Death and Resurrection in the Conversation in the Spirit

By Fr Donald Chambers

In this article, I would like to explore how the Paschal Mystery (suffering, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ) informs and inspires the synodal method of the Conversation in the Spirit.

In the Conversation in the Spirit, a tool of discernment, there are double movements—a time to speak and a time for silent pause. These two movements are like the unceasing ebb and flow of the ocean’s waves, each preparing for the other and supporting the other. This dynamic movement of the Spirit nourishes and sustains the process of listening and discernment.

In the life and ministry of Jesus, author Ronald Rolheiser perceives a similar double movement. He writes that the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are divided into two distinct parts.

From the beginning of Jesus’ active ministry to His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane can be considered the ‘Activity of Jesus Christ’, that is, the moments of Jesus’ life where He is actively preaching, teaching, and healing.   He refers to the second part as “The Passivity or Passion of Jesus Christ”.  He writes that the Latin root word for ‘passion’—passio is related to the words ‘passivity’ and ‘patience’. He concludes, “Jesus gave his life for us through his activity whereas he gave his death for us through his passivity. . . After his arrest, like a patient in palliative care or hospice, he no longer does anything; rather, others do it for him and to him. He is passive, a patient, and in that passivity, he gave his death for us” (In Exile, March 30, 2015).

So, the double movement in Christ’s life and ministry is characterised by “activity” and “passivity”. Both movements are an act of giving but differently.

The double movement in the Conversation in the Spirit can be likened to the active and passive movements in Jesus’ life and ministry. The double movement is characterised by the participants’ capacity to pause in silence, actively listen, and speak from the heart.

The characteristic features of active listening are:

• An open and receptive heart that pays attention to the person speaking and one’s feelings
• Attentiveness to what we are experiencing at a spiritual level
• Resisting the temptation to focus on what we will say when others speak
• Welcoming the ideas and thoughts of others without judgement and bias
• Convicted that the Spirit is speaking through the other persons
• Allowing ourselves to learn from others
• Exercising humility, openness, patience, and involvement.

Some of the characteristics of active speaking are:

• Expressing our experiences, thoughts, and feelings
• Not blaming others for our feelings
• Sharing truthfully
• Regularly practising prayerful self-examination.

Hence, active listening and speaking are similar to Jesus’ active ministry.

The Conversation in the Spirit has three rounds of active listening and speaking. In between each round is the moment of a silent pause. At the end of the first round, the silent pause allows participants to pay attention to how they were moved or inspired during the first round of sharing, what struck them as they listened, and the striking points of consolation and desolation.

There is a second time of silent pause after the second round. In this silent pause, participants are invited to note how they were inspired during the second round, particularly what key points are emerging in the group.

This silent pause is a time for deep listening, paying attention to your inner movement: What strikes you as you listen? What are your feelings and thoughts? This silent pause is a passive moment, like Jesus’ Passion.

Passive in the sense that you are allowing yourself, like a vulnerable, sick person in bed, to receive what the Spirit is giving you through the insights of other participants and learning to die to your ego and self-centredness.

This double movement of active speaking, listening, and silent pause finds inspiration from the mystery of Jesus’ life.  Jesus actively gave His life in preaching, teaching, healing, and miracle work, and then it morphed into His passivity or passion that ended with death.

Death is the epitome of silence; it’s a moment in life where nothing seems to be happening. It is the dead silence of a seed buried deeply in the darkness of the soil. This dying or silence gives way unexpectedly to rising to new life, as in the Resurrection of Jesus.

As the Spirit of God raises Jesus from the dead of silence, so does the Spirit of God, the protagonist in the double movement of the Conversation in the Spirit, raise new ideas, thoughts, and insights and raise the participants to new life, witnessed in their openness and willingness to die to their original ideas, thoughts and insights and welcomes the newness generated within the group by the Holy Spirit.

This new life is the ongoing efficacy of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus in the life of the Church as she furthers the mission of Jesus Christ in the 21st century.

Fr Donald Chambers of the Archdiocese of Kingston, Jamaica is the General Secretary of the Antilles Episcopal Conference.