At the beginning of the third millennium, the
Catholic theology of mission still draws its main inspiration
from Vatican II, although some new developments have added
emphasis to certain areas, especially to dialogue, inculturation
and theology of religions. Motivation seems to be wavering in
some quarters; that is why we deem useful to delve again in the
documents of the council and retrieve the solid reasons behind
Christian missionary drive. The two main theological sources are
the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium,
and the Decree on the Missions, Ad Gentes. The other
documents of the council are also unanimous in their missionary
thrust, and present missiological conceptions quite similar.
The Trinitarian source
of Missionary Activity
The Plan of Salvation
The Plan or Economy of Salvation is the
over-all design guiding God’s action toward humankind. This
action appears to us mainly in creation and history; here we
focus on history and more concretely on Christian history. Among
all such historical salvific activities, missionary activity is
number one. "Missionary activity is no more and no less than the
manifestation or epiphany of God’s purpose and its
implementation in history, in which God, through the mission,
brings to completion the history of salvation in a discernible
way" (AG 9b, see 7c).1 St. Irenaeus sums up
the divine purpose in his famous formula, "to recapitulate all
in Christ," that is to make Christ the Head of everything, which
is the mission of his Church; "therefore –states the council–
all laypeople have the noble responsibility to work hard so that
the divine salvific purpose reaches more and more to all people
of all times everywhere on earth" (LG 33b).
And so we see the unity of the economy of
salvation: the mission of Christ, of the Church, of each
Christian and of all creatures aims at the same end; still more:
the missionary activity is the explicit means to achieve that
objective. The final goal is the glory of God, manifested in the
salvation of all people through Christ; that is why He must meet
all and each of those to be saved, so that they can become
members of His Body. The purpose is realized in history and
historically, that is to say visibly, socially, progressively
(see LG 9, AG 6b, PO 22c, v.v.). God
chooses the times, the places, the agents, etc., for his mission
(actively speaking, missio Dei, or God sending), always
proceeding in a "human way," that is with the free cooperation
(and limitations) of his agents. The social dimension of the
plan means that salvation is not "individualistic" but social;
the main agent is the Church and the individuals are saved into
a people, the Church (see LG 2, 9a, AG 2, GS
32a, etc.). We conceive of the plan of salvation as the design
of the Father, carried out in time in the mystery of the Son
through the Holy Spirit. The plan includes all the dimensions of
human destiny (GS 11a), mainly as personal and historical (GS
34, 57b); therefore a human being achieves its fullness only in
the Body of Christ. Finally, the plan has an eschatological
dimension and will reach completion only "when all the just...
will be gathered with the Father in the universal Church" (LG
2end).
The Love-source of the Father
The absolute wellspring of everything is the
Father. More concretely, "the [salvific] will flows from the
‘love-source’ or charity of God the Father. From Him, who is
‘the origin without origin,’ the Son is begotten and the Spirit
proceeds through the Son, freely creating us out of His
surpassing and merciful kindness…" (AG 2b). This means
that the inner life of the Trinity is reflected in the history
of salvation, or putting it otherwise: the divine dynamism that
drives all things towards the ultimate goal of creation
‘incarnates’ itself in a historical activity. This dynamism is
simply the mystery of God’s love, which constitutes the
background of human history (cf. AG 13b, GS 22a,
45b, 93). By its very nature, love gives itself up; being
absolute love, the Father gives Himself totally to the "Son of
His Love" (Col 1:13), and both, in their mutual love, give
themselves eternally to the Spirit in such a wise that the
Blessed Trinity is "the Lover, the Beloved One and Love."2
If love is the "principle of communication" of the divinity in
the Trinity (what technical theology calls "processions"), it
must also be the principle of communication of the mission to
the Son and to the Spirit, whose created goal is the
communication of the same divinity to the human persons (cf.
2Pet 1:4; LG 40, UR 15a, DV 2). The means (the
"sacrament") to carry out this plan is the Church, "coming forth
from the eternal Father’s love" (GS 40b), which has as
main obligation "simultaneously to manifest and to work out the
mystery of God’s love for man" (GS 45a).
The Trinitarian Dynamics of
History
Again, by essence, the dynamism of each
divine Person is "to go out:" the Father "goes out" unto the
Son, the Father and the Son "go out" unto the Spirit and, ad
extra, that is regarding creation, God "outpours Himself"
into the creatures. In salvation history, the Father sends the
Son (the Son "goes out" as the man Jesus, cf. Jn 16:27, 28;
17:8, etc.), and finally Christ sends the Church (the Church
"goes out" into the world as missionary, cf. Mt 28:18-20). That
is, for the Church to be born means to be sent. That is the
reason why Vatican II can affirm: "The pilgrim Church is
missionary by her very nature, for it is from the mission of the
Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she takes her
origin, in accordance with the decree of God the Father" (AG
2a). It means that the eternal unfathomable divine thrust
outwards animates the Church (with the obvious limitations of
historical conditionings). Since the primeval source is the
Father, the result will not be just a thing but a
child (adopted sonship). Similarly, when God gives Himself
totally as Trinity, the result is not just a divinized person,
but a "family" (the Church), or as the council says, quoting St.
Cyprian, "a people made one by the unity of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit" (LG 4end). Being such image of God,
the Church is both communion and mission, but a mission that,
like God’s, is carried out in self-emptying, kenosis,
giving up her own self in service of others (cf. AG 5b).
a) The mission of
the Son. — The first mission the Father entrusts
to the Son is when He "sends" him as mediator of creation (cf.
Jn 1:3, Col 1:16) and then the mission to save the world (cf. Jn
3:16; Gal 4:4-5, etc.); from this flows any salvific mission in
history, that is why Vatican II bases all missionary action on
this mission (Cf. LG 3, AG 3 DV 4).
The Father’s purpose is to "divinize" His
children. Creating man at his own image means that God imprints
in us the likeness of the Son, who is his perfect reflection
(cf. Heb 1:3). The incarnated Word is the perfect man, the
archetypal image of God, divinized as much as a creature can be.
This man is sent to be the only mediator of divinization, that
is the meeting point of God and man, where both become one. The
Fathers of the Church speak of an invisible mission of the Word
from the beginning of history, all along "planting the seeds of
himself" among us; from that seed sprouts up the "law of the
conscience" which is already salvific (cf. Rom 2:14-15), as well
as all religious manifestations. In ancient times, Celsus (end
of 2nd century) and Porphyry (end of 3rd
c.) chided Christianity because our so-called unique Savior was
born so late and in an insignificant country.3 The
apologists answered that, in fact, the Logos had always been
with us, dispensing his salvation to any heart willing to accept
it (cf. Acts 17:27-8, Rev 13:8).
However, the "way of anonymous Word" is not
the way the Father has chosen. If that Word, "for us and for our
salvation," became flesh and was crucified, surely it was not to
leave everything as it was… "In order to establish peace or
communion between human beings, and sinful at that, 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" (AG 3a). This is the doctrine of the New
Testament, contained in the teaching on the only mediator of
salvation (1Tm 2:5), or the "New Adam" (see Rom 5:14, 1Cor
15:45), the Redeemer of all (cf. Mk 10:45), etc. This
Word—Christ—has assumed all the dimensions of human reality,
psychological, cultural, historical, and so on. It means that
"the way of the Incarnate Word" is the one God wants.
