Reading Francis

Once there was a family, parents with four adult children, who ran a business. The parents loved all four of their children immensely, and the children all loved their parents. 

But the kids couldn’t stand each other. The two older siblings were always fighting about how the business should be run; they had completely opposite views and were constantly battling over who was right. The two younger kids only got engaged when one or the other of the older kids dragged them into their fight. The parents saw this, but they hoped that by loving each of their children lavishly, they’d eventually come to love each other. It didn’t work.

Finally, one of the younger kids left in a huff. He broke some things, took some things, and said some awful things about the family, the climax of which was that he blamed the parents for not taking control, as parents, of the unruly siblings. It was ugly and painful.

Then the other younger child left. She didn’t make a scene; she just gradually got interested in other things, found friends who weren’t so combative, and one day slipped away on an errand, never to return.

A little time passed, and the parents called a family meeting, such as it was, with two empty seats.

“We’re going to go find your two siblings and invite them back home,” said one parent. “While you two keep fighting over the business, you’ve lost the point of it. This family doesn’t exist to run this enterprise; this business exists as a way we can live together. And we need to restore that togetherness. So we’re going to try to find your siblings and find out what would bring them back.”

“Screw ‘em,” said the oldest child. “They left us. We don’t need them.”

“Go get them,” said the other child, partly to oppose her rival. “I bet they were on my side anyway. I’d love to have the reinforcements.”

That was the last straw for the parents. “YOU DON’T GET IT” the father bellowed. If you were truly acting as our children, as members of this family, you would be out beating the bushes to find your lost siblings, because they matter more than being in charge. “And that’s what we’re going to do,” said the mother. “We’re going to beat the bushes to find them, because they may understand what this family is about better than you do. Maybe they can teach the two of you something.”

As the parents set off, the two siblings looked at each other.

“I think they’ve lost their marbles,” said one. “I’m not sure they’re competent to run this place anymore. I may need to contest that in court.”

“Over my dead body,” said the other. “I’ve already filed the papers.”

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As Pope Francis prepares the Catholic Church for the synod that starts next week, called “The Synod on Synodality,” I’ve been thinking about the Parable of the Prodigal Son from Luke 15 as a metaphor for the way this process has played out, but it hasn’t felt quite right. On the one hand, there are a lot of elements within the Church that seem to be playing the role of the older brother in that parable, bitter and suspicious of the efforts to reclaim the younger. And there have been efforts, incomplete to be sure, to re-engage people who have run away from their Catholic identity with the vigor of the younger brother in that parable. But I offer the story above as a way to rope in some other characters that are definitely in the mix.

There is a lot of angst among traditionalists that listening to the faithful (and the formerly faithful) will lead to changes in doctrine that they oppose. More progressive factions seem more open to a listening strategy…provided they don’t have to listen to the traditionalists. Meanwhile, there are people who have rejected their Catholic identity for any of a long list of reasons, and others who have wandered away because they just don’t see the point. 

This synod, which is going to play out over two years (and was preceded by local efforts that started two years ago!), isn’t meant to be a referendum on the traditionalist or progressive platforms of doctrine. It’s meant to be a change of being, from focusing on the right interpretation of doctrine to a/ living out of familial connection. It’s meant to be about listening for the Holy Spirit in the experience of each other’s lives, wherever we sit in relation to the Catholic Church.

It is, in its way, radical that Pope Francis has called for an ecumenical prayer service in preparation for this first year’s session of the synod. And the format of the sessions, as I understand it, aims to help participants get beneath their own perspectives and ideas to find where God might be moving across a relatively (for Catholics) diverse group. Will it succeed? We’ll see eventually. But I am all for making the effort, even if the kids refuse to reconcile.