Listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying. This has been a foundational reference for all the plenary discussions. But is listening alone sufficient in this task?

I was impressed by the argument of Dr Peter McGregor of the Catholic institute of Sydney in an article published on the Plenary Council in the Irish Theological Quarterly. In it, McGregor argues that we must do more than just listen to Spirit. We must also ‘look at what the Spirit is doing. Here’s an excerpt.

It is the burden of this article that while listening to the Holy Spirit is necessary it is not sufficient. Another way of saying this is that we need to broaden the meaning of the term ‘listening’ since, whatever the Holy Father means by ‘listening,’ the way in which it generally has been understood has been univocal.37

It is not enough just to ‘listen’ to what the Holy Spirit may be ‘saying’ through the sensus fidelium. The plenary council in Australia will hear many diverse and even contradictory opinions. How can we discern the voice of the Holy Spirit? Is it just a matter of listening to the opinions of a majority, or of the most articulate and persuasive, or of those with whom we agree? We need to do more than say that we need to listen in order to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying. We need some criteria for discernment.38

In order to discern what the Holy Spirit is saying we also need to expand our notion of listening, to ‘look’ at what the Holy Spirit is ‘doing’ in the local churches, especially as it is revealed in and through those who individually, but even more importantly, corporately, are ‘living’ in the Spirit.

As the prophet Isaiah tells us: ‘Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not see it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert’ (Isa 43:19). Where is the way that God is making, the rivers he is causing to flow? Rush has raised the importance of a renewed understanding of communion for developing synodality in the Church.

Furthermore, for synodal deliberations to be fruitful, it is highly desirable that those engaged in them will arrive at a position as close to consensus as possible. So, in order to indicate what we should be looking for, where the Holy Spirit is at work and who is responding to this work, this article will examine two fundamental realities that are witnessed to in the New Testament: being in koinonia and being homothumadon. One should not only look at how the Holy Spirit works in our hearts as individuals, one should also look at how the Holy Spirit brings about koinonia (communion) between us and makes us homothumadon (of one accord, one mind, one heart).

Jesus often talked about ‘fruit’ in the Gospels. The principle of knowing what is of God by its fruit has guided the Church for centuries. If there’s no fruit, or little fruit, we must question whether a particular strategy is working. On the other, abundant spiritual fruit is confirmation that the Spirit is working through an initiative.

If we listen to AND look at what the Spirit is doing, we will have a better assessment of the true and full state of affairs. Moreover, these are our modern success stories – they are the light of hope in what can be a very pessimistic landscape.

We all feel dissatisfied with aspects of how we operate in the Church, and clearly, we need to do some culling and fresh sowing. But we need to take care to sort the wheat from the chaff (to use another biblical metaphor) so that we don’t abandon or smother a genuine movement of the Spirit.

If something is bearing fruit, let us amplify and grow it. Let’s celebrate what is already working and support it.

There are so many wonderful lay initiatives and movements that are just getting on with the job in the background. Most are under-represented in the Plenary consultations largely because they are busy on mission doing the work. A number have reached out to me and I welcome their wisdom and insights – please keep coming forward to me and to local delegates to share your vision and success. We need to HEAR from you and we need to SEE the fruits of your work!

PS: I have been collating feedback and reflections from various colleagues in Marriage & Family ministry in a ‘virtual roundtable’. Take a browse, comment or make a submission here.

References

“Synodality and the Australian Plenary Council: Listening to and Looking at those who are Living in the Spirit.” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0021140020977652

Footnotes from article excerpt

37. For an exception to this general trend, see Denis Edwards, ‘The Spirit of God and the Plenary Council,’ Australasian Catholic Record 95 (2018): 387–98, at 391, 392.
38. With the notable exception of Denis Edwards, thus far, the kinds of discernment being promoted for the plenary council have been the kinds suitable for an individual discerning God’s will in his or her own life, or general references to reading the ‘signs of the times.’ See
‘Plenary Council 2020: Discernment,’ https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/listening-anddiscernment/. See also Edwards, ‘The Spirit of God and the Plenary Council,’ 397–98.