Pope Leo offers an eloquent cry for unity and using a purified synodal way to do it, meaning, that the synodal way must lead us to God and His Truth. And His Truth is a Divine Person: Jesus Christ, crucified and risen!
Pope Leo in his homily for synodal groups at Holy Mass at St. Peter’s, the day after the Pontifical TLM was offered there by Pope Leo’s gracious permission, is a blueprint for going forward as a synodal Church, seeking God’s will, not our own and unity in diversity, as long as that diversity is based upon Truth and Love.
There are many divisions in the Church today and exacerbated in the last 12 years. On the left, there are those who see no sin in sexual immorality of all kinds, trying to changing the doctrines and dogmas of the Church to suit their own ideological concerns, more worldly than spiritual and who try to force their agenda onto the Church in the most authoritarian, worldly, political and cruel ways. Those that are marginalized by the left are those who maintain tradition in doctrines, dogmas, morals and liturgy. They do this marginalization by control and authoritarianism and turning the synod into a secular political free-for-all.
On the right, there are those who call out others based not on love but hate and a Pharisaical ethos, it too based on worldly ideologies of control and exclusion. They often show contempt and disrespect to people making ad hominem attacks on their positions and very sadly upon their persons. They reject what papal magisteriums and ecumenical councils have taught. This has always happened in the Church and that threat continues to this day and on steroids.
I think it is wonderful that Pope Leo allowed the TLM at St. Peter’s with Cardinal Burke as the celebrant the day before this Mass. Many there, I am sure, are good, loving and holy people, in union with God through the pope and Catholic magisterium. They love both forms of the Mass and desire the modern Mass celebrated with reverence and by following the rubrics. Others want to do it their way and even want to crush Vatican II rather than seeking a synodal way to interpret Vatican II properly as Pope Benedict XVI gave the roadmap to do so.
On Friday, Pope Leo answering a question during his meeting with synodal groups, stated and I loosely quote in paraphrase: I don’t want to disturb any of the leaders here, but the synodal process doesn’t inspire me, but people who love the Lord and seek Him. Ordinary people of faith and devotion who are loving, spiritual and wise inspire me, not processes!
Here’s Pope Leo’s homily for the 30th Sunday of Time and addressed to synodal teams present. I have offered my most astute but truly humble, God-oriented comments embedded in the pope’s text in red.
Brothers and sisters,
As we celebrate the Jubilee of the synodal teams and the bodies of participation, we are invited to contemplate and rediscover the mystery of the Church, which is not a simple religious institution nor is it identified with hierarchies and its structures. The Church, instead, as the Second Vatican Council reminded us, is the visible sign of the union between God and humanity, of his plan to gather us all into a single family of brothers and sisters and to make us his people: a people of beloved children, all bound together in the one embrace of his love.
Looking at the mystery of ecclesial communion, generated and preserved by the Holy Spirit, we can also understand the significance of the synodal teams and the bodies of participation; they express what happens in the Church, where relationships respond not to the logic of power but to that of love. The former—to recall a constant admonition from Pope Francis—are "worldly" logics, while in the Christian community, the primacy concerns the spiritual life, which enables us to discover that we are all children of God, brothers and sisters, called to serve one another. (This is important and explicitly stated by Pope Leo, whereas those in the Vatican seldom refer to God, spirituality or prayer in their explanations of synodality—theirs is more about other things, worldly things! But for Pope Leo, he names worldliness in synodality, which needs purification. The spiritual life is most important, Catholics with faith and good works, both necessary for salvation in Christ!)
The supreme rule in the Church is love: no one is called to command, all are called to serve; no one should impose their own ideas, we must all listen to one another; no one is excluded, we are all called to participate; no one possesses the entire truth, we must all humbly seek it, and seek it together. (This resonates with me. I have been a pastor in parishes with great lay participation and leadership, not only paid ministerial positions, but also volunteers led by laity in various ministries. One of the problems I have seen in all of this is the clericalization of the laity while the clergy undergo declericalization and not in a good way. The issue is control—trying to control those who are being led and also territorialism, an inability to work with others and threatened by others who have other ideas.)
The very word "together" expresses the call to communion in the Church. Pope Francis also reminded us of this in his latest Lenten Message: "Walking together, being synodal, this is the vocation of the Church. Christians are called to journey together, never as solitary travelers. The Holy Spirit pushes us to come out of ourselves to go toward God and our brothers and sisters, and never to withdraw into ourselves. Walking together means being weavers of unity, starting from the common dignity of children of God" (Francis, Message for Lent, February 6, 2025). (In a diocese, priests are meant to be coworkers with their bishops and not into “private practice” as it were. And those in parishes should not be in conflict with their pastors, not parochial vicars with their pastor. We should work together each understanding each others’ roles and ministries and obligation, especially under canon law. Often lay leaders, paid or otherwise, try to usurp the pastor’s role and become divisive or the pastor is threatened by lay leadership and incapable of enabling it and refining it when necessary.)