Christ’s mediation embraces various fields:
1) Mediator of Revelation (cf. DV 4):
His mission is to make us know God as He wants to be known. He
does not just bring good news, he is the good news and,
as Pius XII remarked, "the God-Missionary of the Father…"4
sent as "light of the gentiles" (cf. Is 49:6), to "illumine all
who come to this world" (Jn 1:9) so that "they may have life and
have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10), because his word, though not
easy to accept, "is Spirit and life" (Jn 6:66).
2) Mediator of Redemption: A basic teaching
of the New Testament is that Christ liberated the human race
with his blood (cf. 1Cor 6:20, Pet 1:18-9), "acquiring" thus a
people for himself (cf. 1Pet 2:9-10, LG 9). What he
achieved in mystery has now to be manifested in real life: "For
this the Church was founded: that by spreading the Kingdom of
Christ everywhere for the glory of God the Father, she might
bring all men to share in Christ’s saving redemption" (AA2a).
If the Church does not evangelize or spread Christ’s Kingdom,
the work of redemption will remain unfulfilled.
3) Mediator of the New Covenant (cf. Heb 8:6,
LG 9a): This means a new relationship of God with
humankind, founding a new law, new worship, new people (cf. Heb
9; 2Cor 6:16; Eph 2:19; Rev 18:4, etc): therefore humankind’s
relationships with God as ethics, worship and religion pass
through Christ.
4) Mediator of gathering the New People: He
was sent to "the scattered children of God, to bring them
together" (Jn 11:52), and make them into a people. The
"convocation" is what makes the Church (ekklesia means
convocation or assembly) and is the specifically
missionary task. Christ’s salvation is "incarnated" that is
visible, social; that is what Vatican II taught: "It has pleased
God to make men holy and save them not merely as individuals
without any mutual bonds, but by making them into a single
people, a people which acknowledges Him in truth and serves Him
in holiness" (LG 9a).
Through these mediations, the mission of the
Son continues throughout the history of salvation. As the
physical body of Jesus had to grow after the fiat of his
mother Mary, so his mystical body has to grow in history after
the coming of the Holy Spirit in Pentecost.
b. The mission of
the Holy Spirit.- As
in the "immanent Trinity" the Third Person "completes" the
Trinity, so in the "economic Trinity" (history of salvation) the
mission of the Spirit finalizes the enterprise of the Son.
Vatican II teaches: "To accomplish this goal [to spread the
gospel until the end of the world], Christ sent the Holy Spirit
from the Father, in order to carry out his saving work inwardly
and to impel the Church toward her proper expansion" (AG
2a). The council wants us to pay attention to the individual
action of each divine Person in the "economy" and the continuity
in the divine "order": The Father "decides" the plan (AG
2), the Son is sent to implement it (AG 3), and the Holy
Spirit is sent to complete it (AG 4). This takes place in
history and historically through the mission of the Church (AG
5). Thus the eternal salvific will of the Father is concretized
in the temporal mission of the Church, which is the Body of the
Son acting through the Spirit. The mission of the Church is,
therefore, Trinitarian in its origin, in its implementation and
in its end.
The Spirit proceeds from the mutual love of
the Father and the Son, that means that both the "spiration" and
the "mission" of the Third Person are the dynamism of divine
love which, upon reaching the creatures, must result in created
love. In the work of creation, the Spirit of God (Creator
Spiritus) puts in human hearts an opening toward the
infinite, a capacity to love whose horizon is God himself, with
a dynamism towards the end of the divine plan. This dynamism is
embodied in the missionary activity of the Church (cf. AG
9b). The Spirit was active in the world before Christ and is
bringing the plan to completion now, even outside the Church.
The same Spirit guarantees the unity of the plan: old/new
testament, inside/outside the Church. In the old testament, when
Yahweh sends someone, He gives also his ruah, His Spirit,
who enables the sent one to fulfill the mission: He is with
Moses (cf. Ex 3:10-12), who will in his turn share the spirit
with Joshua (Deut 43:9). The Spirit will guide the leaders to
success in their tasks, such as Gideon (Jg 6:34), Jephthah (Jg
11:29) or Samson (14:6; 15:14), etc. In the prophets, the Spirit
"inspires" their word (cf. Zech 7:12; Mic 3:8; Is 59:21). The
summit will be the Messiah, full of the Spirit (cf. Is 61:1; Lk
4:18) whose mission will be "to bring justice to the nations"
(Is 42:1)… Now, God promises to pour out his Spirit upon all
flesh and all will prophesy… (Joel 2:28-32).
In the messianic times, this prophecy was
fulfilled: the gospel of Luke (ch.1-2) shows all kinds of
people, both priests and commoners, "inspired" to proclaim God’s
mighty deeds. By the Jordan, the Messiah receives the Spirit
visibly, who "anoints" him and sends him to announce the Good
News (Lk 4:18-19). Jesus then promises his disciples the same
Spirit, who will enable them to bear witness to him in all
circumstances (cf. Mt 10:20), and to preach the gospel to all
nations, beginning by Jerusalem (Lk 24:47). In an "economy of
incarnation," this happens in a perceptible way, through a
"baptism in the Spirit" (Acts 1:4), which is usually connected
with the baptism with water (cf. 19:5-6). The Decree Ad
Gentes states: "On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit came
down upon the disciples to remain with them forever (cf. Jn
14:16). That day the Church was publicly revealed to the
multitude and the gospel began to spread among the nations by
means of preaching…" (AG 4a). The outpouring of the
Spirit the day of Pentecost was so momentous for the history of
salvation that John considers the presence of the Spirit before
(in the Old Testament or in other religions) as next to naught
(cf. Jn 7:39). The Spirit gives birth to the missionary Church,
which makes Lumen Gentium 17 say that the Spirit "compels
the Church to cooperate" (ad cooperandum compellitur) in
the missionary task. This is the whole Church, not the clergy or
the religious, because the Spirit dwells in the Body, in all its
members, so that all faithful are driven by "the same mission
spirit" as Jesus himself! (cf. AG 4end).
Before Pentecost, Jesus’ word had convoked
the Church, his blood had redeemed her, but she was like a body
lacking a soul, entombed in fear within the cenacle. The Spirit
transformed the disciples into apostles. Lacking missionary
spirit, many Christians are in a pre-pentecostal state. The
Spirit opens the doors and sends the community out as
missionary, as Church: holy because the Holy Spirit
animates her from within; one because the Spirit unifies
the variety of gifts for the common mission; catholic
because the same Spirit sends her to all nations, all cultures,
all kinds of people, reducing all to one family of God’s
children; apostolic because the Spirit warrants the
fidelity of the Church in the transmission of the message and in
the structures of the community. The main driving force of the
mission is not any need—either salvation of pagans or growth of
the Church—but dynamism of the Spirit who enlivens the Body of
Christ. To refuse the mission ad gentes is to sin against
the Spirit.
c. The mission of
the Church. -Following the mission of the Son and
driven by the Holy Spirit, the Church is sent to be "the
universal sacrament of salvation" (AG 1). More
concretely, each local Church is sent to the particular region
where she lives (AG 20a), with the purpose of building
the Kingdom of God in every people, race or culture (cf. LG
5b). The epistle to the Ephesians speaks of the predestination
of the Church, from eternity, as the means for the nations to
know God’s wisdom (cf. Eph 3:8-11). In principle, the Church
could fulfill this purpose in two ways: by concentrating in
itself so as to become really "light of the nations" in the way
of a "city built upon a mountain" which would act as a beacon
(cf. Mt 5:14), or by going out into the world, preaching the
Good News of Jesus and making new disciples, as the Lord told
her to do (cf. Mt 28:19-20).
