Carla Mae's Blog

We’ve reflected on the image of ‘Enlarge the space of your tent,’ faced the hesitations voiced by respondents, and identified the ‘pillar’ of the effort in the common dignity of the baptized, as we have considered the insights of this theological working document for the continental   stage of the synod process. This set the context for…you guessed it…touching base with the sacred scriptures. What do we learn?  The document goes straight back to the tent image, and offers the sense of exile as a start. There is the call for discernment. The many local reports envision a Church as an expansive, but not homogeneous dwelling, capable of sheltering all, but open, letting in and out, and moving toward embracing the Divine and all of humanity.  Enlarging the tent means welcoming others into it, and making room for diversity. This means ‘dying’ in a way out of love to my selfish preferences, and finding myself again in Christ, in his openness and love. This is going to be ask...

 We are into the short ‘Ordinary’ Time. The readings are a call to faith in the Word, come to make us whole. Faith is like wearing 3-D glasses. It allows us to see beyond where our reason can go. The Incarnational Mystery has been presented to us. The Word…in whom all things came to be…has married us. We have a bridegroom we cannot see…except in the faces of our brothers and sisters and in our own face in the mirror. Our senses aren’t any help. We have to rely on our 3-D faith-lenses. The Christmas season presented Mary to us as the model of ‘pondering.’ She pondered what was happening to her. She is an expert in using her 3-D faith-glasses. She believes. She signed a blank check. She never gave in to her doubts…and make no mistake, she was tempted as are we. But she hung on by her fingernails in tough times. She was like a magnet on a refrigerator door. Try to pull it off. Feel the resistance. It knows where it wants to be. So do we. But the storms get pretty wild sometimes. ...

 Last month we began our reflection on a document called, The Working Document for the Continental Stage of the Synodal Process: “Enlarge the space of your tent.” This expression comes from Isaiah 54:2. We let this tent image speak to us: the tent itself, its ropes and its pegs, as referring to the Church.  This month we will consider what the General Secretariate of the Synod considers the very pillar or foundation of a truly Synodal Church: a deep re-appropriation of the common dignity of all the baptized. This new awareness and ownership is the theological foundation of a unity that is capable of resisting homogenization, Why? Because we might tempted to think, “OK, so now we are going to do away with hierarchy, priests, and bishops, and everybody is going to do everything.” On the contrary. Not homogenization, but a unity that enables us to promote and make good use of the variety of charisms that the Spirit pours out on the faithful. It is the recognition of differing...