Listening to the Holy Spirit

By Bishop Anthony Randazzo

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

At pivotal moments in my life, I can recall times that I have truly sought to listen, and that listening has had a profound impact on my decisions and the direction my life has taken. I remember when a colleague made an error and the heavy impact of admonishment may not have had the effect of rehabilitation, but rather it might have isolated that person. I took the issue to prayer and tried to listen deeply to the Spirit of God so as not to take a decision based solely upon reason. By using both faith and reason, I was able to make a good decision which would create pathways and opportunities for the other person. It was also very liberating for me because it allowed me to draw God into my daily life and into my decisions. As I often say to others, ministry is not all about “me”. It is ultimately about God and what the Spirit of God is calling us to be – brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.

Recent weeks have seen a renewed focus on the Plenary Council in the Diocese of Broken Bay. In April, I convened a gathering of the delegates and animators from our community of the Church. It was the first time we had come together to consider the next development for the Plenary Council since the pandemic began. Prior to the interruption of COVID-19, the Diocese of Broken Bay had been one of the highest responders to the Plenary Council with much discussion, prayer, and contemplation of the theme “Listen to what the Spirit is saying to the Church in Australia”. There are encouraging signs that this enthusiasm has not waned, but that many still desire to participate in the respectful exterior and prayerful interior listening that leads us to genuine conversion, renewal, and reform which flow from knowing Jesus Christ.

The Plenary Council has the potential to be a movement of the Holy Spirit, who guides the community of the Church to embrace a holy listening, a truthful speaking, a dialogue of love. I would hope that the discernment and listening skills that many of us have learned and practiced over the past few years will be an invaluable asset to our ministry and mission into the future. They are skills for everyday faith and life.

As we listen to the voice of the Spirit, we have heard on many occasions that God is calling us to embrace the ‘new evangelisation’, which includes the call to be ‘missionary disciples’ who are in communion with the Body of Christ. We need to ensure that these words do not fall into common parlance and through inaction, become emptied of their meaning. Merely repeating them over again will not animate them in our life.

There may be a temptation to think that the new evangelisation is reduced to something that we do to society, or that making missionary disciples is to convert people away from their current lives to something entirely different.

As Catholic Christians, there is work for us to do, but we might remember that it is God’s work, and the Spirit calls us to participate in it. Our mission in the world is comparable with Jesus’ description of the kingdom of heaven, which was so rich, surprising, and foundational to who we are as human beings.

Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until all of it was leavened (Matthew 13:33). It is like the man who brings out the treasure from his house, both what is old and new (Matthew 13:52). It is like one who scatters seed on the ground but while sleeping does not know how the seed sprouts and grows (Mark 4:26-29).

Our vocation is to rouse the world to consider its origins and purpose, expressed so powerfully through the Scripture and the Tradition of the Church. There are timeless and unchangeable principles that have been true since the foundation of the world, and there are renewed truths given to us by Jesus and revealed by the Holy Spirit that we are called to nurture and cultivate in the world.

Every generation with its contemporary contexts and challenges is different, yet our faith reminds us of the timelessness of Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This paradox provides us with the creative tension to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, to be instruments of the new evangelisation, and to live as effective missionary disciples of Jesus Christ.

Through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we have received the grace to be disciples of the Lord. We must be confident that God’s grace is sufficient for us, for our community of the Church, and for our mission to evangelise the world.

Breathe life into us, once more Holy Spirit, so that we might proclaim Jesus Christ to the world.