The Living Gospel: Learning from the Missionaries for the 21st-Century Catholic Church of South Africa

By James Katende – The story of the Catholic Church in South Africa is incomplete without the lives of the missionaries—men and women who left behind comfort, nationality, recognition, and sometimes even safety, to walk among strangers and become the living Gospel in flesh and blood. They did not come with hollow speeches or distant doctrines; they came with calloused hands, worn shoes, and hearts ablaze with the love of Christ. They came to serve, to suffer, and to stay.

These missionaries were not just preachers—they were builders of schools, founders of hospitals, healers of the sick, defenders of the oppressed, and companions to the broken. They did not merely speak of Christ—they embodied Him. In rural villages, urban slums, apartheid prisons, and post-liberation communities, they brought light where darkness lingered. Their presence was not marked by titles, but by transformation. Their power was not in status, but in sacrifice.

And now, in the 21st century, when the Church finds itself surrounded by the noise of digital distractions, theological debates, and institutional scepticism, the witness of the missionary is more relevant than ever. In South Africa—a nation still healing from systemic wounds, still grappling with youth disillusionment, corruption, and moral fatigue—the Catholic Church must rise again, not in voice only, but in visible action. The example of the missionary calls us not to comfort, but to compassion. Not to power, but to presence.

Don’t settle for convenience

Today’s Catholic is tempted to settle for convenience: to attend Mass without service, to believe without action, to know without sacrifice. But the missionary example shakes us awake. It reminds us that faith is not something we possess—it is something we live, breathe, give, and even die for. The Church is not called to be a monument—it is called to be a movement. And that movement must begin again with courage.

The missionaries of old were not perfect, but they were bold. They embraced cultures, learned languages, ate unfamiliar food, and buried their dead far from home. Why? Because they had encountered the love of Christ, and they could not keep it to themselves. This is what South Africa needs today—not more noise, but more witnesses. Not more spectators in pews, but servants in the streets.

We must ask ourselves: where are the modern missionaries? Not only those who cross borders, but those who cross the street to visit the forgotten. Where are the Catholics willing to serve in orphanages, minister in prisons, clean church grounds, or sit in silence with the grieving? Where are the youth who will lay down their phones to lift up their hands? Where are the business people who will turn their profit into purpose? Where are the religious leaders who will go beyond the pulpit and into the pain of the people?

South Africa does not need a Church that hides behind walls; it needs a Church that walks like Christ, talks like Christ, and loves like Christ. That is what the missionaries did. And that is what we must do. To love the unloved. To visit the prisoner. To care for the addict. To advocate for the voiceless. This is what it means to be Church. And this is what it means to be Catholic.

There is no time for spiritual spectatorship. The 21st-century Catholic in South Africa must rise with the fire of mission in their heart and the humility of service in their hands. We are all called to be missionaries—not necessarily across oceans, but in our families, workplaces, schools, and communities. The missionary heart listens more than it lectures. It gives more than it gathers. It stays when others leave.

Learn from missionaries

What can we learn from the missionaries? That transformation begins with presence. That lives are changed not by brilliant words, but by faithful love. That people are not moved by titles, but by tears. That the cross is not just to be worn—it is to be carried. They showed us that faith without service is dead. That holiness without humility is hypocrisy. And that love without sacrifice is not love at all.

This is the time for the Church in South Africa to reclaim its missionary spirit. To stop waiting for perfect conditions and start moving in imperfect obedience. To stop speaking about change and start becoming the change. The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few—not because God has not called, but because too many have become passive in the pews. It is time to get up. To go out. To serve. To suffer. To stay.

Let us honour the legacy of the missionaries not by retelling their stories but by continuing their mission. Let our lives become the sermon. Let our love become the doctrine. Let our hands become the sacrament. Let our presence become the healing. This is what the Church was born for—not safety, but sacrifice. Not programs, but people. Not control, but compassion.

To every Catholic in South Africa—young or old, lay or ordained, rich or poor—you are called. You are chosen. You are needed. Do not underestimate the power of your presence, your prayer, your time, and your touch. Do not wait for permission to love boldly. Do not wait for the Church to move—you are the Church in the 21st Century

The missionaries did not change the world by watching. They changed it by walking. Now it is your turn to make a difference. May we rise from comfort into compassion.

May we rise from performance into purpose.
May we rise from speaking about Christ to living like Christ.

And may the fire of mission burn again—in every heart, in every parish, and across the nation.

Amen