French mystic and thinker Simone Weil’s thought can assist us in drawing inspiration for the synodal way of life that Pope Francis has called us to embrace as Catholics. Weil’s teachings show up as a challenge to draw a balance between a culture that valorises the ‘I’ on one hand and a misdirected longing of a human person to lose oneself in the ‘we’. Nationalism, regionalism that are reigning around perhaps exhibit this idolized ‘We’ and the consumerist ‘I’ manifest individualist ‘I’.
Weil say that some of us have a drive to run into self-immolating in the life of the collective. This drive then demands loyalty. This may define those that are deemed loyal and disloyal. We can find this in the discourses of nationalism and antinationalism. She indicates that the individual longs for recognition from society and therefore, craves for society.
But she does not shun society. She thinks that taking off one’s bearing for society is a road to hell. But between the extremes of individualism and crass collectivism, she points to a middle way. This middle way can be viewed as similar to the synodal way. We are not sovereign masters of ourselves, neither we can simply impose one way that we identify as the high way of being a Church on everyone. We have a challenge to walk with everyone. Walking with everyone requires us abandon egoism of individualism as well as monadic communitarianism. Both these extremes met somewhere in our egoism.
Walking with everyone is the most generous act that we can offer each other. Walking with everyone is love. It takes us to those who are excluded and left behind as we move ahead with our life. It takes us to the ‘unchosen people’ of God . It draws us to reach out to the lost sheep. To lets us go to those that are at the margins of the life of the Church. This way of being a Catholic manifests the ecclesial impulse expressed by the three key words of the synod: communion , mission and participation.
The way communion, mission and participation is a difficult road. We are always in need of conversion. Our discipleship is always broken and is in need of grace of resurrection. Synodality reminds us that we are pilgrims and are always on the way towards each other and God as walk with the risen Lord in the Church healing us as well as transforming our broken world. This is why we are always to be missionary, open to charisma and be merciful.
Synodality opens us to remain ever welcoming to the charisms of the Holy Spirit given to the least of our people in the Church as well as outside the visible boundaries of our Church. It truly manifests the catholicity of the Church which lets us be both plural and universal Church. We indeed have a synodal calling to move away from a self-absorbed ‘I’ and an idolized version of the ‘ we’ .
To bring this change , perhaps we need to embrace what Weil says about thinking. Thinking to her is giving attention. She says it is the most generous act that we can do. When we give our attention to anything or anyone , we give our love. Thus, to her thinking is love.
Synodal Church cannot be built without giving our attention to each other. Attention requires us to think sensitively of each other. This gift of attention can heal and restore life. Attention mothers our listening to each other. Our Pope has put listening on the high priority for a synodal Church.
Weil does admit that it is difficult to practice attention. In a world marked with egoism, we are locked to our self or want others to follow what we define as sacrosanct for our community. Attention, therefore, besides being love is also prayer. It brings us into what we may call God’s welcome. Every human, animal, plants, living as well as non-living beings are in God’s embrace or welcome. When we offer our attention to any of these, we enter God’s welcome and can walk our synodality within God’s embrace.
This is why we may say attention is a purest form of prayer. It enables us to bring love, mercy and healing to everyone and everything. Attention, therefore, is mission, communion and participation. Coming to the thought of Simon Weil, we can find an effective path to live the synodal way. Attention is deep listening. Attention can truly make us pilgrims of hope. A little attention can make that difference to people crippling with the burndens of life. Learning to gift attention will certainly make us a synodal Church.
