“Jesus is curious. He asks questions,” says Qwayne Guevara, Lead Facilitator of the Synod taking place in the Diocese of Parramatta in 2023 and 2024. Questions, says Qwayne, are a great way to set the scene for openness and listening and a new ‘bold humility’ to live our faith.
“Absolutely, we’re drawing from Jesus’ examples,” says Qwayne when asked about the relationship between synods and Jesus and what we can learn from both.
“In order for the Synod to be successful, it really relies on our sense of openness, and willingness to listen to the other,” she says. “And this can be a very difficult thing because much of the world in which we live tells us that we need to fight to be heard.
“This fight to be heard can often lead us to this feeling of less listening and more talking.
“Often in the Scripture, you’ll find that Jesus approaches people with an openness. He asks questions. This curiosity brings people out of themselves, and a vulnerability is revealed,” she explains.
“This vulnerability will allow people to receive God in a way they may have not received before.”
She points to the conversations Jesus had with others. “When we read about Jesus’ encounters – the woman at the well, the blind man, the Pharisees – He asked them questions that opened up the conversation so people could see Jesus and His message in a different way.”
So how can the Synod help the faith of those who participate?
The Synod offers a real concrete opportunity for us to encounter God through the other, Qwayne says. “We can be open to the Holy Spirit and have bold humility in the way that we live out our faith.”
True listening gives us insight, transforms us and heals us, she says. Often, we enter into conversations with our own perspectives, stories and ways of thinking. Listening well, says Qwayne, allows that other person’s story to really move us and we look at things in a renewed way. We see the face of Christ in the other. We are invited into reconciliation with one another, and this can be challenging but life-giving.
The synodal process also gives everyone a direct way of participating in the direction of the Church. “This is very much a way for people to feel like they are personally contributing to how we live out Church here in the Diocese of Parramatta,” she explains. “And that will impact the way people and their families will experience Church.”
What about those who may feel anxious about the synodal process?
“It’s entirely natural for people to be wary of the unfamiliar. I’d imagine many felt that way about Jesus when He bursts onto the scene,” says Qwayne. She admits that she also experiences times of uncertainty, because of course, when a process invites us to listen to the Holy Spirit as synods do, we are invited to consider new possibilities of engaging people in the life of faith.
“The outcomes and the Synod may not necessarily look the way that we would like them to,” she says. “But I think there needs to be a level of trust that we have in the Holy Spirit’s movement to bring us closer together.
“That’s going to require a lot of work internally, it’s going to ask us to surrender and reassess what we may perceive about one another. We need to do this so we might allow ourselves to be changed or affirmed about what we understand about God and His love.”
This surrender can be hard because it means a commitment to choosing God, and not ourselves in the process, says Qwayne. That is why we need each other to remind us that we are not alone.
Those moments of prayer, affirmation and encouragement, says Qwayne, give us hope in the One who loves us and desires that we become one, for it is in our unity that we truly witness to God’s love for us.
There are just 2 weeks left to have a spiritual conversation with your friends, family or local community, to listen to where the Holy Spirit is guiding our local Church. Submit your stories, hopes and needs to the Synod before July 31 by visiting parracatholic.org/synod2023.
Bishop Vincent warmly invites applications for membership to the Diocesan Synod, which will be held on 12 to 15 October, 2023. As the Synod is a gathering of the Church, Synod Members are to be baptised Catholics and must be at least 18 years of age. The Synod has an agenda and process that makes it different from the broad consultation processes. Details of the selection criteria and requirements are available on the Synod website: parracatholic.org/synod2023_membership/. Applications close on 31 July.
This article was originally published in the 2023 Ordinary Time | Winter edition of the Catholic Outlook Magazine. You can read the digital version here.
