When we think of synodality it is a spirituality of pilgrimage. When you come from Europe to Australia or from Australia to Europe it is a long journey. You have beautiful moments, but, it can be tiring and it is long. A pilgrimage is like this. We receive joy but other moments are difficult. This is the life with Christ. When we want to become missionary pilgrims together who are the road. This is what synodality is about. Synodality reveals the diversity of God. The main impulse is the Holy Spirit and the cross of Christ. All these people are journeying together. Becoming a synodal church is becoming a church on the move. Synodality is a dynamic vision of the church in history. The church is on pilgrimage on this earth. The church is journeying towards “the Kingdom of God”. As the baptised, all together we are the realisation of the church in history. This is a dynamic vision of the church. Not just a theoretical abstract vision of the church as it should be, but the church, “in” history and “in” a specific “context”.
The church here is not exactly the same in other places. Synodality is a dynamic vision founded by Trinitarian communion. We are called to reflect the life of the Trinity in the concrete moment and in this concrete context. We can we that synodality is the form that the Holy Spirit gives the people of God in the world in each situation. “Synodality mirrors the pilgrim character of the church. The image of the people of God gathered among the nations expresses its social, historical and missionary character which corresponds to the mission and vocation of each human person on the road”. Pope Francis says, “Synodality is the way of being the church today. This way is according to the will of God through a dynamic discerning and listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit. It is not enough to just have a synod, but we have to become a synod”. To live a spirituality of Synodality is about our own personal conversion and a covenantal conversion as a church so that we become a synod.
The first call of Synodality is the family because that is where we learn to be a listening church. We are called to be life and love so that we reflect the Trinity.
Also, we are called to live a new Pentecost so that we become a more missionary church. That we go out and serve the people. We have the key elements of Synodality. We have the elements of listening to the Holy Spirit together. We need both prayer and silence in our lives to open more to the presence of the Holy Spirit in a busy world.
