"The Catholic Church should function like a choir where every member contributes his or her unique part to create a harmonious whole."These and similar words have been repeated often by Pope Francis. "The Church and other Churches and ecclesial communities are called to let themselves be guided by the Holy Spirit and to remain open, docile and obedient. It is he who brings harmony to the Church. Saint Basil the Great’s lovely expression comes to mind: “Ipse harmonia est”, The Holy Spirit himself is harmony." (Pope's Homily Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Istanbul Sat. 29 Nov. 2014). Synodalitas is living this kind of life.
The official logo of the 16th World Synod of Bishops, which the whole Catholic world is experiencing with different degrees of interest, shows the faith community walking under the large Tree of Life. All different and yet walk ‘together’ in the same direction. The past has not always been that way the future needs to be different all walking under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is what living synodalitas means.
In Asia, the Philosophies that have influenced the culture have been strongly for harmony—personal, family, social, and world harmony. Catholicism would have the same emphasis and orientation. The relationship with God would be harmony within oneself, with others and creation.
In Asia, the head/mind relationship is not what is experienced in the West. Nor is it the relationship we find in the Scriptures. Put simply, they are not separated. In Mark 12:30, Jesus tells us to love the Lord with “all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” In this commandment, Jesus puts loving God with the heart, soul, and strength on an equal level as loving God with the mind! They are all interconnected we are one. When one is overlooked the other relationship will suffer.
St. Paul said a prayer for the Ephesians: "that you may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God" (Ephesians 3:18-19).
Today we hear a lot about 'Wholistic Thinking' in all fields of endeavor and this is true of Catholic Spirituality. The fact that we express the word itself with two different spellings is the head/heart dichotomy which appears often in our enlightened and scientific culture. They both have the same meaning with different semantic origins.
If you look at the official logo released by the 16th World Synod of Bishops, you can see people walking in various ways under the large Tree of Life all in the same direction. Young and old, men and women, laypeople and religious, healthy people and the disabled, walking together without any order of importance.
Our focus on ‘walking together’ has two meanings. On the one hand, this may be a reflection that we have not been able to walk together as God's people, and on the other hand, it may be a resolution that we need to walk together and go in the same direction under the guidance of the Holy Spirit under the great tree of life. This is what living synodalitas looks like.
Catholic Catechism #2834 "Pray and Work." Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you.