Walking together. Apparently, this is what the two characters in the parable we just heard in the Gospel do. The Pharisee and the tax collector both go up to the Temple to pray; we could say they "go up together," or at least they find themselves together in the sacred place; yet, they are separated and there is no communication between them. They both follow the same path, but theirs is not a walking together; both are in the Temple, but one takes the first place and the other remains last; both pray to the Father, but without being brothers and without sharing anything, (This is a great metaphor that Pope Leo uses and I have to remember it! It has so many applications in today’s Church as well!)
This depends primarily on the Pharisee's attitude. His prayer, seemingly addressed to God, is merely a mirror in which he looks at himself, justifies himself, and praises himself. He "had gone up to pray; but he did not pray to God, but rather to praise himself" (Augustine, Sermon 115,2), feeling better than the other, judging him with contempt and looking down on him. He is obsessed with his own ego and, in this way, ends up revolving around himself without a relationship with God or with others. (This is a great exegesis of this passage at it concerns narcissism, egoism and “doing it my way rather than God’s way!)
Brothers and sisters, this can also happen in the Christian community. It happens when the "I" prevails over the "we," generating personalisms that prevent authentic and fraternal relationships; when the claim to be better than others, as the Pharisee does with the tax collector, creates division and transforms the community into a judgmental and exclusive place; when one's role is leveraged to exercise power and occupy space. (This stings, my former bishop, now deceased, Bishop Raymond Lessard, use to call out people on the chancery staff at staff meetings when they (we) used “I” rather than “we”! Pope Leo has a great point here that needs to be rediscovered on all “pastoral staffs” be it diocesan or parish.)
It is to the publican, instead, that we must look. With his same humility, even in the Church we must all recognize our need for God and one another, practicing mutual love, mutual listening, and the joy of walking together, knowing that "Christ belongs to those who feel humbly, not to those who exalt themselves above the flock" (St. Clement of Rome, Letter to the Corinthians, c. 16).
The synodal teams and the bodies of participation are an image of this Church that lives in communion. And today I would like to exhort you: in listening to the Spirit, in dialogue, in fraternity, and in parrhesia, help us understand that, in the Church, before any difference, we are called to walk together in search of God, to clothe ourselves with the sentiments of Christ; help us to broaden the ecclesial space so that it becomes collegial and welcoming.
This will help us navigate with confidence and a renewed spirit the tensions that permeate the life of the Church—between unity and diversity, tradition and innovation, authority and participation—allowing the Spirit to transform them, so that they do not become ideological conflicts and harmful polarizations. (It has to be said that polarization and ideological conflicts have grown in the past 12 years and through insults hurled at each other, even from the late pope, rather than striving for understanding and charity in our discussions of tensions and groups in the Church!) It is not a matter of resolving them by reducing one to the other, but of allowing them to be fruitful in the Spirit, so that they are harmonized and oriented toward shared discernment. As synodal teams and members of the participatory bodies, you know that ecclesial discernment requires "inner freedom, humility, prayer, mutual trust, openness to new things, and abandonment to God's will. It is never the affirmation of a personal or group point of view, nor does it resolve itself into the simple sum of individual opinions" (Final Document, October 26, 2024, n. 82). Being a synodal Church means recognizing that truth is not possessed, but sought together, allowing ourselves to be guided by a restless heart in love with Love. (Truth, meaning God, is sought not possessed and certainly Truth, Jesus, must change us, we are not to change Truth or Jesus!)
Dearest ones, we must dream and build a humble Church. A Church that does not stand erect like the Pharisee, triumphant and self-confident, but humbles itself to wash the feet of humanity; a Church that does not judge as the Pharisee judges the tax collector, but becomes a hospitable place for each and every one; a Church that does not close in on itself, but remains attentive to God so as to be able to listen to everyone equally. Let us commit ourselves to building a Church that is entirely synodal, entirely ministerial, entirely drawn to Christ and therefore striving to serve the world. (Here I would have hoped that the pope would have called for repentance where repentance is required, which is not the case with the Pharisee as he sees no sin in his life, but the tax collector does repent! Syndoality should be about hearing what God teaches the Church and has shown us in Jesus Christ. Jesus does condemn the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and in no uncertain terms. But he goes to their homes, eats at their houses and enjoys their company all the while castigating them to their faces. But He’s God. We can only correct the sinner, not by self-referential diatribes, but by knowing and using the Scripture and Tradition of the Church given to us by the Holy Spirit. We have to receive God’s Truth, not change it for our narcissistic purposes!)
Upon you, upon all of us, upon the Church throughout the world, I invoke the intercession of the Virgin Mary with the words of the Servant of God Don Tonino Bello: "Holy Mary, woman of conviviality, nourish in our Churches the yearning for communion. […] Help them overcome internal divisions. Intervene when the demon of discord creeps within them. Extinguish the fires of factions. Reconcile their mutual disputes. Defuse their rivalries. Stop them when they decide to strike out on their own, neglecting convergence on common projects" (Mary, Woman of Our Days, Cinisello Balsamo 1993, 99).
May the Lord grant us this grace: to be rooted in God's love so as to live in communion with one another. And to be, as a Church, witnesses of unity and love.
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