The missionary parish

GUEST EDITORIAL BY MICHAEL SHACKLETON

On Mission Sunday we recall that Vatican II said the Church is missionary by her very nature (Ad gentes, 2). This statement was an important exercise in self-understanding for the Church at the time.

Up till then, there was an attitude that made a distinction between the Church as an established visible presence in the world, and those of its members who, in their ardour to spread the Gospel of Christ as missionaries, left their homelands to take the message  into foreign and unfamiliar places. There were even some bishops present at the Council who had regarded the missionaries as peripheral to the established Church.

The Council thus taught that the Church’s missionary activity applies to evangelisation, the spreading of the faith among those who are not yet Christian, and this is the duty of every single member of the faithful.

In its missionary outreach the Church as a whole resolutely labours to expand its boundaries into the world. This expansion is not merely geographical, as was once the prevalent opinion, but it also crosses into the lives of peoples, cultures and individuals.

In his Mission Sunday message Pope Francis has reaffirmed the obligation of every Catholic to live and act in such a way as to demonstrate what our faith means to us. He reminds us that faith is God’s gift that is not meant to be kept to ourselves but to be shared. Otherwise, he cautions, we will become isolated, sterile and sick Christians.

The emphasis here is that missionary activity must never be tolerantly considered as something additional to the Christian’s normal life. It is not something exclusively undertaken by individuals who have a strong vocational urge to do it.

The pope shows that he is aware that it is becoming more difficult to invite others to share the joy of knowing Christ and his Church. In our own era, he says, people are not settled. They move and mingle, gaining knowledge and experience through professional and cultural exchanges, tourism and great movements of populations.

Also, it is frightening to know that Christians in many parts of the world are being persecuted again, their churches destroyed and their members slain. It is not easy to be missionaries in these destructive circumstances. Faced with this confusing and daunting scenario, faithful Christians may be tempted to lose heart.

Yet Christ’s command cannot be ignored, and for the everyday Catholic it can be obeyed at parish level.

Because its sphere of action is naturally parochial, the parish can find itself involved in an abundance of ministries that tend to overshadow the Church’s universal view of its missionary vocation. Bringing in the lost sheep and bringing in new members of the Church frequently becomes a sufficient and local form of parish missionary activity. The Council makes it quite clear, though, that this is not what it means by missionary activity.

Missionary activity it states,“differs from pastoral activity exercised among the faithful as well as from undertakings aimed at restoring unity among Christians (Ad gentes, 6).

The Holy Father has invited bishops, priests, pastoral councils and parishes to give a prominent position to the missionary dimension of their intention to bear witness to Christ before the nations and all peoples.

The Prayer of the Faithful, which is an integral part of the parish liturgy, should be a good starting place. In addition to a once-a-year Mission Sunday appeal, a daily or weekly petition for the needs of the missions and missionaries will not only be efficacious before God but will concentrate our minds and wills to want to bring others to know that the power of Christ’s love can overcome the darkness of evil.

It might also prompt individuals to be touched by divine grace to consider devoting their lives to carrying Christ’s love to non-Christians.