he essential characteristic of the Church is to live and spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to all men and women and to all nations: “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation!” (Mk. 16:15).
The concept of “mission” in the Church has gone through profound changes. The classic missionary vision was the one that through the centuries moved waves of generous men and women to seek distant lands where to announce Christ’s own Word of Life and salvation. Unfortunately, many a time, this also involved bringing along and transmitting the culture and influence of one’s own country and continent to the detriment and even destruction of indigenous cultures.
This, of course, often happened at the hands of invading and conquering armies that accompanied or followed the missionaries. Enough to remember what happened in Africa, Latin America, many countries of Asia, where the sword followed the cross and, though in a different context, in North America, too.
Also in many instances, the Christian faith that came from outside had little or no respect for the truths, the “semina Verbi” (seeds of the Word) as Vatican II called them, truths that those cultures already possessed, though lived in a different way.
The missionary task today has become more difficult and complex. Today the missionary must tread more lightly for he knows that he is not stepping on territory of barbarians, but of peoples who have also been touched by grace, embraced by the God’s saving love. The example of Bishop Angelo Frosi in Abaetetuba, Brazil,, whose tenth anniversary of death we’ve just celebrated, tells the story of a missionary who was disposed to learn and change so as to become one with his people. The missionary today knows that he is entering into sacred ground, which he must respect, and even learn from and convert himself to, without falsifying the purity of the Gospel.
Pe. Zezinho Leone, a missionary with who I worked during my years in the Amazon, was with all simplicity confessing to me that he has really learned how to share by living with the Kayapò Indios. “It was these people – he said – who have taught me this radical dimension of the Gospel of Jesus: how to share.”
In the midst of these changes, many a missionary has been more humble, more cautious and discreet and less imposing of his own ways.
At the same time, another change has taken place. Each Christian discovers that the task of sharing the Gospel is inherent to his own baptismal vocation. It’s no more the privilege nor the task of some few especially called to this. Each Christian, in his/her place and according to their possibilities, must announce the Good News of salvation to one’s brothers and sisters.
In his encyclical on the missions Pope Paul VI affirmed that the command given to the Twelve to “go, and preach the Good News” continues to be valid, though in a different way, also for all Christians. Those who receive the Good News must share and pass it on to others (EN, #13). Since Vatican II, this awareness has become ever more explicit, clear and forceful.
The prime reason for mission is our belief about Jesus” He is the way, the truth and the life for all peoples. Jesus Christ is God’s definitive revelation. As St. Peter said in one of his discourses “there is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” (Acts 4:12).
There’s nothing, absolutely nothing, more central for the Christian than the person of Jesus Christ. The Church and every aspect of its life are based on the person and the life of Jesus Christ. He’s the one person sent by God as his Son to be the Savior of the whole human race.
So mission isn’t only a matter of salvation for others, but also the criterion for our own salvation. Mission is an issue of faith, an accurate indicator of our faith in Christ, as Fr. Bruno Orrù, in Indonesia, reminds the members of the Xaverian League.
"Lord, at this critical moment in human history, bless the vineyard of this world of ours with men and women who will proclaim the Good News of Your Son, follow in His footsteps, and share the bread in His Memory"
On the level of daily living, if we’ve experienced something good – a good book, a new friend, a delightful movie – we find extra joy in sharing it. If we truly value our faith, we find fulfillment in sharing it with others.
Our country received the faith through many missionaries who came from Europe. We are grateful to them. As we’ve passed the 500-year mark of the coming of the Gospel to the Americas, we reach across the earth to share the good fortune. Our Church and country has sent our priests and religious, lay nurses, physicians, social workers, and others who have generously contributed their lives to Jesus’ cause.
And now many Christian communities in so-called “mission countries”, like Nigeria, the Congo, and Ghana, India, Thailand and South Korea, countries in Latin America and elsewhere, appreciative of the faith received through the generosity of “missionaries” and, aware of their own calling, are already contributing their share to other places in need of ministers of the faith, to Europe itself and to oru own country. In a mission appeal I recently made in a parish of the Brooklyn NY diocese, the pastor was pointing out that well over one hundred “Oriental” priests are serving there.
Often Catholics see missionaries as people extra to the life of the Church, something added to the Church. The truth is that all Christians share responsibility for missionary activity. This responsibility comes from baptism, through which sacrament we’re consecrated and “sent.” Everyone, in accord with Jesus’ command to go forth and teach all nations, has an obligation to do something. One cannot be satisfied with the commandments’ negatives – avoiding evil -, but must do things for others, is challenged to return love for love: loved by the Lord Jesus one must return that love by sharing the gifts received. We who have received are challenged to give, to share our gift of faith.
There is today an overall priest shortage in the ranks of diocesan and order priests in our own country. Among other reasons, most concede, this plays a role in the fact that the ordained ministry of the U.S. Catholic foreign-mission program currently is on a life-supporting system. But the present tendency of our Church to “look inward more and more” to its concerns at home is not a healthy concern for it would zap it of its vitality and stunt mission growth.
No Christian community is faithful to its duty unless it is missionary. Either it’s a missionary community or it’s not even a Christian community.
“Lord, at this critical moment in human history, bless the vineyard of this world of ours with men and women who will proclaim the Good News of Your Son, follow in His footsteps, and share the bread in His memory.”
(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)