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| Odon Czintos- Hungary |
Bishop
Mario Grech Administrator of Gozo and Pro-Secretary for Synod of Bishops wrote
the following to the clergy of his diocese, “one would be committing suicide,
if, after this pandemic, one were to return to the same pastoral models.” This
reflection arises from the recent challenges and limitations for pastoral work
during the COVID-19 pandemic. L’Osservatore Romano and Vatican
News report that this crisis “… has shaken foundations we thought were
immovable, as we have seen in the economic sector, in science, and in
politics.” This unprecedented situation also involves the Church. “Pope Francis
– observes Grech – continues his appeal regarding the need for pastoral
conversion.” Bishop Grech adds that we have become more aware of this need for
conversion during the pandemic, as we have been immersed in new “experiences
that prompt us to contemplate the face of Christ.”
Bishop
Grech warns against reducing the pastoral activity of the “church to the
sacristy, away from the streets, or simply being content to projecting the life
of the sacristy on to the streets.” He observes that during these last few
months of isolation, suffering, and pain we are presented with “an opportunity
(a kairos) for renewal and pastoral creativity,” that demonstrate to us
the reality that we cannot return “to the practices that limited us before the
pandemic.” A time that revealed in certain Christians, consecrated and lay, “a
strong pattern of clericalism.” Bishop Grech cites the words of the famous
French author Georges Bernanos regarding ‘rotten Christianity.’ “One asks, how
is this profession of faith meaningful – if then this same faith does not
become leaven to transform the dough of life?”
From this
perspective, Bishop Grech moves to the idea of the ‘domestic church’ that has been
revitalised and experienced in a new way during this lock down. He observes
that a certain clericalism since the fourth century has worn away at the
“nature and charism of the family in as much as it is the domestic church.” One
finds a restoration and development of the theology of the domestic church
during Vatican II, especially in Lumen Gentium paragraphs 10 and 11.
Bishop Grech remarks that “just as in the first centuries, the family today can
become again the source of Christian life.” Moreover, “in as much as the basic
structure of the Church is sacred and liturgical, one must also revive their
place in the family as the domus ecclesiae.” Drawing upon the insights of
Augustine, John Chrysostom, as well as Jewish culture, “the family should be a
place where faith is celebrated, reflected upon, and lived.
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| Women Praying- Vladimir Dimitrov- Bulgaria |
The parish
community must help the family to be a school of catechesis and a classroom of
liturgy where one might break bread at the table of the family home. Parents,
by virtue of the grace of the sacrament marriage, are ‘ministers of this
worship’ wherein the home, they break open the Word and pray with the Word, so
as to transform the faith of their children.” Bishop Grech hopes that the Lord
may multiple many examples of families’ “creative in love,” who are ready “to
create spaces for prayer in openness to the most poor and needy in our midst.”
Equally important after this pandemic will be the “ministry of service,” the diakonia as
a ‘new’ path for evangelisation. “One cannot celebrate the breaking of the
Eucharistic Bread and of the Word, if one does not share with the ‘poor who are
theologically the face of Christ.’” Service or diakonia “is the sure
way to experience Christian love. One communicates the Gospel not only by
preaching but also in service. The Church reaches people not only through
catechesis but also through the experience of diaconal service. As the Pope
says, if we move amongst the poor, we will discover God.”
Bishop Grech shares a
letter written to him by a humanitarian worker after the rescue of a group of
migrants at sea with the help of his diocese. “Unfortunately, I often witnessed
in the past incomprehension between the Church and people, as well as from
non-Christians of goodwill. Today things are changing and now they feel that
the Church is a friend who hears the cry of the poor and seeks to come to their
aid.”
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| Kathe Kollwitz- Germany |
In this ‘change
of times,’ according to Bishop Grech, “the contribution that the Church can
give, or rather must give, is the proclamation of Jesus Christ to the world and
the joy of the Gospel.” This contribution can be understood in light of Pope
Francis’ Christmas Greetings to the Roman Curia, 21 December 2019. Pope Francis
notes that in Europe and throughout much of
the West, the Christian faith lives in a new era. “We find ourselves living at
a time when change is no longer linear, but epochal. It entails decisions
that rapidly transform our ways of living, of relating to one another, of
communicating and thinking, of how different generations relate to one another.”
Bishop Grech takes up the thought of De Lubac as found in his book, The
Drama of Human Atheism. “It is not true, as it is sometimes said, that man
cannot organise the world without God. What is true is that, without God, he
can only organise it against man.” Likewise, this global pandemic reveals that
at times, “economic and financial interests have been given precedence over the
common good.” This dynamic must be corrected.
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Kathe Kollwitz- Germany |
In his
conversation with Vatican media, Bishop Grech
focuses on the “gift of synodality as a way of ecclesial life,” a gift given to
the Church by the Holy Spirit. “The synodal path – affirming the call of Pope
Francis – is the path that God expects of the Church in this third millennium.
As a dynamic of communion, synodality is above all, the affective integration
of all participants, in a spirit of dialogue, so that all might arrive at a
point of consensus… Although synodality belongs to the ecclesial vocabulary, it
has value for society in general. Adapted as a working principle for the
secular world, synodality could be a style of collaboration for inter-personal
relationships and human fraternity. Synodality is an antidote against isolation
that helps us to appreciate the beauty of the human community. Walking together
is not always an easy task, be it for the Church or for society, but all of us
need to exercise this practice so vital for the future.” Looking ahead to the
next synod and the theme of synodality, Bishop Grech hopes that there “will be
reflection on synodality before the celebration of the Synod itself so that the
Synod Fathers might offer a deeper contribution to this theme.”
Adapted and
translated from the article in L’Osservatore
Romano (by Alessandro Gisotti )
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