CHURCH
MISSION - why & how
The Church
of Christ is based on a missionary Mandate: Go, Teach, Baptise.
Hence, the
‘why’ of mission has never been questioned but accepted as the “mission” of the
Church of Christ, from its very inception. The Church is missionary ny nature.
Bonum est diffusivum sui. (Good is self-diffusive).
If so, why
is Christianity opposed down the centuries and particularly, today?
In India, a
land of spiritual awakening, why is Christians hardly 2.1% of the population?
In the world, ISIS has vowed to “kill” Christianity and Christians? WHY?
Are the
issues Doctrinal, Moral, Political? Are the claims of Christianity to be One,
Holy, Universal, Apostolic Church false? Why is the Church not only growing in
numbers but being persecuted to decimation? Why?
Perhaps, we
need to seek an answer not in the ‘Why Mission’ but rather the ‘How Mission’
Let us then review the historical development of the missionary activity of the
Church.
A.
The
early Christian Community saw itself as “Peter’s barque” on a mission of
salvation, not only committed to the missionary mandate but also firmly convinced that there is no
salvation outside the Church of Christ.(Extra Ecclesiam, nulla salus). The
Community on Peter’s barque lived in an hierarchical structure with Peter
(Popes) at the summit with levels of various ranks. There were the Rulers, the
“Clergy” and Subjects, the “Laity”.
In this model of Church
that was maintained through centuries, the ‘Missionary’ was a person whose love
for Christ and obedience to His Mandate made of him a ‘Rescuer’ of the Masses
wallowing in the darkness of ignorance and idolatry.
The religious tenets and
rituals in earlier State Religions (Roman Emperor worship), Household
Gods, Judaism and other doctrines and forms of worship in the
Oriental world (Hindu Scriptures, Buddhism) was reduced to the ignorance and
idolatry category.
The attitude of the
Christian missionary was one who stood on a platform of wealth, knowledge and
holiness, entrusted with the compulsive task of “saving souls” with a sense of
sympathy and condescension towards the ignorant masses. Proselytism and conversion were missionary
slogans and the period of the Crusades and later, Colonialism, the missionary
activity of the Church could be described as aggressive spiritual membership
and territorial aggrandisement, through conquests or incentives.
Thus, President Julius
Nyerere of Tanzania would say: When the Missionaries came to us, we had the
land and they had the Bible. They taught us to join our hands and close our
eyes in prayer. When we opened our eyes, they had our land and we had their Bible; Since years missionaries
have been accused of recruiting ‘rice christians’ in India or building ‘
container churches’ in Africa. Add to this the many complaints of missionaries
being arrogant and domineering and often looking down on the local or natives.
( cfr. Missions on trial, by W.Buhlman; accounts from the Sudan)
B.
Vatican
II (1960ff) changes the missionary model and begins with the definition of the
Church, no more as Peter’s Barque but very simply as the “People of God” (LG,
AG). The Church is no more an hierarchical
structure but a community of love and unity as Jesus wanted it to be.(“That
they may be One, as the Father and I are..) Church Vocabulary talks now of
Religious Freedom and inclusive openness to other Religions. The anxiety is not
about Conversion, but Dialogue to promote inter-religious harmony.
C.
Partnership
in Mission is the new approach and missionary activity is a two-way process of
giving and receiving (sharing). In this context, a new missionary model emerges
with the presence now of “Third World Missionaries, hailing from the former
mission lands whose attitude is not of a Rescuer but a Partner in Mission.
D.
New
Evangelization shifts focus from the Church, the ‘exclusive’ Saving Barque of
Peter to the the ‘all inclusive’ Kingdom of God.
E.
Did Christ intend the Church to be the Kingdom
of God? He wanted His Disciples to be
the “Salt, Light and Yeast” to build the Kingdom. The “One Shepherd, One Flock”
refers to Jesus Christ the One Shepherd and the Kingdom a united Flock of all
religions with the Church as the Salt, Light and Yeast bonding the Kingdom.
F.
The
task of New Evangelization is to plant the conviction in all Religions, that a
purposeful Dialogue is the only path to building the Kingdom of God.
“I dream of a ‘missionary option’, that is, a missionary impulse capable
of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things,
times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the
evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation.
“The renewal of structures demanded by pastoral conversion can only be
understood in this light: as part of an effort to make them more
mission-oriented, to make ordinary pastoral activity on every level more
inclusive and open, to inspire in pastoral workers a constant desire to go
forth and in this way to elicit a positive response from all those whom Jesus
summons to friendship with him. As John Paul II once said to the Bishops of
Oceania: ‘All renewal in the Church must have mission as its goal if it is not
to fall prey to a kind of ecclesial introversion’… (Pope Francis)
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