PARISHIONER ROLE IN THE SYNOD ON SYNODALITY
Click here to sign up for the Sunday, January 16 St. Michael Church Listening Session. More session to come in January and February, 2021.
Msgr. Tim’s Introduction to Cardinal Tobin’s Our Synodal Journey Video
Today’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord celebrates Jesus’ emerging from His years of hidden preparation in Nazareth to take up His Mission – to proclaim the Kingdom of God, which transforms this world to be what God intended from the beginning, a realm of justice, compassion and peace. At His Baptism by John, Jesus was hailed by a voice from Heaven – “This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well-pleased.”
Soon Jesus would call His first disciples to share in His Mission;
and all of us who have been baptized into the Mystery of Jesus’ passage through death to new life,
have been ‘incorporated’
– made members of His Body, the Church –
to continue His Mission through time
and in all the changing circumstances of life.
That is what it means to say that “We are the Church”.
But how are we to be the Church in our time and place?
That is a question that confronts believers in every age, and it faces us today, on every level of the Church’s life.
For several weeks now you may have noticed, in our Bulletin, on our website and in the weekly e-mail blast, items about a major undertaking that involves the entire world-wide Catholic community, at the call of Pope Francis. It is a process of prayer, reflection and listening leading up to the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops – an arm of Church governance since the Second Vatican Council, to make permanent something of that extraordinary period of Church renewal. ‘Synod’ is an ancient Greek word, meaning ‘on the road together’: it is used by the Church to describe a gathering of bishops to address some issue or question, to make sure, through prayer and dialogue, that all the local churches are “on the same path”. Since Vatican II, the Synod of Bishops has met every few years in Rome to advise the Pope and the central administration of the Church on a particular issue – the Family, e.g., or Catechetics – based on the experiences of believers in the local churches around the world. The 16th meeting of the Synod of Bishops is scheduled for October 2023, and its topic, set by Pope Francis, is “Toward a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission” – it is to reflect on ‘synodality’ itself – how, in the 21st century, the Catholic Church is being called to live as a worldwide family of faith, accompanying one another, and the whole human community, “on the road together”, in fulfillment of the Mission entrusted to us by Christ. Knowing that the Holy Spirit is breathed into the soul of every member of the Church at Baptism and is strengthened in 
Confirmation, Pope Francis has directed all the bishops of the world to conduct listening sessions to give as many Catholics as possible the chance to be heard – the active, the inactive, even the alienated – so that we can discern faithfully how the Holy Spirit is calling us to live out our Mission. To introduce this process as it is being conducted in the Archdiocese of Newark, let us listen to Cardinal Tobin inviting us all to take part in it in the coming weeks.
Here at St. Michael’s, I hope our participation in this process will be the opening phase of an initiative arising from our 150th Anniversary – an effort at re-vitalization and planning to help direct our parish in the years ahead. We will announce this week a schedule of listening sessions: the first is set for next Sunday afternoon at 1:00 PM, here in church – but others will take place on different days, with sessions during afternoons, evenings and weekends, to permit as broad a measure of input as possible. I ask for your prayers for the success of this process; and I welcome your help – we will need a good number of parishioners to serve as facilitators, and training will be provided. And I encourage you to participate in one of the listening sessions – let your voice and your experience as a member of the Church contribute to our awareness of the direction God is calling us to take in serving Him, growing in our faith and responding to the needs of all His People in our times.
Thank you.
Msgr. Tim