Two Preliminary Considerations
: Missionary Activity is a matter for associations.
RM 41 : Mission is a single but complex
Different Elements of Mission:
1. Proclamation and Catechesis
2. Witness
3. Dialogue
4. Human Liberation
5. Prayer and Contemplation

Mission as Proclamation
(Dialogue and Proclamation # 10)

Mission as Proclamation
(Redemptoris Missio # 44)

Proclaim the gospel in prophetic witness and proclamation
Paul VI:
“ There is no true evangelization if the name,
The teaching, the life …of Jesus of Nazareth… are not proclaimed.
” (EN 22)
Two aspects of Evangelization
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.
”

Bosch: a bold humility !
We do have something to say, to offer!
People need the gospel!
We need to speak boldly the truth of Jesus
Christ
We need to speak boldly against injustices to people and land
We 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.
”

Mission as Witness
“ The first means of evangelization is the witness of an authentically
Christian life ” (EN #41)

The church’s greatest problem today is that its witness does not measure up to its teaching;

MISSION AS WITNESS


Personal
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)

MISSION AS WITNESS
• 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)

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)

“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

Mission as Dialogue
“ 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)

“ 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)

We should do mission today through dialogue with
Respect
Openness
Willingness to learn
Attentiveness
Vulnerability
Hospitality
Humility
Evangelical mentality
“ The Church proposes; she imposes nothing ” ( RM 39 )

Learning the language
Bonding with the local people
Respecting and studying the culture
Learning about the local religions
Connecting with other religious leaders
Coming with our “ cups half empty ”

Just as God is dialogical in Godself and in the world . . .
So the church needs to give of itself in service to the world
So 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

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 poor
Will do mission “ out of poverty ”

John Paul II – Mission Sunday Message 2002

Living out and proclaiming the
Good News of the Gospel
So Mission is always done in dialogue, but it must also be a real evangelization….

Evangelization and Human Liberation
David Bosch said that
“ the relationship between theology and practice of mission.
”

Evangelization & Human Liberation close links between evangelization and human liberation.
First, economic and social factors .
God ’ there is a connection in the theological order:
’ s justice .
And finally,

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 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.
”

Prayer and Contemplation
(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 Litrugy
(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)

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
)

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?