Bartimaus

As you may know, the Holy Father and the Cardinals have been gathering in dialogue, in what is formally known as a synod.  What is a synod?  It's not just a one time gathering and concludes, but it is something continuous and ongoing.  The synod is actually an institution, made up of Catholic leaders.  It began under the leadership of Pope Paul VI.  

How long does it last?  It lasts about three weeks.  This current synod is coming to a conclusion.  The catholic leaders have been meeting since the beginning of October.  

The focus of the synod is primarily to discuss some of the ongoing pastoral responsibilities and challenges for the church today.  The synod have been focusing on the theme of family. The Holy Father just canonized 4 new saints, and two of them happen to be the parents of St Therese of Liseux.  It is in line with the focus on the theme of family.  

Some questions may arise among the faithful such as: 

What are some of the major topics?  Are there changes being made in Catholic teachings or doctrines. 

Most of the attention is given on the topic of whether a Catholic who is divorced and civilly married without an annulment can receive holy communion.  Some Cardinals suggests that to prevent language that sounds that sounds exclusive, the right word is abstain.  Just as when a person feels that they are in a state of mortal sin, that it would be prudent to abstain from holy communion.   

Another topic had to do with the use of inclusive language in regards to people that are homosexual or gay.  

As we understand when it comes to matters of Doctrine or Dogma of the Church, the doctrines don't change.  It's unchangeable.   For instance, that the Church teaching on marriage is that it is indissoluble, and the bond cannot be broken until death do them part.  (King Henry Viii and split of the Church of England because over a marriage controversy).  

Also, Marriage is only between a man and woman.  It is for the good of the spouses, and the openness to procreation.  Doctrines cannot change.  For instance, the doctrine of transubstantiation is that the bread and wine is the body and blood of Christ.  The doctrine of the Virgin Mary or Immaculate Conception, these teachings do not change.  

The Holy Father embodies ideally what it means to be a disciple of Christ.  We look to him as a model, example and an inspiration.  Notice that whenever he visits or speaks with people, he treats them with the utmost respect, care and compassion.  Whether they are wealthy or poor, free or imprisoned, conservative or liberal, men or women, married or divorced, straight or gay, black or white or brown, they all experience the love of God, while in his presence.  Even atheists who don't believe in God still experience God's love while in his presence.  

It's similar to the story of Christ today reaching out to the blind beggar, Bartimaus of Jericho.  Bartimaus was someone of no distinction, but he too followed Christ after his eyes were opened. 

Also, the Pope is trying to change the way that annulments are done, or speed up the process, because annulments can take a long time to resolve and that there is no guarantee that the annulment will go through after formal investigation.  

Some people may perceive this as a change in doctrine, while some people may favor what the Pope is trying to do.  How do we resolve it?  What are some things as Catholics that we could do to educate ourselves so that when these similar questions arise, we could also share some wisdom and insights.  Is the Catholic Church changing its teachings or doctrines?  

I read an article recently, entitled Doctrinal Solutions by Peter Folan.  The author shared some wisdom and insights from the theologian Karl Rahner and I think they are absolutely wonderful insights and wisdom concerning current important pastoral responsibilities and challenges.  

First, the author focused on what exactly is doctrine and how it is individually perceived.  The key here is the perception of doctrine rather than the doctrine itself.  

For some people, doctrine is perceived to be very rigid, uncompromising propositions, handed down from on high.  One obeys doctrine, and does not look to doctrine for help during life's difficulties.  One adheres to doctrine.  It's like a rule or law.  

For others, doctrine may be unimportant, and doesn't really do anything for them.  It doesn't apply to their life in a any practical way.  It doesn't help the put food on the table.  It's kind of like learning the quadratic formula for math class, but I don't have any use for it.  

For Fr Karl Rahner, doctrine enables the church to speak to the real problems of real people.  (In our current times, it's people who have marriage problems, or those who have same sex attraction).  

Fr Rahner further says that doctrine, when put into words, proclaims the faith of the church in ordinary language, leading people more deeply into relationship with God.  Doctrine is to invite people into friendship with God.  It proclaims what the Church knows about God.  That's the ideal!  

Doctrine is suppose to be a helping hand, rather than a wagging finger.  It is to facilitate a relationship with God, rather than just to provide instructions for avoiding divine wrath.  ("Here's what we know about God and salvation," versus "If you don't do a,b,c, then you are going straight to hell.").  People can use doctrines in different ways, to share the faith or to condemn.  

