What I am hearing from Synodal “listening” sessions is not that message but, instead, how the Church needs to change how she thinks about things.
The Church welcomes us to change how we think about these things. We are invited to change the way we think about what is the way, truth, and life.
The Church’s welcome is to “take us as we are,” that is, as sinners, but not to leave us there. Μετανοεῖτε (Mark 1:15) is translated as “repent,” but the literal meaning of the Greek is “to change one’s mind.” The Church’s welcome is to “take us as we are,” that is, as sinners, but not to leave us there. To the contrary, it recognizes, “I’m not OK, you’re not OK, but Christ can make us OK if we metanoeite!” That’s our “Good News,” our Gospel. That message does not affirm human OK-ness. The Church is not primarily a social club of the “I’m OK, you’re OK-and that’s how God made us!” It is a divinely established institution whose raison d’être is to make Christ present here and now and continue proclaiming His message. I’ve argued elsewhere that behind this “welcoming” veneer lies an ecclesiology alien to the Church’s. Expect “welcoming” to be bandied about frequently in the coming months. Among the buzzwords associated with the upcoming Synod on Synodality is “welcoming.” We are told that we need to be a “welcoming” Church with the suggestion that, so far, we haven’t been.
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