Signs of the times
Opinion
An essential tool in the toolbox of anyone engaged in being a missionary disciple of Christ, of being a member of the Body of Christ, is being able to read the signs of the times.
This is an art. It is ultimately, as Saint Mary MacKillop would remind us, the ability to see the hand of God in everything. Not just something, everything.
Some describe the ‘signs of the times’ as simply a litany of all that is wrong in the world and the Church. While there is plenty of things that are not as good as they might be and need improvement, the ‘signs of the times’ are much more hopeful and grace-filled than a simple denunciation of the woes of the world. The gift of faith calls us to base our lives not on fear, but rather hope.
‘We are not living an era of change but a change of era.’
Pope Francis on November 10 2015 in a meeting with representatives of the Fifth National Conference of the Italian Church in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence, said Catholics must realise:
- We are not living an era of change but a change of era.
- The situations that we are living in today therefore pose new challenges which, at times, are also difficult for us to understand. Our time requires us to live problems as challenges and not as obstacles: the Lord is active and at work in the world.
- Before the problems of the Church it is not useful to search for solutions in conservatism or fundamentalism, in the restoration of obsolete conduct and forms that no longer have the capacity of being significant culturally,” the pontiff said at one point during his remarks. “Christian doctrine is not a closed system incapable of generating questions, doubts, interrogatives — but is alive, knows being unsettled, enlivened. It has a face that is not rigid, it has a body that moves and grows, it has a soft flesh: it is called Jesus Christ.
That was nearly nine years ago, and these words deserve our constant reflection.
Cultural literacy
Cultural literacy is a term coined by American educator and literary critic E.D. Hirsch, referring to the ability to understand and participate fluently in a given culture. Cultural literacy is an analogy to literacy proper (the ability to read and write letters). A literate reader knows the object-language’s alphabet, grammar, and a sufficient set of vocabulary; a culturally literate person knows a given culture’s signs and symbols, including its language, particular dialectic, stories, entertainment, idioms, idiosyncrasies, and so on. The culturally literate person is able to talk to and understand others of that culture with fluency.
So too in the Church there is an ecclesiastical literacy that we need. To be able to read the signs of the times we need to make sure we have a deep cultural literacy of what it means to have living and life-giving faith in the 21st century.
What is happening and what is going on
There is a big difference between ‘what is happening’ and ‘what is going on’. I may see a man and a woman driving in a car; that is ‘what is happening’. But there are limitless possibilities as to ‘what is going on’. They may be a brother and sister, or a husband and wife, going to Church or going home for lunch or going shopping. They may be business associates going to visit a client. They may be courting or flirting.
There are also many ways of interpreting ‘what is going on’. A young businessman may be working hard and making a lot of money. A competitor may see him as a rival. A doctor may see him as a high risk for a heart attack. A poor relative may be very envious of his prosperity. A more spiritual person may pity his enslavement to the things of this world.
When the Lord Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well, little seems to happen but there is a lot going on. One of the most broken women in the whole of the Scriptures meets the most whole man in all of history and healing takes place.
The journey continues
Learning the art of all the above is not easy. Having some assistance from theology and history is always helpful.
Recently our diocese was blessed to have a visit from Professor Massimo Faggioli, thanks to the good efforts of the Catholic Education Office. In his presentations he assisted us in reading the signs of the times hopefully; developing our Catholic cultural literacy and to understand what is going on.
His visit was timely for we are in the preparation phase for the second session of the Synod on Synodality.
In introducing the Instrumentum laboris (IL) for the Second Session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, a preamble describes it as first and foremost, as its name suggests, a ‘working instrument’ for the members of the Assembly due to meet in Rome from October 2-27.
The text does not offer pre-prepared answers, nor does it intend to address all matters connected with synodality. Rather, it addresses the questions related to the document’s title: ‘How to be a synodal missionary Church’. It is an orientating text, essentially articulated and designed to encourage prayer, dialogue, discernment and the maturing of a consensus. It starts from the convergences, which matured during the journey, anticipating the delivery to the Pope of a final document of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.
In the coming months, the text can be used in various ecclesial settings to encourage the entire people of God to participate in prayer and the sharing of reflections, and to aid the task entrusted to the members of the Assembly.
The document asks an essential question that sets the tone for a diocesan agenda, a parish agenda, a personal discipleship agenda. Notice the title begins with the word ‘how’. To begin with ‘how’ means we understand the ‘why’.
My experience both as a member of the Synod and being a bishop tells me that understanding ‘why’ before ‘how’ is so important.
The IL certainly needs a lot of unpacking and is very much worth reading. I commend it to you.
Please pray for the upcoming Second Session.
God is Good. Good indeed.
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