Fr. Robert Barron provides this wonderful insight into the debate the Bishops are having in the 2014 Synod. He reminds us that the “Catholic” teaching is one that emerges through a traditional process of consensus:
One of the great mysteries enshrined in the ecclesiology of the Catholic Church is that Christ speaks through the rather messy and unpredictable process of ecclesiastical argument. The Holy Spirit guides the process of course, but he doesn’t undermine or circumvent it. It is precisely in the long, laborious sifting of ideas across time and through disciplined conversation that the truth that God wants to communicate gradually emerges. If you want evidence of this, simply look at the accounts of the deliberations of the major councils of the Church, beginning with the so-called Council of Jerusalem in the first century right through to the Second Vatican Council of the twentieth century. In every such gathering, argument was front and center, and consensus evolved only after lengthy and often acrimonious debate among the interested parties.
He then goes on to describe this process and provides the following historical context.
The great teachings of the Councils became widely known and celebrated, but the process that produced them was, happily enough, consigned to the shadows. If I might quote the great Newman, who had a rather unsatisfying experience of official ecclesial life in Rome: “those who love the barque of Peter ought to stay out of the engine room!” This is a somewhat more refined version of “those who enjoy sausage ought never to watch how it is made.” The interim report on the Synod represents a very early stage of the sausage-making process and, unsurprisingly, it isn’t pretty.
Finally he also cautions us to adopt a dose of humility and prudence with regards to this process.
At that point, I would suggest, something resembling edible sausage will be available for our consumption; until then, we should all be patient and refrain from bloviating.
I want to add one further point provided by Fr. James Martin SJ. as he reflects over the debate surrounding the synod and how it resembles the debates and divisions that the Apostles experienced.
It's always been this way. Because the church is both instituted by Jesus, and is the Body of Christ on earth, and is also made up of imperfect human beings, it is open to grace but also subject to human frailties. Don't worry too much about division in the Synod. The Holy Spirit guides everything.
As the old saying goes, the very fact that the church still exists at all, despite all the confusion, arguing and division, is the best proof for the existence of the Spirit.
(Image: "Two Men Arguing," by Rembrandt, thought to depict Sts. Peter and Paul.)