The final end of this mission is the glory of
God. In human history, this glory consists in helping each
person –as far as possible– to give "formal glory" to God, as
children to their Father, "through Our Lord Jesus Christ." This
means to know Him, worship, praise, serve Him, etc., as Jesus
taught us. Jesus is the gift of the Father, precisely as
mediator, and no one can spurn this gift, because one’s eternal
destiny is at stake (cf. Mk 16:15).
God himself has indicated the method to
achieve the goal: preaching the Gospel. To assist Him and to
continue His mission, the Lord Jesus chose the apostles—that is
"missionaries"—who are the seedlings of the Church (AG
5). By definition, the apostles are to "go out into mission,"
otherwise they would turn renegades towards the one who chose
them and made them to be what they are; they would cease to be
themselves. The deep awareness of this, made saint Paul cry:
"Woe is to me, if I do not preach the gospel!" (1Cor 9:16). The
Church of Vatican II applies this exclamation to herself (cf.
AG 7a, LG 17, AA 6). Because she is
"apostolic," the Church must, therefore, be "missionary."
"It is plain, then, that missionary activity
wells up from the Church’s innermost nature and spreads abroad
her saving faith; it perfects its catholic unity by expanding
it; it is sustained by her apostolicity; it gives expression to
the collegial awareness of the hierarchy; it bears witness to
her sanctity while spreading and promoting it" (AG 6f).
In conclusion: missionary activity is not
primarily a "duty" of the Church; it is a "function" of her very
being.
The Christological Source of
Missionary Activity
"The birth of Jesus means … the birth of
mission: Christ is the first and the greatest missionary of the
Father. Born with the incarnation of the Word, missionary
activity continues in time through the proclamation and witness
of the Church."5 Jesus Christ is the source of
missionary activity, at least, from two viewpoints:
A. The
Incarnation: this mystery has a proximate end
flowing from its very nature, which is to "recapitulate"—that is
to gather– all thing under one head, Christ (cf. Eph 1:10), and
an end that we can call ultimate, which is the glory of the
Father, in a concrete way, namely that all rational beings,
submitted to Christ’s kingdom may finally surrender through Him
and with Him to the suzerainty of the Father; that is the way
God has chosen to be all in all (cf. 1Cor 15:28). Jesus is the
"incarnated divine energy" to reach this goal in history, both
as agent and as end, that is as mediator of salvation. He is the
pivot on which the Church’s being and mission rest and turn; He
is also the center of the modern unrest in missiology.
A deep understanding of the Incarnation of
the Son makes unavoidable the acceptance of the imperative of
the mission. In the creed, the Church confesses that "for us
men—that is for all—and for our salvation He came down from
heaven," which means that the Incarnation has a universal
salvific finality. "Even for those who do not explicitly profess
faith in him as the Savior, salvation comes as a grace from
Jesus Christ through the communication of the Holy Spirit."6
It does not come, though, magically or automatically; salvation
is always freely given and freely accepted or rejected. Jesus
had indicated the normal ways, namely through faith and baptism
(cf. Mk 16:16; Jn 3:5). But "how can they believe if they do not
hear? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how will
they preach unless they are sent?" (Rom 10:14-15). These words
have always stirred up the Church’s conscience. Another way of
describing the end of the Incarnation is "divinization," which
consists in the fact that the Son is to share with us His
divinity, His Spirit, in order to retrieve and perfect in Adam’s
offspring God’s image, disfigured by sin. It means that somehow
each one has to come in contact with Him in a human way
(otherwise salvation would be magic), to be renewed through His
divine energy. Incarnation is not only the greatest grace
humankind can receive, but also the wellspring of all graces.
Now, Incarnation does not happen in some hidden, invisible
manner, but in a concrete man, localized in time and space.
Christ came "to shine on those living in darkness and in the
shadow of death" (Lk 1:79), because He is "light for revelation
to the Gentiles" (Lk 2:32); he must, somehow, be made present
everywhere in an incarnated way. This is the purpose of
missionary activity.
Like all divine works, the Incarnation
proceeds historically, waxing and waning, in constant birth
pangs, but growing, in hope, into "the whole measure of the
fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:13). We can confidently hope that
this goal will be attained, in ways and times that only God
knows. Incarnation involves more than the individual man Jesus
of Nazareth; the council taught that "in his incarnation, the
Son of God has, somehow, united Himself with all men" (GS
22b). Therefore now, in history, this "total Christ" is growing
into His own fullness, gathering into His Body the members that
will constitute that plenitude. Theology has spoken of a
"christic existential" in human nature, as if each individual
were "assigned" to Christ, with "potentiality" to share fully in
Him. If the Incarnation is destined to all, and all to the
Incarnation, we can assume that all have right to know Jesus, so
that freely they may build themselves up into their own fullness
in Him. As for those who know Jesus already and refuse to make
Him known to others… they put obstacles in the way of the
Incarnation, weaken its dynamism and may thwart its purpose; sin
has the awesome power of frustrating God’s dreams.
Through the resurrection, incarnation reaches
its fullness in Jesus, who becomes the "universal man," enabling
Him to reach each individual in time and space; this seems to be
the meaning of the imaginative "descent to hell." The solidarity
of the Risen Lord with all and each of his brethren puts in Him
like an exigency to share with them His glory, to share His joy
in His wedding banquet with all those that His servants are able
to gather from the byways (cf. Mt 22:1ss).
After the resurrection, Christ became the
"New Adam" (cf. 1Cor 15:22, 45-49), the ancestor of a new
humankind, with a solidarity reaching deeper than that of the
"old Adam," as grace is more powerful than sin (cf. Rom 5:16ss).
The children of this New Adam are born –so Jesus indicates– from
"water and Spirit" through the ministry of the apostles, as we
see it happened the paradigmatic day of Pentecost (Acts 2:38ss).
Because of his theandric nature –that is
being both God and Man– Jesus Christ is naturally the mediator
between the Divinity and humanity (cf. 1Tim 2:5-6). Whoever
meets Him meets God in a human fashion. Being also the mediator
of a better Testament, the New one (cf. Heb 8:6; 9:15),
Jesus convokes the new People of God and guides it in its
pilgrim progress to the real promised land. As a vine tree, He
transfuses the sap of life to His branches, that only live if
they are actually grafted on Him (cf. Jn 15:1ss). He likens
Himself to the gate, the only entrance to the sheep fold of the
Father (Jn 10:1ss). Though He was humble –or rather because
He was humble– Jesus utters what now some dub "triumphalist"
word: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through me" (Jn 14:6). The task of the mission
is to show this way, to point to this gate, so that people may
walk and enter to the Father, or follow other paths and cross
other thresholds.
