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Word of the Year

Each year those responsible for the Oxford English Dictionary add new words to their, already impressive, collection of over half a million entries. I find the exercise interesting. It provides a snapshot of trends in our contemporary culture that have been brought to expression in language. Last year the list included new words like: “Mis click” which is an accidental click of your mouse or touch of the screen when using your computer, tablet or smartphone. It also included that new frustration in all our lives: “multifactor authentication” which it listed as “a method of identity verification requiring more than one proof of identity.” With a nod to the regional variations of language and for those impartial to a late-night takeaway “Spice-bag” made the list. A “Spice-bag” is described as “a popular Irish takeaway meal of chips and deep-fried chicken.” Now each year one word is awarded the title “Oxford Word of the Year”. Last year this honour went to the idea of “Brain-Rot” defined as a slang term that refers to “the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality online content, especially on social media.” I sincerely hope that tonight’s homily won’t end up in this category!

Church Word of the Year

Now, if we were to apply a similar exercise to contemporary religious or church circles – especially to the Catholic Church in the last year, I believe there is one word that would easily win the title “Church Word of the Year”. It is an ancient word that has been rediscovered and repurposed to express what we as a Christian community should look like in the twenty-first century. Can you guess what it is? For me the current “Church Word of the Year” is without doubt “Synodality”. While many feel the word itself it is a rather technical term that fails to engage the average churchgoer’s imagination, I think it deserves a closer look.

Synodality

The word “Synodality” comes from two Greek words … “Syn” meaning “together” and “odos” meaning a “way” or a “path”. Simply put it means “walking together”. When applied to the church – it means all of God’s people, you and I, walking together, helping each other, talking things out as we listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit who guides us on the journey. “Synodality” is not a new idea, it is an ancient concept whose inherent richness has been gradually rediscovered in the wake of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). It emphasises the fact that laity and clergy share a common baptism and a common purpose. No one is better than the other. All have a responsibility for the faith. Though called to different tasks in the vineyard of the Lord – priests and people have a sacred Gospel-inspired responsibility to walk and work together to transform our lives and our world for the better.

Introduction of Boards of Management – 1975

You might ask, what has all this to do with our gathering tonight on the Feast of All the Saints of Ireland to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the introduction of Primary School Boards of Management in Ireland? Before 1975 Catholic schools were generally managed solely by the local parish priest. Just ten years earlier, the Second Vatican Council had concluded in Rome. It was by far the most important event in the Catholic Church for hundreds of years. It brought new insights in its wake. By the early seventies, the Council’s emphasis on a shared responsibility for the faith between clergy and laity, were beginning to make itself felt across the globe. Irish society was changing too. There was a growing desire from within the church and from outside the church for a more participatory mode of management of schools. After a fruitful church-state dialogue, local Boards of Management as we know them today, composed of representatives of all the key stakeholders were eventually introduced.

An exercise in synodality

Back in 1975, the word or idea of “Synodality” was not yet in use, however, the introduction of Boards of Management was and still is perhaps the largest exercise in synodality the Catholic Church in Ireland has ever undertaken. At the one table, priest and lay person, teacher and parent, principal and community nominee would journey together to discern, direct and manage their local Catholic school. What is even more -they would do this voluntarily. They would do it or the greater good, in that spirit of generosity that all followers of Jesus are called to.

Admiration and gratitude for a half century of service

Tonight, I applaud and I thank all members past and present of Boards of Management that served and continue to serve our Catholic School Communities. Thousands and thousands giving freely of their expertise and their time. Thousands of Thousands of hours given to support the mission of local Catholic primary education. Tonight, I would like to affirm the unique richness of the vision of Catholic Education. I would like to emphasise how such a vision of education partners with parents to open the minds and hearts of future generations to a faith inspired vision of the world and the positive meaning and value system that brings in its wake.

Looking towards the next fifty years

Tonight, I pray and I hope that, as a Catholic Faith Community, we might be as brave as those in the mid-seventies were. Brave to take new and bold initiatives when it comes to Catholic schools for the next fifty years. I suspect that this will rightly involve significant divestment of schools. I suspect it will also require a concerted effort that the schools that remain Catholic truly serve and are allowed to serve the Catholic Community and those non-Catholics who value the Catholic Vision of Education. As a faith community, we will need to come more alongside our Catholic school communities and walk closer beside them in the noble task of Catholic Education.

To be the best that we can be

It is fitting, that we hold this celebration on the Feast of all the Saints of Ireland. Our as the First Reading might put it, those “illustrious men and women, our ancestors in their successive generations”. (Ecc 44) Men and women, known and unknown, who have each, in their own way, been true examples of the beatitudes we heard of in the Gospel. For, in the end, as believers, as a people inspired by the Gospel vision of life, our aim is to live life as best we can. To be the best that we can be. To walk the way with our fellow companions on the road of life. To carry each other’s burdens. To share each other’s joys and ultimately to join those who have gone before us in the eternal loving presence of God. The life of faith is inherently “synodal” -not lived alone but lived in love with others.

Thanks and blessings

Tonight, we give thanks for the last fifty years of that great exercise in synodality -in faith inspired walking and working together -that Boards of Management are. We ask God’s blessings on all our Boards of Management and on all our school communities as we continue on the journey collectively discerning the future of that precious pearl that is Catholic Education. In this task and in all our tasks may all the Saints of Ireland! Pray for us! Now, I hope what I have said hasn’t contributed any further to your “brain rot”! Amen.