Doctrines cannot be so abstract, that it is disconnected from all particularities of time and place, but not so technical that it is only relevant for one time and place.  Doctrines apply to my grandparents and also it applies to me and also the future generations.  

Doctrine is dynamic to accompany the church in every generation.  But it also must be reliable so that it could teach us something about the unchanging God, and to guide people to God.  Doctrine has to have substance.  

Fr. Rahner suggests that when we speak about God, or evangelize, share the faith, it's prudent not to begin too quickly with doctrine until later after the spiritual experience.  It's not to rid of doctrine as something evil, but to delay its usage until the appropriate time. 

He calls it the "pre-doctrinal" experience, an experience of God before we even learn about the doctrine teachings.  Pre-Doctrinal.  

Fr Rahner gives an example of a young man who falls in love.  He has an experience of love, but he doesn't fully understand it.  But the experience must be expressed in some way, either through words or gestures.  He writes a love letter, he sings a song outside her balcony, he proposes marriage, etc.  And so the young man begins to understand and to be able to verbalize and name the experience of being in love.  

Similarly, it's like the Apostles of Christ.  When they first met Jesus, they did not right away say: Jesus, I know that you are consubstantial to the Father.  They were not so as concerned as the Church in the fourth century about Jesus having two natures or two wills.

In the Gospel, the Lord asked the disciples: Who do you say that I am.  St Peter responded: You are the Christ, the Son of God.  But the Apostles, as we hear often misunderstood what sort of Christ he will be.  They thought he would be the Messiah or Christ that will bring freedom from Roman Colonization.  They asked if they could sit one at his right and the other at his left.  

Their experience of Christ did not begin necessarily with doctrine, but being with him for three years, listening to his preaching about the Kingdom, experiencing his love and care for all people, his healings, and his sacrifice and resurrection, and his appearances and his ascension.  All these things were pre-doctrinal experiences.  Basically, everyone needs to have the pre-doctrinal experience, to experience God's love.  When we share the faith and strive to live a holy life, and that takes a lot of time and patience.  

The Church only discover those doctrinal truths much later when there were confusion within some of the teachings.  That's why doctrines are necessary.  

Isn't it the same way for us when we experience the love of God.  It is often pre-doctrinal, because we come to know about God the Father, about Jesus his beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit.  

The second point has to do with the use of sacred scriptures.  The Vatican II document, on divine revelation suggested that there be rigorous exegesis on the words of Sacred Scriptures which means spending more time reflecting upon the texts, rather than simply taking everything literal, which is a fundamentalist outlook.  

For instance when Jesus says: if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.  Some similar examples help us to understand some of the things that are meant to be literal, and some are meant as a figure of speech or in figurative language.  So, more prayer is necessary, more research is necessary, more  reflection is necessary, more study is necessary.   It's important to take these things into consideration before we quickly jump into a simple conclusion.  

Accretion model - doctrine as great as it can be, with the wisdom and knowledge of spiritual leaders, in reality are human statements and can also be finite.  How can we fully grasp everything about the God who is in-finite.  How can we put an entire ocean into a small hole that we dug?  

Explication model - treating doctrine as a box rather than a window to help us in our relationship with God. 

Isolation Model - this is when we perceive doctrine in a narrow or tunnel vision and it is isolated from other doctrines, cultural contexts, liturgical life of the church, and pastoral issues.  

So it's not just the doctrines itself, but our individual perceptions of doctrines. Sometimes our choice of words can reveal our perception of doctrine.  It can open for greater discussions or limit them.  They are also known as conversations stoppers.  

For example, let's say someone says: "we must return to the precise or correct teachings of Jesus about marriage."  Conversation stopper!  There's no room for discussion on real pastoral challenges.  

Or "its important that people just love one another.  That's all that matters."  Conversation stopper!  There's no room for doctrine.  

Or "its best that we don't say anything that would be offensive.  We don't want to offend anyone."  This can prevent us from arriving at certain truths and making declarative statements.  

These kinds of dialogue may not be very productive and may not be very fruitful.  It just reveals that the person is conservative or progressive, narrow-minded or relativistic.  

It quickly halts the conversation before it even begins.  

Trying to balance doctrine with pastoral responsibilities is not easy, we have to admit.   That's why it's good to pray for Catholic leaders, that they will have the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

Prayer, deep Humility, and most especially patience is needed.  So that we can see the humanity and dignity of each person just as Christ saw in Batrimaus.  God bless you!