to thesynod. “I ask you to speak with frankness and listen with humility,” he toldthe synod fathers. “Do so with tranquility and peace, for the synod alwaystakes cum Petro et sub Petro—with Peter and under Peter—and the presence of thePope is the guarantee for all and the safeguard of the faith.”

And at the closing he declared, “And I have felt that whatwas set before our eyes was the good of the Church, of families, and the ‘supremelaw’ the ‘good of souls.’ And this always (was the goal)—we have said it here,in the hall—without ever putting into question the fundamental truths of theSacrament of Marriage: the indissolubility, the unity, the faithfulness, thefruitfulness, the openness to life.”

Pope Francis also addressed the way the discussions unfoldedin his closing remarks. The synod, he said, was marked by moments of “profoundconsolation” and moments of “desolation, of tensions and temptation.”

For “traditionalists” and intellectuals, the Holy Fathersaid the temptation was to become consumed with the letter of the law, while“progressives and liberals” risked buying into a “deceptive mercy” that bindswounds without “first curing and treating them.” He also noted the synodfathers face the temptation to “neglect the ‘depositum fidei’(deposit offaith), not thinking of themselves as guardians but as owners or masters (ofit).”

These are real problems that have to be addressed, but itseems to me that an even greater temptation exists for the faithful: doubtingthe Holy Spirit and Christ’s promise to St. Peter. Pope Francis did not missthis either, citing the tendency of commentators and others to doubt the HolySpirit, “the true promoter and guarantor of the unity and harmony of theChurch.”

“The Holy Spirit,” he reminded the synod fathers, “hasalways guided the barque, through her Ministers, even when the sea was roughand choppy, and the ministers unfaithful and sinners.”

The discussions of the synod over Communion for the divorcedand remarried were certainly vigorous and took the spotlight off of the joy ofthe Gospel of Marriage and the struggles of families. On his flight back fromthe Holy Land last May, Pope Francis told journalists that the point of thesynod was much broader than the lightning rod issue of Communion for thedivorced and remarried, it will be about “both the rich reality of the familyand the problems faced by families,” he said.

During the coming year, I ask you to pray that the joys offamily life in light of the teaching of the Church are made known to the world,and the struggles of modern families are healed with authentic mercy, a mercythat conveys the truth with love.

Instead of being troubled by the intense debate, I urge youto remember St. Paul’s message to the Corinthians, who were experiencingdivisions within their own community and struggling with understanding howtheir various gifts fit into the life of the Church.

St. Paul spoke to the Corinthians about a “more excellentway,” the way of love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes allthings, endures all things” (1 Cor 13:7-8). Our love for Christ and his Churchis what should carry us through trying times. We must love and trust Christeven in the challenges of our times.

Posted with permission from Denver Catholic Register, official publication of the Archdiocese of Denver.