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These days, when one thinks of missions and missionary work, we no longer have to envision only far-off places. Even members of our own families can be strangers to Christ and his Gospel.
Since this issue of Restoration has to do with mission, I thought it might be timely to look back in time to the document on missions published by the Council Fathers at Vatican II. Its Latin title is Ad Gentes, and it was promulgated on December 7, 1965.
I’ll include a few quotes I find particularly relevant and add a bit of commentary. The document begins as follows:
“The Church has been divinely sent to all nations that she might be the universal sacrament of salvation. Acting out of the innermost requirements of her own catholicity and in obedience to her Founder’s mandate (cf. Mark 16:16), she strives to proclaim the gospel to all men.”
In other words, it is Christ himself who sent the Church into the world to proclaim his Gospel. Human beings are not simply left to their own devices in their search for ultimate truth and meaning.
As followers of Christ, we have been given a treasure meant to be shared, in due time, with all mankind—even our neighbor down the street, or co-worker at the office or factory, even with Aunt Tilly or Uncle Phil.
“In order to establish peace or communion between human beings and himself, as well as to fashion them into a fraternal community, God determined to intervene in human history in a way both new and definitive.
“For he sent his Son, clothed in our flesh, in order that through this Son he might snatch men from the power of darkness and of Satan (Col 1:13, Acts 10:38) and that in his Son he might reconcile the world to himself (2 Cor 5:19).” (para. 2)
I find this paragraph helpful because it states so clearly that for all the ways God may be active in a hidden manner in all places and at all times, he sent his Son because no matter where we are or who we are, we need a Savior.
All human beings are caught in the web of sin and need God to rescue them, starting with me. So, it’s not a message to be shared in pride or as a self-achieved triumph, but a message of hope to be gladly shared with fellow-sufferers.
“But what was once preached by the Lord, or what was wrought in him for the saving of the human race, must be spread and proclaimed abroad to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8), beginning from Jerusalem (Lk 24:47).
“Thus, what he once accomplished for the salvation of all may in the course of time come to achieve its effect in all. To accomplish this goal, Christ sent the Holy Spirit from the Father. The Spirit was to carry out his saving work inwardly and to impel the Church toward her proper expansion. “(para. 3, 4)
I love the succinctness of the above paragraph: Jesus did everything necessary to save the whole human race through his life, death, and resurrection. But it takes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to make what Jesus did, to communicate who he is, real to each and every human being.
So we need to learn to count on the Spirit for everything: knowing Christ, living Christ, sharing Christ, knowing what to say, what not to say and when to shut up. Knowing when the loving thing to do is to confront or when to be conciliatory.
The Spirit sees our most complex tangles of human confusion with utter simplicity and a kind of divine compassion or pity. We never know what he will do next! Hence the need to surrender to him in utter trust.
“Hence, prompted by the Holy Spirit, the Church must walk the same road which Christ walked: a road of poverty and obedience, of service and self-sacrifice to the death, from which death he came forth a victor by his resurrection…often, too, the blood of Christians was like a seed.” (para. 5)
And so it makes sense that the most effective missionary activity always arises where Christ is made most “visible” in the lives of believers in poverty and self-sacrifice out of loving obedience to the Father, even unto giving one’s life.
The Spirit fashions Christ anew in us, if we let him, not to be “successful” but to be true icons of Jesus in the world. To be this is the most effective missionary “statement” we could ever make.
“Sent by Christ to reveal and communicate the love of God to all men and nations, the Church is aware that there still remains a gigantic missionary task for her to accomplish …
“Some of these men are followers of one of the great religions, others remain strangers to the very notion of God, while still others deny his existence, and sometimes even attack it.
“In order to be able to offer all of them the mystery of salvation and the life brought by God, the Church must become part of all of these groups for the same motive which led Christ to bind himself, in virtue of his Incarnation, to the definite social and cultural conditions of those human beings among whom he dwelt.” (para. 10)
If the Lord opens the door to go there, there is no group or no place that is too “peripheral” (to use one of Pope Francis’ favorite expressions) for our attention.
Catherine Doherty had a lot of good things to say about the teaching in this paragraph, especially about striving to identify oneself with those to whom one is sent, without compromising one’s faith, of course.
It is one of the challenging aspects of reaching out to others: to be with them in some kind of real depth. This, too, I would say, is a gift of the Spirit and one to be earnestly sought after.
“The Church must be present to all these groups of men through those of her children who dwell among them or are sent to them. For, wherever they live, all Christians are bound to show forth, by the example of their lives and by the witness of their speech, that new man which they put on at baptism and that power of the Holy Spirit by whom they were strengthened at confirmation.
“Thus, other men, observing their good works, can glorify the Father (Mt. 5:16) and can better perceive the real meaning of human life and the bond which ties the whole community of mankind together.”
I think the whole world is waiting for the appearance of that “new man” or “new woman” who is Christ’s own image alive in the world of today.
What would that look like? Generous love, especially towards the poorest. Mercy, forgiveness, humility, joy, praise and in all things giving God the glory. Miracles of healing and more, miracles of enemies become friends. The truth spoken with courage. And lives offered in sacrifice if need be for one’s opponents and enemies.
“At the same time, however, they should look to the profound changes which are taking place among the nations. They should exert themselves lest modern man, overly intent on the science and technology of today’s world, becomes a stranger to things divine. Rather, let them awaken in him a fiercer yearning for that truth and charity which God has revealed.” (para. 11)
What a wonderful expression—“a fiercer yearning for that truth and charity which God has revealed”! Rather than thoughtless robots hooked to the latest gadget, we are meant to be fully alive with God’s own creative, saving love! May we be given this in abundance so as to overflow with the treasure of the Gospel for many.
