The long-awaited, or dreaded, depending on one’s perspective, Synod on Synodality begins today, and we pray that whatever God wills from this, whether antecedently or permissively, may come to pass. We may have some gratitude, for the Synod is ‘apocalyptic’ in the sense that it will reveal what is really within the minds and souls of those governing the Church, the good, the bad and the ugly. What has been ‘secret in the hearts of men will be revealed’ (1 Cor 14:25). And as Saint Augustine warned, there is, and always has been, an anti-Church within the Church, from Judas to our own day, the tares with the wheat. Best to get things out in the open – the heresies and secret schisms – which is what God seems to be doing through this pontificate, whether Francis is a witting or unwitting instrument. What is true cannot be made untrue, by any earthly power, ecclesial or secular, and the divine patience, to speak anthropomorphically, is running thin who are trying to make it so.
There is a winnowing at hand, and each of us must make a choice deep within our own hearts, to stand with the Truth, or betray Him. We pray that all, in the Synod or without, make the good confession.