As mediator of revelation, Jesus does not
simply speak the word of God—like other prophets—but He is
The Word (Jn 1:1). That is why He alone can reveal what no one
else can: His Father: "No one has ever seen God, but God the
Only Begotten Son, who is at the Father's side, has made him
known" (Jn 1:18). His presence and action is that "grace upon
grace" which John rejoices on (Jn 1:16): this is the truth that
liberates (8:32), the abundant life that He shares with His
sheep (10:10). His word not only conveys knowledge but life, and
that eternal: "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (17:3).
But how can they know unless someone brings the good news to
them? In the history of salvation, each prophet or divine
messenger has been sent to a particular situation; the Son is
sent to all, because the Word is "the true light that gives
light to every one who is coming into the world" (1:9),
undoubtedly an ambitious mission, which has to be extended to
all times and places. Jesus himself provided for this
continuity, sending the "Energizer," namely the Holy Spirit, who
guarantees the sameness of the mission of Christ and of the
Church (cf. Jn 20:21-23). Should the Church not strive to bring
Christ’s light to all nations, she would betray Her Lord and
Master, hiding His light under a bowl of excuses (cf. Mt
5:14-16).
As mediator of salvation, Jesus Christ is the
visible source of forgiveness of sins, the most shocking aspect
of his earthly ministry (cf. Mt 9:1ss; Lk 7:47ss), and the
purpose of his death (cf. Mt 26:28). Sure, absolutely speaking
God can forgive sins in endless ways, even, nay mostly, unawares
for the great majority of human beings. But it is hardly
believable that the Father would like the forgiven ones to
remain thankless to their Redeemer. We have the mysterious word
of Jesus saying that when he would be lifted up –which means
crucified– he would draw all men to himself (cf. Jn 12:32), to
the source of living water flowing from his wounded heart. Simon
Peter, who did recognize in Jesus the source of words of eternal
life (cf. Jn 6:69), inspired by the Spirit uttered the
scandalous word: "Neither is there salvation in any other: for
there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we
must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Perhaps no other idea has affected
the development of Christian missions more than this one.
Other aspects of Christology are also
relevant to missionary motivation, which we cannot develop here;
suffice it to mention the idea of saint Paul writing of
predestination "to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brothers" (Rom 8:29). Or
Christ who, as head of the church, is also the fullness of all
(Eph 1:21-23), in whom the Father wants to reconcile all with
himself (cf. Col 1:17-20); before him, all knees in heaven, in
hell and here on earth, shall bow (cf. Phil 2:10). Or finally
the Son who, as incarnated, sends the Spirit to the world; the
Spirit is like the rain that makes the seed (the incarnation)
blossom into saving fruits. The Spirit, far from being a
"competitor," bears witness to Christ, as the disciples ought to
do (cf. Jn 15:26-27).7 The presence of the Spirit in
a place is a call to missionary action by the Church (cf. AG
4).
B. The Missionary
Mandate.- The ending of the gospels of
Mark and Matthew contain the command of the Risen Lord, which,
especially in Protestant tradition, is called the Great
Commission. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given
to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded
you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the
age" (Mt 28:18-20). Mark adds a detail: "Whoever believes and is
baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be
condemned" (16:16). John has also Jesus sending the disciples
(20:21) and Luke mentions the mission in succinct way in his two
books (Lk 24:47-48, Acts 1:8). All gospel traditions know of the
express command of Jesus Christ to have his message brought to
the whole world, a task that will never end. The scholars may
agitate a number of problems concerning these words, but all
Christians recognize the texts as Holy Scripture, that is "the
Word of the Lord" inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Of the whole Bible, these are the words most
quoted by Vatican II: Mt 18 times, Mk 21 times, John 6 and Luke
7 times; they are applied to various apostolates, but most
explicitly to the missionary action. The reason is that, in
history, these words have been the most decisive motor of
missionary zeal, and especially in times of crisis, when other
motives seem to lose muscle or are overtly disqualified, few
disciples of Jesus will question the unambiguous and solemn last
will of the One they confess as their Lord (cf. LG 19;
AG 5).
The Church has always been convinced that her
right to evangelize arises from the almighty suzerainty
of the Risen Lord. If the Matthean scene is interpreted as a
parallel of the Sinai theophany: Jesus as new Moses, proclaiming
the new law to the new Israel…, then the missionary mandate
appears as a constitutive element of the Church; in any case, it
is the final command of the Lord, imposing on all Christians the
obligation of obedience (cf. AG 1a, LG 23b,
etc.).
The scholars, though, try to find out the
exact origin of those formulas. It does not seem probable that
Jesus himself pronounced such words. Several reason are
advanced: first is the "liturgical flavor" of the expression,
especially in Matthew; the baptismal formula presupposes the
explicit faith in the Trinity, which was not achieved, it seems,
until at least a generation after the Ascension. Then comes the
attitude of the Jerusalem Church towards the gentiles, its
reluctance to "go out" and to admit them in her community, as we
see in the case of the centurion Cornelius (Acts 10-11): had
they known such a clear order of Christ, they would not have
suffered the qualms of conscience Luke and Paul describe, until
after the "council" of Jerusalem (Acts 15, Galatians). The Bible
shows how often God "speaks" through historical events. Being
pious Jews, they did not realize that the "new wine" could not
be contained in the "old skins;" the primitive Church had to
experience first the startling effects of Pentecost (usually
through the best pedagogy: suffering), before they "remembered"
the liberating word of the Lord (Mt 26:75; 27:63; Lk 24:6, 8; Jn
2:17; 16:4; Acts 11:16). They felt the Lord present in their
midst and speaking through the events and they "remembered the
word" implicit in Jesus’ life and teaching, and mainly in the
Paschal Mystery, and they formulated it in the texts the Spirit
inspired in our Scriptures. Regarding this missionary mandate,
at least three points are worthy of attention:
1) The "Great Commission" is a constitutive
element of the Church itself. The purpose of forming the group
of the Twelve was "to send them to preach" (Mk 3:14); the group
is the "kernel of the New Israel" (AG 5a). Before Easter,
they went to preach to their compatriots; after the
resurrection, that mission gained universal dimension but was
the same mission. The final scene of Matthew makes explicit the
meaning embedded in the gestures and words of Jesus. Exegesis
discovers significant allusions: the Risen Lord appears to evoke
the figure of the Son of Man in Daniel 7; the group of disciples
is like the "faithful remnant" and Jesus the messianic king: "He
was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples,
nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is
an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom
is one that will never be destroyed" (Dan 7:14). From another
viewpoint, Jesus appears as Moses in Sinai; the words: "All
power has been given to me…" is the equivalent of "Hear, O
Israel" (Deut 4:1; 5:1, etc), making the missionary command like
the ten commandments, the law of the new Israel. In Jn
20:22 (the parallel of Mt 28:19), Jesus breathes the Spirit upon
the disciples, evoking Gen 2:7, like Yahweh breathed life into
the old Adam: the missionary mandate creates the Church.
Now the Spirit continues creating new humankind through the
mission of the Church. In the absence of the Spirit, the mission
is impossible; in the presence of the Spirit, it is inescapable.
So the commission to preach the gospel belongs to the essence of
the Church by the will of her Founder and by the presence of his
Spirit. Ignoring the mission, the Church would renounce her
origins and deny herself.
