21 Jun FOR A CHURCH IN MISSION! /SPAIN
“Communion, participation, mission…” Inspiring words for the entire Church, and “resonating” in my heart in the key of greater commitment as Saint Raphaela would wish, on seeing “how many children God has.” Participating in the Synodal Team of the CEE (Episcopal Conference of Spain), as a member representing the Consecrated Life, has been an enriching opportunity, and as I have mentioned, of greater commitment. Therefore, the experience of the final Synodal Assembly of the 7 Spanish Dioceses, held on June 11 to collaborate in its preparation, to feel that we are called to “journey together,” is to enkindle the desire to be a simple instrument which makes it possible to experience that we are “brothers and sisters,” marching toward the “we”, as the future to which all Consecrated Life, as leaven, has to be more and more involved.
It was a celebration, more than 600 people from the different Dioceses, religious, laity, Bishops… all wanting the Spirit to be the One that leads us and guides us in order to be a Church that goes forth, occupied with and concerned, above all, for the most poor and vulnerable… who encounter us on the peripheries!
Many shared how this synodal process, which caught us by surprise — what are they asking us? is it true? will it accomplish “anything”? — set in motion believing in the Word with capital letters. We have been “found”, we have discovered by means of the encounters and meetings, that it is not a matter of voting on material, or verifying questions, … but “listening to the other”, “walking in the shoes of the other.” This was the challenge and discernment, a methodology in which we are not so expert. Perhaps it has also been an opportunity to be “apprentices” of the Spirit who leads us beyond and places us on new paths, making us bolder, realizing how “along the road to Emmaus our hearts were burning,” when we went forth and allowed ourselves to be challenged… that we don’t know everything, what a sane wisdom! For many of the groups the enrichment has been that they have searched and have “been found,” in the desire for God’s will for the Church here and now.
All of us involved and committed! I have been gifted, seeing and having the opportunity to “read” the participation, the synthesis prepared by the Dioceses and lay movements, religious life… and what was shared on that Saturday morning: perceiving that we desire with the help of the Spirit not to remain static, not assuming that the work is already finished, but believing that the topics shared require a greater complementarity of the three vocations, and co-responsibility in dialogue that strives to seek out the input of each person.
We have to be Communities that listen and accompany, and as the final document pointed out, People of God who collaborate actively not only in pastoral events but in bringing about processes of life, in an ongoing state of “mission.”
MªJosé Tuñón, aci
