Two Preliminary Considerations

RM 2 : Missionary Activity is a matter for all Christians, for all dioceses and parishes, Church institutions and associations.

RM 41 : Mission is a single but complex reality, and it develops in a variety of ways.

Different Elements of Mission:

1. Proclamation and Catechesis 2. Witness 3. Dialogue 4. Human Liberation 5. Prayer and

Contemplation

“Proclamation is the foundation, summit

and center of evangelization”

(Dialogue and Proclamation # 10)

Mission as Proclamation

“Proclamation is the permanent priority

of mission.” (Redemptoris Missio # 44)

Mission as Proclamation

Two aspects of Evangelization

Proclaim the gospel in prophetic witnessand proclamation

Paul VI:“There is no true evangelization if the name,

The teaching, the life …of Jesus of Nazareth…are not proclaimed.” (EN 22)

Not only “announce” but also “denounce”-- culture of death, aspects of culture, justice---

1971 Synod:“Action on behalf of justice…a constitutive

part of preaching the gospel.”

Mission as ProclamationBosch: a bold humility!We do have something to say, to offer! People need the gospel!We need to speak boldly the truth of Jesus ChristWe need to speak boldly against injustices to people and landWe need to proclaim with confidence that God “has entrusted the message of reconciliation to us” (2Cor 5:19)

Recently, two passages from St. Paul …

1 Thessalonians

2:1-8

1 Corinthians 9:16, 19-23

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8“You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our

coming to you was not in vain … as you know we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God

in spite of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with

the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals . . . . But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply

do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our very own selves, because you have become very dear to us.”

1 Corinthians 9:16, 19-23

“…woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! … For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to

win Jews. To those under the Law I became as one under the law . . . so that I might win those under

the Law. … To the weak I became weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all

means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share its blessings.”

“The first means of evangelization is the

witness of an authentically Christian life” (EN #41)

Mission as Witness

The church’s greatest problem today is that its witness does

not measure up to its teaching; it does not always it does not always

““practice what it preaches.”practice what it preaches.”

“Modern women and men listen more willingly to

witnesses than to teachers, and if they do listen to

teachers, it is because they are witnesses” (EN 41)

MISSION AS WITNESS

“The missionary who, despite all his or her human limitations and defects, lives a simple life, taking Christ as the model, is a sign of God and of transcendent realities. But everyone in the Church, striving to imitate the Divine master, can and must bear this kind of witness… In many cases it is the only possible way of being a missionary.” (RM 42)

WITNESSPersonal

• Communal

– “community is mission”

– “Take… a handful of Christians who, in the midst of their own communities,

show their capacity for understanding and acceptance, their sharing of life and

destiny with other people, their solidarity with the efforts of all for

whatever is noble and good… Why are they like this? Why do they live in this way? Such a witness is already a silent proclamation of the Good News and a

very powerful and effective one. Here we have an initial act of evangelization.”

– (EN #21)

MISSION AS WITNESS

Institutional

– church-sponsored institutions: schools, hospitals

– “The need for collective witness is precisely in this that the strength of a Catholic school should lie; it is

a challenge it has to face… We have to work together and cooperate as a school community. It is

as a community we have to embody and bear witness to our way of looking at life, our scale of values, our aim in formation, our Christian freedom and joy.” (Karl Mueller, SVD)

WITNESS

“A greater harmony between the mission we do and the life we

live is crucial.” He goes on to say that “often the split or the lack of

harmony, between these two dimensions of our SVD calling

leads either to a crisis that undermines our vocation or to an

attitude of mediocrity that compromises our witness to

God’s Kingdom.” Fr. Superior General Antonio Pernia, SVD

“Proclamation presupposes and requires a dialogue method in

order to respond to the requirements of those to be evangelized and to enable

them to interiorize the message received. ”

(Marcello Zago)

Mission as Dialogue

“It is the norm of every form of Christian mission whether one speaks of simple presence and witness, service or direct

proclamation. Any sense of mission not permeated by such a dialogical spirit would

go against the demands of true humanity and against the teachings of the Gospel”

(Dialogue and Mission, no. 836)

What is Dialogue?

We should do mission today through dialogue with

RespectOpennessWillingness to learnAttentivenessVulnerabilityHospitalityHumilityEvangelical mentality“The Church proposes; she imposes nothing” (RM 39)

This translates into…Learning the languageBonding with the local peopleRespecting and studying the cultureLearning about the local religionsConnecting with other religious leadersComing with our “cups half empty”

Mission as Dialogue

Just as God is dialogical in Godself and in the world . . .

So the church needs to give of itself in service to the worldSo the church needs to learn from the world, its cultures, its religions—and so learn more about God’s unfathomable riches

Just as God’s missionary presence is never about imposition but about persuasion and freedom . . .

So must the church never impose, but emphasize witness, and proclamation as an answer to a question

Mission as Dialogue

Just as God “humbled” Godself in the incarnation

So the church needs to do mission not out of superiority, but in humility and vulnerability

In fact, missionaries of the future will not come from rich, dominating countries

Church of the future will be poorWill do mission “out of poverty”

John Paul II – Mission Sunday Message 2002

“The main road of

mission is sincere

dialogue.”

“The main road of

mission is sincere

dialogue.”

So Mission is always done in dialogue, but it must also be a real

evangelization….

Living out and proclaiming the Good News of

the Gospel

Evangelization and Human Liberation

David Bosch said that

“the relationship between the evangelistic and the societal dimensions of the Christian mission constitutes one of the thorniest areas in the theology and practice of mission.”

Evangelization & Human Liberation

In EN 31, Pope Paul VI provides three reasons for the close links between evangelization and human liberation. First, there is a connection in the anthropological order: humans are not abstract beings but persons subject to economic and social factors. Second, there is a connection in the theological order: God’s plan of creation cannot be isolated from God’s plan of redemption which requires the establishment of justice. And finally, there is a connection in the order of charity: the Good News cannot be proclaimed effectively unless it promotes justice and peace.

Evangelization & Human Liberation

As regards the question as to “How should the relationship be understood in terms of priority?”Paul VI in EN 34 affirms the primacy of evangelization over human liberation and says “the church proclaims liberation and cooperates with all those who are suffering on its behalf. She affirms that primacy of her spiritual function and refuses to substitute for the preaching of the kingdom of God a proclamation of liberation of the merely human order. She declares that her advocacy of liberation would not be complete or perfect if she failed to preach salvation in Jesus Christ.”

“The missionary must be a

contemplative in action.”

(Redemptoris Missio # 91)

Prayer and Contemplation

• Relate to the world “on a deeper level of attention” (W. Teasdale)

• To see the world through God’s eyes• “allows one at once to acknowledge

one’s own wounds…and to learn to wait, watch, and listen.” (R. Schreiter)

Prayer and Contemplation

“The church lives from the center

with its eyes on the borders.”

(Robert Hawkins)

Prayer and Litrugy

“The church in mission has two eyes, one always looking at

Jesus, the other at the world… Only when the two eyes are opened, will reality be seen

clearly and in its full dimension.”

(Archbishop Antonio Tagle)

Prayer and Litrugy

Conclusion: Mission in Many Modes

“Mission is a multifaceted ministry, in respect of witness,

service, justice, healing, reconciliation,

liberation, peace, evangelism,

fellowship, church planting,

contextualization, and much more.” (TM 512)

Question …

Which of the five aspects of mission (proclamation, witness, dialogue, human development, prayer and liturgy) do you think is least evident in the church as it goes about its mission in your country or region today? What problems does this cause?