2) The obedience of the Church to Christ is
similar to the obedience of Jesus to his Father: unconditional
obedience (which Ad Gentes calls "a necessity" and "a
sacred duty" with reference to 1Cor 9:16), only out of love,
like children to their father, or disciples to their master;
this obedience is not just the fulfillment of a law or the
effect of fear of punishment. This way –says the council– the
missioner, "joined with Christ in obedience to the will of the
Father, will continue his mission under the hierarchical
authority of the Church and cooperate in the mystery of
salvation" (AG 25end). Christian obedience
consists in following in the steps of Christ, driven only by the
often "foolish" dynamism of love. As the Father sends the Son,
so Christ sends his friends (cf. Jn 15:15), not slaves or
soldiers…
3) Who must obey this injunction? John says
"the disciples," Matthew and Mark speak of "the Eleven" that is
the core group, seed of the hierarchy. Lumen Gentium 17
applies the command to the whole Church: "The obligation of
spreading the faith is imposed on every disciple of Christ,
according to his ability." The deep reason is that the whole
Church is built upon the apostles and therefore is "apostolic"
in all her members and dimensions; the mission of the apostles
touches everybody.
Nevertheless Vatican II singles out the
Episcopal body as direct responsible for the mission, because
they are "successors of the Apostles" (AG 1a, 5). AG 5
points to a double source of the missionary obligation: "This
duty exists not only in virtue of the express command which was
inherited from the apostles by the order of bishops… but also in
virtue of that life which flows from Christ into his members…"
Number 6 begins saying: "This duty must be fulfilled by the
order of bishops…" and afterwards, most emphatically: "Christ’s
mandate to preach the gospel to every creature (Mk 16:15)
primarily and immediately concerns the bishops, with Peter and
under Peter" (AG 38a). The clearest text is LG
23c: "The task of proclaiming the gospel everywhere on earth
devolves on the body of pastors, to all of whom in common Christ
gave his command, thereby imposing upon them a common duty, as
pope Celestine in his time reminded the Fathers of the council
of Ephesus." Incorporated into the episcopal body through the
sacrament of ordination and the hierarchical communion, a bishop
is ipso facto "ordained missionary," with rights and
duties directly derived from Christ; a bishop is not an
auxiliary of the pope. The ministry of a bishop is comprised of
many aspects; the missionary commitment belongs to the function
of "teacher," as Lumen Gentium says: "As successors of
the Apostles, the bishops receive from Christ the mission to
teach all nations and to preach the gospel to every creature"
(24a). The first missionary is the pope, in his function of head
of the Episcopal body.
As for priests, they receive the missionary
mandate at their ordination. The Decree on the Priests of
Vatican II states: "Since no one can be saved who has not first
believed, priests, as co-workers with their bishops, have as
their primary duty the proclamation of the gospel of God
to all, so that, obeying the command of the Lord: ‘Go into the
whole world and preach the gospel to every creature’, they may
establish and increase the people of God" (PO 4a, cf.
10a). A priest is not ordained to take care of a parish, but of
the world Christ has redeemed.
Finally, some receive a special charism that
is the missionary vocation. They feel entrusted with the Great
Commission as their personal responsibility, and execute it
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and their ecclesiastical
superiors, as "ambassadors of Christ." Anyway, advises the
council, "Let them be convinced that obedience is the hallmark
of the servant of Christ, who redeemed the human race through
his obedience" (AG 24b).
The Scriptures recorded the missionary
mandate not as an "ordinary" or "casual" word of the Lord, but
as the final statement, which summarizes, so to say, his whole
mission. For a disciple, this is Jesus’ testament, last will. It
is, therefore, a cardinal element of what it means to be
Christian. During his public life, Jesus gathered disciples,
trained them and sent them, like in a trial assignment, to
preach the good news (Mt 10), that is gave them a share in his
own mission. Only that this mission, before and after
the Resurrection differed deeply: before, Jesus was only
sent to his people, "to the lost sheep of Israel;"
afterwards, he embraces the whole creation; before,
the good news was "the Kingdom of God is near", afterwards,
the good news is "the Lord is risen!" and all the consequences
of this unique event; before, Jesus bore witness to his
Father, afterwards, the disciples –the Church– bear
witness to Christ. However, both missions –of Jesus and of the
Church– are radically the same (cf. Jn 20:21). In sum, the
missionary mandate is the logical conclusion of Jesus’ life and
ministry, death and resurrection, person and function.
The Ecclesiological Roots of
Missionary Activity
Vatican II proposes this thesis: "The pilgrim
Church is missionary by her very nature, for it is from the
mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she
takes her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the
Father" (AG 2a). The "pilgrim" Church is the one
described in the dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, and
consistently expounded in all the other documents. The very
being of the Church is missionary because her purpose—the
intention of her Maker—is to serve as instrument of God’s plan
of salvation, or putting it in different words, whatever she is
and has has been put there with that intention. The essence of
the Church appears then in her very origin (the mission of the
Son and of the Spirit), in her end (realizing the plan of the
Father) and in her existential reality (being the sacrament of
universal salvation). Let us reflect on some of these aspects.
The Church as Sacrament
Lumen Gentium opens up linking Christ,
"light of the nations," with the Church, which is, "in Christ, a
kind of sacrament of intimate union with God and of unity of all
humankind, that is, she is a sign and an instrument of such
union and unity" (LG 1). She is the People of God, sent
to the whole world to be "instrument for the redemption of all,"
in other words, "that for each and all she may be the visible
sacrament of this saving unity" (LG 9, cf. 48, 59). This
doctrine will be expounded and concretized in the Decree for
Missionary Activity; it begins: "The Church has been divinely
sent to all nations that she might be the universal sacrament of
salvation." This means that if the Church is not present in a
nation, salvation somehow suffers there. The Church is compared
analogically with the mystery of Incarnation (cf. LG 8a):
although the saving Word had been active always and everywhere,
yet "for us and for our salvation, He came down from heaven" at
a given moment and in a particular place; in analogous fashion,
the universal sacrament of salvation has to become effective
locally.
The divine plan of salvation is sacramental.
It means that God wants to grant his invisible grace in a
visible manner. The prime example is Jesus Christ. It follows
that the Church has to be missionary not only because she is the
sacrament of salvation, but also in a sacramental way; that is
the reason why she tries to be visibly present everywhere, to
offer to everybody "all the means of salvation" that Christ has
deposited in her (cf. LG 14b). The sacramental sign is
formed by the elements that make the Church visible: the
faithful people united with their pastors, the Scriptures, the
rites, a Christian way of life, and so on; the salvation she
offers is Christ himself, because she is sacrament in Christ and
of Christ. Were this sacramental sign perfect, she would be able
to say: who sees me sees Christ (cf. Jn 14:9); because of this,
ideally, the council repeats that the countenance of Christ must
shine forth in the face of the Church (cf. LG 1, 15;
GS 43). The sacramentality of the Church is a derived one,
from Christ, the primordial sacrament, whose body she is. Like
Christ, the Church has a sort of theandric nature, with a divine
energy embodied in her structures (cf. LG 8a). The
consequence therefore is that the more perfect her figure is the
more efficacious the sacrament becomes; the holier, for example,
is the life of the Christian community, the better this
sacrament will convey God’s salvation. That is the reason why
Mother Church "exhorts her children to purify and renew
themselves, so that the sign of Christ may shine more brightly
over the face of the Church" (LG 15end). According to Jn
17:21, the most efficacious element of this sacramentality is
unity; a divided Church –or community– is a broken sign. A
united Church would be "like a standard lifted high for the
nations to see" (UR 2e), with a double effect: to
irradiate and to attract. The ministers of this sacrament are
all the members of the Church, who thereby become
"christbearers," signs and instruments of Christ’ presence in
their societies.
