Mary Thorne shares how the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic can provide opportunity to relieve suffering in society and in the Church.

We are certainly living through complex, interrelated crises. It is entirely possible that I am going a bit mad.

As I write, I have not put petrol in my car since the end of July! No big deal, you will rightly think, and, certainly, a welcome reduction in carbon emissions and a reprieve for the planet. But this is a big change — usually my station wagon is zipping around, stuffed to the gunnels with this and that, going hither and yon! Life has been locked down and I’m understanding again that in stillness and silence, our awareness is heightened.

Unlike many, my household is quiet and something about experiencing significant periods of stillness and silence thins and makes permeable the insulating barrier that keeps us focused on our own busy orbits. We discover that our minds seem more acutely perceptive and our hearts sensitised to the beauty, joy and the pain around us.

Sharing the Weight of Suffering

With all of Aotearoa, I entered wholeheartedly into the worry for the family — father and three daughters — lost in ocean or bush and the grief at the tragic death of three young daughters in Timaru. And I rejoiced when the lost father and girls returned.

Within my own circles I have journeyed with my 90-year-old friend who battled depression when the social framework of her days and weeks vanished and time seemed heavy and endless. Fully vaccinated and masked, I deliver groceries and try hard to maintain the correct tension between distance for her physical safety and closeness for her mental health. We smile together that the 5pm television programme “The Chase” has become the anchor point at which we can, separately, pour a glass of wine and feel we’ve made it through one more day.

Another friend travelled to be with her very elderly mother who is in that hard place between life and death. Other family members cannot travel so she is alone in this companioning. “A better day, today,” she emails. “I fed Mum some gourmet pumpkin soup. She said it tasted good.”

A familiar quiz show and a spoonful of tasty pumpkin soup — both seem inconsequential things but each is a small triumph in the midst of suffering.

Humankind is grappling with suffering all over the world right now. Even the slow escalation of the disastrous environmental crisis has not evoked the widespread tsunami of difficult emotions that we see in response to this pandemic. Deeply felt loss, grief, fear, anxiety, exhaustion and disheartenment are evident everywhere.

Change Our Expectations

I’ve been re-reading Denis Edwards’ book, Deep Incarnation: God’s Redemptive Suffering with Creatures. He writes of experiencing the natural world as a loving embrace of God but emphasises that what is beautiful has emerged only through evolutionary processes that involve huge upheaval and eruption of Earth — predation, competition for resources, pain and death for Earth’s creatures. This is integral to the mystery of the universe and life.

We are mistaken when we expect stability and serenity to be the norm from which we are temporarily tossed. In fact, Edwards tells us, the glory of Earth’s profusion and vitality is balanced with the tragedy of its disharmony and decay. But even in horrific events God is present in faithful love as the promise of life.

We know this. Our faith tradition teaches us that talent and flaw, gift and wound, life and death are inextricably woven together and, somehow, all are good, all are necessary. Our own humility, compassion and commitment to recovery and transformation grow out of our failures more than our triumphs. Individuals, communities, societies and humankind as a whole are challenged to reflect on our fallibility, our blindness and deafness, our self-defensive destructiveness and adjust our behaviours regularly. We must be active, creative participants in creation’s ongoing evolution.

Suffering in the Church

So, what can we do, during Lockdown’s abundance of time, to keep our thinking and wellness in good balance? There are myriad answers from crochet to garden remodelling. I’ve taken the opportunity to explore online the “Root & Branch Synod” held in Bristol, England.

The Root & Branch Synod was initiated in response to an article by journalist Joanna Moorhead published in The Tablet (UK) last year. Responding to Pope Francis’s call for a synodal Church, Moorhead wrote: “We need a synod that, instead of ending with women, starts with them. And focuses on them. A synod that ends, not just with the right sort of words, but with a commitment to make change, inside the Church, centre stage. It’s not complicated. It’s not even controversial. And it’s definitely time.”

A small group of lay volunteers responded to this challenge because they were concerned for the deep, grievous flaws that have brought our Church to the present point of crisis. Canon 212.3 of Canon Law gives the laity the right — in fact, the duty — to make known their thoughts and concerns about the Church but there is no real listening mechanism by which this communication can take place. Consequently, the group spent over a year listening to a wide range of people to gauge the issues that they wanted to discuss. All topics were on the table. The process resulted in four areas for discussion which they described as redefining and reclaiming ministry, embracing of diversity, a rethink of moral theology and the sharing of authority.

Participation in the synod was either by physical attendance or via Zoom and around 1,000 people from around the world shared in the event. Declan Lang, Bishop of Clifton, the diocese in which the synod was held, welcomed the assembly. Highly respected speakers addressed the four topics and panels responded with further exploration and conversation.

The synod was stimulating and significant. The presentations are available on YouTube. In her keynote address Mary McAleese urges us to reclaim a principle of the early Church — “What affects all will be discussed by all.” Presentations by Thomas O’Loughlin, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, James Carroll and many others are all well worth watching.

Lay-led Synod in Aotearoa

In Aotearoa, the opportunities for stillness and silence can enable us to dream big and allow our thoughts to be a bit wild. The “Be the Change, Catholic Church, Aotearoa” group is exploring the possibility of holding our own lay-led synod, following the Root & Branch model. We are clear that our motivation is our conviction that a reformed, healed Catholic Church can be the transformative presence that our desperate world needs. We ask to be able to be fully part of that healing.

A photograph from a Synod presentation by Sister Myra Poole shows a group of women religious, one of whom holds a placard saying: “We’re trying to change the world. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

If we stay alert, there are numerous initiatives everywhere every day to change our world for the better. Some really inconvenience us. Change prods our inertia and challenges our sense of control. Bring it on!

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 265 November 2021: 4-5