The Synods as an Opportunity to Equip the Saints

September 29, 2021

Fr. John Riccardo

Someone once said that life in a parish can often be compared to a football game: 11 men desperately in need of a rest, watched by tens of thousands of people desperately in need of exercise. For those who have served in Church ministry, paid or volunteer, at the parish or diocesan level, ordained or lay, this rings remarkably true. 

A survey was done some years back asking parishioners and clergy the same question: “Why does the parish exist?” The results were most illuminating. Roughly 90% of the people in the pews said that the parish exists to meet their needs as parishioners. Roughly the same percentage of pastors said the parish exists to go on mission and lead others to God. 

Now, to be sure, a parish does exist, in part at least, to meet the needs of the people who belong to it. The parish exists to celebrate the sacraments; to educate youth and adults about the faith; to minister in countless ways to those who belong to her, both in corporal and spiritual works of mercy. But the parish doesn’t only exist for this purpose. It also exists to equip the people in the pews for their unique role in the world.

St. Paul, in his Letter to the Ephesians, describes the way this is supposed to work: “And [God] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (4:11-16, emphasis included).

There is much to unpack in this dense passage, as with virtually everything Paul wrote! But let’s confine ourselves for the moment with this one excerpt: “to equip the saints for the work of ministry.” It seems the Holy Spirit has held this passage up before many writers over the past few years as a text worthy of our deep reflection, a text intimately connected with the call for a “new evangelization” so frequently echoed by every Pope since Paul VI. Most of that writing and reflection has seemingly tried to offer a new way of thinking, a new mindset. Somewhat overstating it, but for the sake of making the point, the ordained (and those who serve with them in an intimate fashion in parish or diocesan ministry) have the role of “equipping the saints” (through the various means mentioned above). The “saints” are the people in the pews, who are privileged by God to have the call to carry out the mission of Jesus in the secular world. In other words, the work of mission doesn’t fall to, or only to, those who work in the Church. In fact, it falls primarily to those who have been baptized and confirmed and are sent out into the world to tell others of the shocking and extraordinary message that is the gospel. And what is that message? That God, in His great love and mercy for us, has become man and gone to battle on our behalf against the powers of Sin and Death…and has won!

All of this is a somewhat long way of getting to the fact that the Vatican’s call for every diocese to embark on a synodal journey over the next number of months, while creating some significant challenges to be sure (if for no reason than the Vatican is asking for something to be done in 6 months what usually takes several years), is an incredible opportunity for every person in any given parish to get back to basics and focus their attention in a sustained way on re-acquiring a deeper understanding of the mission of Jesus and, with that, a deeper understanding of the mission of every disciple that is supposed to be a continuation of His (“As the Father sent Me, so I send you” cf. John 20:21).

Imagine what might happen if every parish was to spend the season of Advent preaching on the kerygma, the heart of the gospel, in a compelling and attractive manner, so that more and more people might have the chance to be overwhelmed by the gospel and entrust their lives to Jesus in faith? This would seem to be a perfect time to do this, as Advent is a time of preparation leading up to the celebration of the Incarnation, that is, of God becoming man. And it is increasingly important in our increasingly secularized age to have a biblical understanding of why God became a man. This could be seen as an invitation for every parish to go on a kind of retreat together, and not just as one parish but every parish in the diocese at the same time. The goal would be to emerge at Christmas, or shortly thereafter, with newfound clarity and alignment on the mission of Jesus. 

This newfound clarity and alignment on the mission of Jesus would naturally flow into a time in the following weeks to call attention to how we are called to carry out that same mission in our own day and age, whether as disciples in general, as a parish family, as a Catholic school, and more.

We are living in increasingly divided, angry and vitriolic days. And we must get clear that there is no solution save God—His grace, His mercy, and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us changing our hearts, leading us to repentance and conversion, and sending us out on mission to tell others of the unshakable hope that is ours in Jesus. Therefore, there is an urgency to this! Let us pray for the bishops, and all those who are assisting them, that they will find inspired ways to use this call for a synod in ways that will bring true transformation to the Church and, in the process, hope to the world.

We invite you to read Apostolicam Actuositatem, the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity by Pope Paul VI.