Which is the specific grace this sacrament
contains? The Epistle to the Ephesians teaches that the mystery
of Christ aims at "bringing all things in heaven and on earth
together under one head that is Christ."(1:10); missionary
activity is the chosen way to achieve this plan in history. The
grace the Church shares is unity of all peoples and cultures in
Christ, becoming a new single People, confessing a common faith,
sharing a common table, worshiping a common Father. That would
be "the fullness of Christ" which is the Church (Eph 1:23). This
plan will be fully achieved only in the heavenly Jerusalem, but
here on earth the mission ad gentes spells the Church’s
striving towards it.
This Church-Sacrament is catholic.
"Catholic" (from the Greek kath‘olou, katholikē)
means "total," "integral," literally "holistically
Christian" and, especially from St. Augustine, "universal."
Being wholly in communion with Christ and safeguarding
integrally the deposit of faith, the Church possesses all the
means of salvation Christ has instituted and makes them
available universally. Even when or where she is only "a little
flock," the Church is catholic: the dynamism to deploy this
catholicity is the source of missionary activity. "This
characteristic of universality which adorns the People of God is
a gift from the Lord himself. By reason of it, the Catholic
Church strives energetically and constantly to bring all
humanity with all its riches back to Christ its Head in the
unity of his Spirit" (LG 13b; cf. Redemptoris Missio
85). "Catholic" means "all-embracing" or "holistic" also from
the cultural point of view, what today we express in the slogan:
"unity in diversity." The Divine Word has created numberless
qualities and multifarious beauty, distributed among all kinds
of peoples; the same Word has redeemed all his works, so that
through the Church they might be incorporated into his Body. The
mission of the Church is precisely to transform into historical
realities the content of this mystery of faith. The
values—cultural, religious or otherwise—in a people, country,
etc., are invitations to the Church to accomplish this task,
which has still a long way to go. In this long process, the
mission may seem to make no headway, even to suffer setbacks;
that’s why the council says that "concerning individuals, groups
and peoples, only by degrees does the Church touch and pervade
them, and thus take them up into full catholicity" (AG
6b). In other words, the mission consists in transforming the
"catholicity of right" into "catholicity of fact:" the awareness
about the gap between these two concepts spurs on missionary
zeal. That is what Pius XII expressed in Fidei Donum:
"Catholic spirit and missionary spirit are the same," which
Ad Gentes echoes: "Therefore all children of the Church
should have a lively awareness of their responsibility to the
world, should foster in themselves a truly catholic spirit and
should spend their energies in the work of evangelization" (AG
36b).
The Church is a Growing Reality
The Church is a "living organism" and
therefore must grow. To expound this idea, Vatican II has used a
series of metaphors in nn.5-7 of Lumen Gentium. Let us
see some of them:
1) Kingdom of God._
Jesus started his ministry announcing the coming of the Kingdom
of God (cf. Mk 1:15), which was the central theme of his
preaching. He himself was the budding presence of this Kingdom,
which is to be continued and expanded by the Church in history;
her mission is simply "to proclaim and to establish among all
peoples the kingdom of Christ and of God" (LG 5b). The
Church and God’s (and Christ’s) kingdom have a dialectical
relationship: on the one hand, she does not coincide with the
Kingdom; on the other hand, she cannot be conceived apart from
that Kingdom. The Church is not a mere "servant of the kingdom,"
she is the seed of the Kingdom and—using other metaphors—the
Body and the Bride of the King. Lumen Gentium calls the
Church "the Kingdom of God now present in mystery" and growing
visibly in the world (LG 3). The reason of this presence
is the faith of the Christians who confess openly "Jesus is the
Lord," the growth comes from the power of God and will continue
until the Parousia, when Christ will hand over the Kingdom to
the Father (1Cor 15:24; cf. LG 5b, 9b, GS 39c).
At the service of this mission, the Church
plays a crucial role. The Lord has entrusted "the keys of the
Kingdom" to the universal pastor of the Church (cf. Mt 16:19),
with an awesome power shared with the body of the bishops: "to
bind and loose whatsoever" on earth with an effect in heaven
(18:18). This means a tremendous responsibility for the Kingdom
and for those who will enter into it, resting mainly on the
shoulders of the hierarchy. But not only the clergy, all the
members share in the quality of "seed of the kingdom." The
family, for example, sanctified by the sacrament of Matrimony,
"loudly proclaims both the present virtues of the kingdom of God
and the hope of a blessed life to come" (LG 35c); in
today’s Church, the family is the main place where the kingdom
grows. Another instance is religious life; it shines forth as a
challenging witness, leaving all for the sake of the kingdom and
incarnating in their lives the cause of the kingdom (cf. LG
44). Thus the life of the Church, be it in the clergy, the laity
or the religious, is like the womb where the kingdom gestates.
Like a mother expectant her child, so the Church is in tension
of hope, praying unceasingly: "Come, Lord Jesus!" (Rev 22:20),
and entreating the Father: "Your kingdom come!" This is the
basic object of Christian prayer.
God’s Kingdom has to grow: the guests at the
messianic banquet, sitting with the patriarchs, will come from
the East and from the West, that is, from everywhere (cf. Mt
8:11); but if the servants of the Master do not go out to invite
them, nobody comes (cf. Mt 22:10). The Church has understood
that the missionary activity is symbolized in this parable.
Hence she hopes that "God’s people, undertaking the narrow way
of the cross, may spread everywhere the kingdom of Christ, the
Lord and Overseer of the ages…" (AG 1end).
The council calls the Church germen et
initium, "seed and beginning" of the kingdom (LG 5b),
which means that she has to grow into the kingdom and to
continue growing, otherwise loses her
raison d'être or simply dies. It also indicates
continuity between the Church on earth and the Kingdom in
heaven; this idea is a pivot of mission theology. This growth
can be understood in two ways:
One way is a natural budding forth, like a
plant, quasi automatic (cf. Mc 4:26-29), with the inner dynamism
of the Holy Spirit, of course. It is the "leaven effect" of
sanctity (cf. Mt 13:33): if the people of the Church are holy,
their presence will transform the neighborhood into the Kingdom;
if they are sinners, the name of Christ will be loathsome
because of them (cf. Ez 36:20-23) and "the growth of God’s
kingdom is retarded" (UR 4f). Vatican II repeats many
times this need to grow, precisely because the Church lives in
the middle of the world, is part of a given society, with a
"call to form the family of God’s children during the present
history of the human race, and to keep increasing it until the
Lord comes" (GS 40b).
Another way is through the preaching of the
Gospel with the charism of prophecy: "Christ, the Great Prophet…
continually fulfills his prophetic office until his full glory
is revealed. He does this not only through the hierarchy, who
teach in his name and with his authority, but also through the
laity. For that very purpose he made them his witnesses and gave
them understanding of the faith and the grace of speech (cf.
