The Voice

In your distress,
when all these things shall have come upon you,
you shall finally return to the LORD, your God,
and listen to His voice.
(Deuteronomy 4:30)

WHERE does truth come from? Where is the Church’s teaching derived from? What authority does she have to speak definitively?

I ask these questions in the context of the “Synod on Synodality” that loosely wrapped up in Rome last week (a “synod” is a gathering, normally of bishops; “synodality” is a process of collaboration and discernment). Pope Francis wants us to become a “Synodal Church” that journeys along a “synodal way,” to the point of “decentralization”^[1]cf. n. 134 of the hierarchy and more input from “local Churches.”^[2]cf. n. 94 However, given that some 27% of the synod’s participants were non-bishops,^[3]cf. ewtnvatican.com and some not even Catholics… who exactly is this synodal Church listening to? In fact, the Final Document, approved by Pope Francis to become a “guide” for the Church,^[4]cf. vatican.va explicitly states that the hierarchy…

…may not ignore a direction which emerges through proper discernment within a consultative process, especially if this is done by participatory bodies. —n. 92, Synod working document

Here again, we are not speaking of the usual synod of bishops or an ecumenical council, but now participatory bodies that may include members outside of the Magisterium, which is puzzling to say the least. As Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney, Australia observed of this synodality:

“Deep listening to each other, expressing feelings, resonating in table groups, will not always help us find what is true and right” …while the conversation method is great at helping people understand one another better, “it is not well-suited for careful or complex theological or practical reasoning.” —November 24, 2023, Catholic News Agency

So what helps us find “what is true and right”?

The Voice of the Lord

The answer to that question has always been the voice of the Lord. From the very beginning, His voice brought forth not only truth but all things into being:

Then God said: Let there be light, and there was light. (Genesis 1:3 )

This Voice was no mere voice, but power itself:

The voice of the LORD is power; the voice of the LORD is splendor. The voice of the LORD cracks the cedars… The voice of the LORD strikes with fiery flame; the voice of the LORD shakes the desert… (Psalm 29:4-8)

His word, His voice, is no mere sound but a light that breaks through to the inner core of man:

Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

God would speak many ways to man, particularly through creation itself.^[5]cf. Rom 1:20 But the main conduit of His voice would be the patriarchs and prophets.

Theophanies (manifestations of God) light up the way of the promise, from the patriarchs to Moses and from Joshua to the visions that inaugurated the missions of the great prophets. Christian tradition has always recognized that God’s Word allowed himself to be seen and heard in these theophanies, in which the cloud of the Holy Spirit both revealed him and concealed him in its shadow. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 707

Through them, God would lay the foundations for what was asked of man and woman themselves, who are the pinnacle of His creation:

Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk exactly in the way I command you, so that you may prosper. (Jeremiah 7:23)

The condition for being the People of God was listening to His voice…

The Voice of voices

At the appointed time, this Voice became incarnate so He could literally be heard.

What was from the beginning,
what we have heard,
what we have seen with our eyes,
what we looked upon
and touched with our hands
concerns the Word of life—
for the life was made visible…
(1 John 1:1)

And what of this Man?

…from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” (Matt 17:5)

God became incarnate in Jesus Christ so that we would hear His voice and follow Him:

…they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. (John 10:16)  

We remain in His flock by hearing and following His voice:

Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God… (John 8:47) If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. (John 15:10)

So it is not enough to hear, but to also obey:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)

Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” (John 14:23)

The Voices of the Voice

Before ascending into Heaven, Jesus gave His voice to the Apostles with authority, saying:

Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me… Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. (Luke 10:16, Matthew 28:19-20)

These Apostles, then, formed the “magisterium” or teaching authority of Jesus Christ. Their mission was to spread everything that Jesus taught and handed on to them, without deviation:

…this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, 86

In case there is any doubt that this is precisely what the Early Church understood, their testimony is clear:

Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours. (St. Paul, 2 Thessalonians 2:15)

[I]t is incumbent to obey the presbyters who are in the Church — those who, as I have shown, possess the succession from the apostles; those who, together with the succession of the episcopate, have received the infallible charism of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father. —St. Irenaeus of Lyons (189 AD), Against Heresies, 4:33:8)

Let us note that the very tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the beginning, which the Lord gave, was preached by the Apostles, and was preserved by the Fathers. On this was the Church founded; and if anyone departs from this, he neither is nor any longer ought to be called a Christian… —St. Athanasius (360 AD), Four Letters to Serapion of Thmius 1, 28

The Voice of Opinion

Hence, for 2000 years, the Church has been careful to sift the voices of opinion, dissent, and heresy from the Voice of Christ. When it came to new questions on doctrine, St. Vincent of Lerins advised to go back to the Early Church Fathers, whose direct contact with the Apostles further solidified the foundations of Christ’s Church:

…if some new question should arise on which no such decision has been given, they should then have recourse to the opinions of the holy Fathers, of those at least, who, each in his own time and place, remaining in the unity of communion and of the faith, were accepted as approved masters; and whatsoever these may be found to have held, with one mind and with one consent, this ought to be accounted the true and Catholic doctrine of the Church, without any doubt or scruple. —Commonitory of 434 A.D., “For the Antiquity and Universality of the Catholic Faith Against the Profane Novelties of All Heresies”, Ch. 29, n. 77

…which brings us to the present moment. Synods are, of course, nothing new. What appears to be novel is the value placed on opinions and positions of laity for the sake of “accompaniment.” While the Church must indeed follow her Lord’s example of listening with compassion and concern for all who came to Him, it is clear that He accompanied them precisely to instruct and guide them as a shepherd: “the truth will set you free.”^[6]cf. John 8:32 He expected the Apostles to do the very same, starting with Peter.

Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” (John 21:17)

Yes, the Pope ought to listen to the flock in order to know best how to feed them; but that role cannot be replaced by sheep feeding other sheep (outside of the sheepfold). Otherwise…

If a blind person leads a blind person, both will fall into a pit. (Matthew 15:14)

St. John Henry Newman put it this way:

The opinion of any one person, even if he were the most fit to form one, could hardly be of any authority, or be worth putting forward by itself; whereas the judgment and views of the early Church claim and attract our especial regard, because for what we know, they may be in part derived from traditions of the Apostles, and because they are put forward far more consistently and unanimously than those of any other set of teachers. —Advent Sermons on Antichrist, Sermon II, “1 John 4:3”

In times past, it was precisely amid tumult, heresy, and confusion that the Church served as a prophetic voice affirming the perennial truths of the “deposit of faith.” But according to the recent Synod’s Final Document, the prophetic voice of the Synodal Church becomes a mere “contribution” in the quest for truth:

In this way, we can offer a distinctive contribution to the search for answers to many challenges faced by our contemporary societies in building the common good. —n. 47; working document

But actually, this is the last thing the world needs, said Benedict XVI:

Fundamental Christian beliefs and practices are sometimes changed within communities by so-called “prophetic actions” that are based on a hermeneutic [method of interpreting] not always consonant with the datum of Scripture and Tradition. Communities consequently give up the attempt to act as a unified body, choosing instead to function according to the idea of “local options”. Somewhere in this process the need for… communion with the Church in every age is lost, just at the time when the world is losing its bearings and needs a persuasive common witness to the saving power of the Gospel (cf. Rom 1:18-23). —POPE BENEDICT XVI, St. Joseph’s Church, New York, April 18th, 2008

Only one Voice matters — that of the one Shepherd appointed to lead His flock — Jesus Christ. All other voices worth listening to are, at best, an echo of this Voice who is “the way and the truth and the life.”

No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)