Synodality is now a runaway train: speeding down the mountainside, there is nothing that can stop it. It is a Class 5 hurricane moving across the Atlantic straight towards Florida. It cannot be stopped. Before it disappears out to sea, it will do a lot of damage. Clear out and head for the high ground! If that is not an option, plywood your windows, get plenty of water and food, a deck of playing cards and a bunch of magazines, and hurdle in your basement. Ride it out. For all the noise and destruction, it will pass. And then time to rebuild. In a few years no one will know what the word means. And there will be similar hurricanes with different titles.
Today's Gospel of the merciless servant provides the best strategy: forgive those who have harmed you. Love and pray for your enemy. Who is my enemy? I have always had problems with this: I pretty much like everyone, even Anglicans, and I think everyone likes me. (My wife tells me I think people like me more than they do.) So who are my enemies? Well those who confuse and undermine our faith, from within the Church.
Here's my top 10 list: Pope Francis, Cardinals Paglia, Cupich, Tobin, Gregory, McElroy, Fr. Jim Martin, the editors of America and National Catholic Reporter, most of the administrators and theologians at Georgetown, Fordham and Boston College. It is a substantial list!
It is absolutely urgent that I myself, sincerely and passionately, pray for these. For many reasons.
First, only the Holy Spirit can really protect, fortify and guide the Church into all truth.
Secondly, this group is in serious error and can only be enlightened by the Holy Spirit.
Thirdly, but most importantly, for my own soul: I need to forgive, love and pray for them. For myself! In my very certitude and care for the Church, I am vulnerable to anxiety, anger, moralism, indignation, arrogance, pride and resentment. Lucifer is dying to get me obsessed in this way. He understands me and my kind of conservative and he knows just how to pull us into his swamp.
When I pray for these specific enemies, by name, I am restored to serenity, hope, confidence, compassion, and joy. I am not afraid of them or their mischief. I get to even like them. I am sure that, over a good manhattan and fresh fish at a comfortable pub, I would delight in them. And I think, even if my wife is skeptical, that they would like me!
Now I have a new litany to pray each morning: litany of my enemies.
It is always fun...even in these strange times...to be a Catholic!
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