Acts 2:17-18; Apoc 19:10), so that the power of the gospel might
shine forth in their daily social and family life" (LG
35a). "Preaching of the gospel" here means any way and effort to
spread the evangelical values and teach Christian truth, the
work for justice, peace, harmony, fraternity, mutual love, and
so on in the name of Jesus; a society more just and loving is
nearer to the Kingdom of God. Material development or economic
improvement is not enough; the council is explicit on this
point: "The Church has a single intention: that God’s kingdom
may come, and the salvation of the whole human race may come to
pass" (GS 45a). But salvation is not an automatic affair:
each person has to decide his/her final destiny; saint Paul
warns his believers: "Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually
immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor
homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards
nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God"
(cf. 1Cr 6:9-10). Jesus also spoke of a narrow gate to enter the
Kingdom (cf. Lk 13:24); the Church has the obligation to caution
against false security. That’s why Ad Gentes emphasizes:
"But it is not enough that the Christian people be present and
be organized in a given nation, nor is it enough to carry out an
apostolate by way of example. They are organized for this
purpose, they are present for this, to announce Christ to their
non-Christian fellow-citizens by word and example, and to aid
them toward the full reception of Christ" (AG 15h).
2) The Body of
Christ._ Vatican II develops this image in
Lumen Gentium n. 7. The Church is a social body (1Cor and
Rom) and a mystical entity with Christ as head (Eph and Col).
The graces and charisms Christians receive are due to the union
in this body and with the head, and all have a purpose: to
contribute to the health and growth of the body. Christ as new
Adam and Head of the body is the source of life and solidarity
in the new humankind. The reality of this Body is best
symbolized in the Eucharist of the bishop with his people, where
appear the Mystical Body’s love and unity, "without which—says
the council quoting St. Thoma—there can be no salvation" (LG
26a). For this reason, speaking about separated Christians, the
council also urges "to establish on earth the one Body of
Christ, into which all those should be fully incorporated who
already belong in any way to God’s People" (UR 3e). Being
body of Christ, the Church also carries the quality of the Head:
"man-for-others" and servant. Christ did not keep his fullness
for himself, but shared it with others, he lived and died for
others; as Jesus was the incarnation of the Father’s universal
salvific will, so the Church is the incarnation of Christ’s
universal outreach. Christ is "the universal man," and the
Church is "the fullness of him who fills everything in every
way,"… "growing into the whole measure of the fullness of Christ
... from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every
supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each
part does its work." (cf. Eph 1:23; 4: 12-16). The Church is
Christ-centered, but the way to fully reach Christ passes
through "all nations," not in order to gather them into herself
but to share herself (her fullness) with them. Translated into
plain English, this esoteric language means missionary action.
The growth of the body takes place in two
dimensions: inner growth in sanctity and outer increase in
numbers.8 Because life is only one, history shows
that epochs of great missionary zeal offer also abundant harvest
of saints, and the decline in missionary vocations is sign of a
lukewarm Christian spirit.
3) Other images._
Number 6 of Lumen Gentium displays a number of images of
the Church, taken from various conditions of ordinary life.
Echoing the gospel of John (10:1-16), the
Church is compared with a sheep fold and flock; the prophets had
used this metaphor to speak of Israel (cf. Is 40:11, Ez 34:11,
etc.). Jesus alludes here to "the other sheep that do not belong
to this fold," that he must bring them in also (Jn 10:16). He is
the Good Shepherd, ready to leave the 99 sheep in the wilderness
and go searching for one which was lost (cf. Mt 18:12); strange
pastoral priority, that ought to force the Church to refocus her
apostolic planning...
The Church is also the field of God or divine
agriculture (cf. 1Cor 3:9), which makes us think of the vineyard
(cf. Mt 21:33-4) or of the vine tree (cf. Jn 15:1-5); in any
case the Lord expects a good yield. If we pay attention to the
parables of the sower or the weeds (Mt 13:1ff), we notice that
Jesus says that the world is the field where good seed –that is
the word of God– has to be sown with various success: some will
accept it some will reject it, some will produce much, some
little. Theology of mission has often conceived of this activity
as "planting the Church" in a territory so that it grows and
reaches maturity in it (cf. AG 6c). In this field "grows
the ancient olive tree" of Israel, into which the gentiles are
being grafted; Saint Paul felt sad because so few Israelites
believed in Christ, but revelation taught him that one day, when
"the fullness of the nations has entered" the Church, Israel
will be saved (cf. Rom 11). Missionary activity is needed to
hasten this day.
As the house of God, the Church is
built with "living stones" which are the faithful (cf. 1Pet
2:5). The apostles gather stones from the four corners of the
world and assemble them on Christ, so that "the whole building
is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the
Lord" (Eph 2:21). It is here that the "non-people" becomes a
priestly People of God, able to offer an existential liturgy,
made out of their daily chores, that consecrates the world. In
this house the old enemies become one family with God as Father.
The Time of the Church: Eschatological
Dimension of he Mission
Being a historical reality, the Church must
develop in time, while waiting for the Lord to come. The meaning
of this waiting period is interpreted by Vatican II as follows:
"And so the time for missionary activity extends between the
first coming of the Lord and the second. Then from the four
winds the Church will be gathered like a harvest into the
kingdom of God. For the gospel must be preached to all nations
before the Lord returns (cf. Mk 13:10)" (AG 9a). From
this viewpoint, missionary activity is an urgent task, "because
the time is short" (1Cor 7:29) and the assignment compulsory. It
started the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit inaugurated "the
last times" and the apostles began to carry out their mission:
to be witnesses of Jesus in Jerusalem and until the end of the
earth (cf. Acts 1:8). This missionary thrust is the driving
force of hope that keeps the Church moving: "While she slow
grows, the Church strains towards the consummation of the
kingdom and, with all her strength, hopes and desires to be
united in glory with her King" (LG 5end).
That means that missionary activity gives
sense to the existence of the Church and, through her, to human
history, because it is through this means, chosen by God, that
humankind reaches the end for which it was created: the glory of
God and of Christ. "On the day he comes—writes Saint Paul—to be
glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all
those who have believed" (2Thes 1:10), the significance of the
mission will be fully understood.
In this context, we must remember that the
Eucharist is celebrated while waiting for Christ’s coming: "we
proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come in glory." We
are to be awake, like the servants ready to open the gate to the
Master (cf. Lk 12:37, 1Thes 5:10). That is one of the reasons
why the Church has to be present everywhere, to keep watch in
the Eucharist until He comes (1Cor 11:26). This "eschatological
necessity" of missions has prompted some theologians to sustain
the thesis that missions are a condition for the Lord to come.9
We do not know which is the exact rapport between missions and
the parousia, but the New Testament indicates some kind of
connection. When Saint Peter was preaching in Jerusalem, he
invited his compatriots to conversion "so that… (hópōs àn)
the Lord send to you Jesus Christ…" (Acts 3:20-21); and in his
letter he writes that we must not only "look forward to the day
of God" but also "speed its coming" (2Pr 3:12). Anyway, the
missions multiply those who pray, "Thy Kingdom come!" and "Lord
Jesus, come!"
