VATICAN SYNOD: Attitude of Spiritual Conversation: Reflection to Synod Delegates

Fr. Andrew Kaufa smm

Fr Timothy P.J. Radcliffe, OP also looked at the conversation between the disciples on the way to Emmaus as typical of the synod, arguing that such an exchange of ideas is one of the attitudes necessary for the synodal assembly.

Fr. Radcliffe emphasized that, like in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden where they hear God asking them where they are, such a conversation can only start when the Church hears God’s invitation “to step out into the light and stand visibly before the face of God.”

In the same way, Jesus asked the disciples on the way to Emmaus what they were talking about.

“When the disciples flee to Emmaus, they are filled with anger and disappointment. The women claim to have seen the Lord, but they were only women. As today sometimes, women did not seem to count! The disciples are running away from the community of the Church, like so many people today. Jesus does not block their way or condemn them. He asks ‘What are you talking about?’”, said the Dominican preacher to emphasize that for such as conversation to be realized during the synod, the point of departure must be what has already been discussed: to listen.

“Many people hope that in this Synod their voice will be heard. They feel ignored and voiceless. They are right. But we will only have a voice if we first listen,” he argued.

Fr Radcliffe also warns the participants that true conversation is also risky but necessary for the Church.

“As the disciples walk to Emmaus, they listen to this stranger who calls them fools and contradicts them. He is angry too! But they begin to delight in his words. Their hearts burn within them. During the Synod can we learn the ecstatic pleasure of disagreement leading to insight?”

Yet, it is after such an experience, says the preacher to the assembly, that after Jesus has vanished, only then did the disciples asked themselves, “Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked to us on the road’ (Luke 24:32).”