To the eschatological horizon belongs also
the concept of "messianic people" that Vatican II develops in
LG 9. This People bears the hope of humankind towards the
absolute future. The main historical endeavor of this people is
to preach the Good News: "its goal is the kingdom of God, which
has been begun by God himself on earth, and which is to be
further extended until it is brought to perfection by Him in the
end of time. This people … is used by Christ as an instrument
for the redemption of all, and is sent forth into the whole
world as the light of the world and the salt of the earth" (LG
9b). "Messianic" means "anointed" and sharing in the unction of
Christ, especially with priestly and prophetic charisms, which
enable them to bear witness to Christ and preach his Gospel (cf.
LG 35). At the same time it is a pilgrim people, bringing
forwards the hope of the earth (cf. LG 14a, 48c, DV
7b). In sum, the goal of this pilgrim, messianic people is to
share their hope with those nearby and with those far away.
The Unity of the Church and the
Missions
The unity of the Church and missionary
activity are so closely related that one can hardly talk about
one and bypass the other. Jesus himself established he link
between these two realities (cf. Jn 17:18-21). Without unity of
the Christians their mission will fail. Aware of the problem,
the conciliar Fathers stated in he prologue of the Decree on
Christian Unity: Division of Christianity "openly
contradicts the will of Christ, provides a stumbling block to
the world and inflicts damage on the most holy cause of
proclaiming the good news to every creature" (UR 1a). The
Decree on the Missions abounds in the same sense and longs
for the unity of Christians so that they may bear a united
witness to Christ (AG 6f). Conversely, missionary activity is a
strong impulse for ecumenism; in fact, the ecumenical movement
in Protestantism started in missionary circles. It is
unfortunate, though, that the missionary zeal of some groups is
spreading not unity but more division. We have also suffered
from missionary competition in the same place, leading not
seldom to the phenomenon of "stealing the sheep" from one
another. Church in Asia, n. 30 states: "In Asia,
precisely where the number of Christians is proportionately
small, division makes missionary work still more difficult… In
fact, the division among Christians is seen as a counter-witness
to Jesus Christ by many in Asia who are searching for harmony
and unity through their own religions and cultures." It is by
engaging faithfully in missionary activity that we hope to
receive the grace of unity.
Mission and Human Values
"Missionary activity is closely bound up too
with human nature itself and its aspirations" (AG 8a). If
missionary activity is an instrument in God’s plan, it cannot
but have an import on human welfare, both individual and social.
The main asset of common good is peace. Faith
teaches us that peace is God’s gift and the source of authentic
peace is Christ. The epistle to the Ephesians says: "he himself
is our peace… His purpose was to create in himself one new man
out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to
reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put
to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who
were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him
we both have access to the Father by one Spirit" (Eph 2:14-18).
Thus, making disciples of Christ is to bring them into the realm
of peace. Moreover, the common good is variously understood,
depending on the worldview of a culture or human group.
Undoubtedly Christianity conveys a new worldview, which
contributes to a better family life and social justice; the idea
of human rights—nay, of "person" itself—if of Christian origin.
Tradition has understood God’s plan from two
viewpoints: creation and sanctification, or material and
spiritual welfare. In the book of Genesis, we see how sin mars
not only human relationships but also the environment, that is
nature (cf. Gen 3:16ff; Rom 8:19ff); therefore any action to
combat sin and to bring about that "justice of God" which is the
kernel of saint Paul’s gospel will have positive impact on the
whole society and even on the natural milieu. The council
reminds us that "the gospel has truly been a leaven of liberty
and progress in human history, even in the temporal sphere, and
always proves itself a leaven of brotherhood, of unity, and of
peace" (AG 8b). Christianity consecrates the value of
labor—Jesus himself was a worker!—and the obligation of
contributing to the common good. Establishing a visible "family
of the children of God" is the best starting point of that
"civilization of love" that pope Paul VI was dreaming of.
History can be ambiguous and shows that
missions have harmed harmony and peace in society (see Mt
10:34-36 par); but an honest evaluation of the influence of
Christian missions cannot ignore the momentous contributions to
education, health care, agricultural improvement,
conscientization of marginalized minorities and exploited social
classes, and so on. In European Middle Ages, evangelization and
civilization were synonymous, and it has often been so; the
missionaries have invented the writing systems for most
languages of the world. In our times, binding up faith and
justice emphasizes this point.
If charity is the soul of all apostolate,
missionary activity is driven by love more than any other form
of Church’s action. Ad Gentes writes that "the Church
undertakes this activity in obedience to Christ command and in
response to the grace and love of the Holy Spirit" (AG
5a). This love is first the Father’s love for humankind (cf.
AG 12), which is the absolute source of mission and, as a
consequence, the missionary Church must be a sort of embodiment
of this love. Love being by nature self-giving, the Church’s
mission is sharing her very being. The expected response to love
is love: the Church’s love goes first and foremost to the
Father, whose glory she promotes; then to the Son, who loves her
as Spouse: it is unconceivable that the Spouse would not strive
at her utmost to make her Beloved one known, honored and loved
everywhere. As for individual Christians, how can someone claim
to love Jesus and not engaging fully in making him loved by
others… (cf. 2Cor 5:14).
But "love" in this context is usually
understood as love of others, as Christ has loved us. Christian
spirituality, in fact, "gives rise and urgency to the love of
one’s neighbor for the world’s salvation and the upbuilding of
the Church" (PC 6a). The aim of love is the interests of
the beloved from all points of view: material and spiritual,
temporal and eternal, individual and collective, and so on. In
the domain of the mission, the council explains: "The members of
the Church are impelled to carry on such missionary activity by
reason of the love with which they love God and by which they
desire to share with all men in the spiritual goods of both this
life and the life to come" (AG 7b). Being aware of the
treasures of grace the Christians enjoy in the Church
(revelation, sacraments, divine sonship…), they must remember
the word of Jesus: "It is more blessed to give than to receive"
(Acts 20:35), and this applies mainly to spiritual goods. Not to
share (or make productive) such divine gifts would mean to incur
the "anger" of the Lord, like the slothful servant of the
parable (Mt 25:26), or to be simply spiritually egoist. In the
history of the missions, the gift that has moved most
missionaries –with a heavily emotional component– has been the
gift of salvation; today theology recognizes the possibility of
salvation outside Christianity. And yet, the Church insists that
the main purpose of missionary activity is bringing salvation to
others (cf. LG 16end). In this point personal
sensitivities have a strong bearing. When loving the needy
neighbor is mentioned, the needs are usually spelled out in
terms of material dearth or cultural poverty; however a
Christian ought to heed the word of Pius XI: "no one can be
thought so poor and naked, no one so infirm or hungry, as the
one who is deprived of the knowledge and grace of God."10
Vatican II teaches that no one knows himself fully unless in
Jesus Christ (cf. GS 22); Christian faith, therefore,
brings a person to full maturity. The love of others urges us to
dialogue, so that we may know better "others," even enemies;
"this love and good will, to be sure, must in no way render us
indifferent to truth and goodness, indeed love itself impels the
disciples of Christ to speak the saving truth to all people" (GS
28b). In sum, where there is love the missionary will springs up
(cf. AG 12), and so we can affirm that as long as there is love
of God and neighbor in the Church, the missionary endeavor will
continue; and if missionary spirit and commitment decline, it is
sign that love is on the wane.