A missionary is not a free entrepreneur; he belongs to a life community with which he is confronted, in the same way he confronts the Word of God that he strives to embody.
For a tree to be healthy, it must grow in two directions: both upwards and downwards. In this sense, the missionary is also confronted with a community formed by all those who, from the beginning and throughout the 2000 years, have lived in the apostolic faith, as for instance: the Church Fathers like Jerome, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Teresa of Avila..., and in literature like Dante's Divine Comedy, masterpieces like Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, music by Beethoven, Mozart, etc.
Today's missionary loves the tradition in which he is well planted, and sees himself as its continuator, like a runner in here and now of a relay race that began when Christ passed on his testimony to Peter and the apostles. This faith, which is essentially apostolic, is passed on from generation to generation, until the end of times, by the apostles of today, the missionaries.
We detach ourselves from the "sola fide sola gratia sola scriptura solus Christus" of Luther and his followers. First, because the Scripture or Word of God, as the written word, is subsequent to the Church, that is, to tradition. It is obvious that St. Paul's letters to the communities of Thessalonica, Ephesus, Corinth and Rome are subsequent to the constitution of these very communities: in other words, the address exists before the letter and not the other way around.
The gospels came after many of these letters and they are supposed to be the reflection of these same communities. Without the Church there would be no New Testament, just as without the people of Israel there would be no Old Testament.
Second, the dogmas such as Christ is truly man and truly God and the dogma of the Most Holy Trinity, accepted by all Protestants, are extra-biblical, they are the product of the Church’s reflection, that is, they belong to tradition. It makes no sense, to accept tradition up to a certain point in time and then to reject it on principle.
Lover of liturgy
(...) I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.’ The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. Isaiah 6:1-4
The liturgy and the sacraments celebrate the faith and they are means to grow in faith. Without the liturgy and the sacraments, the people of God would not be a people because they would not gather. Without the Eucharist there is no Church, without the Church there is no Eucharist; only the mystical body of Christ which is the Church can celebrate the sacramental body of Christ.
In addition to celebrating and growing in faith, and forming the community, the liturgy and the sacraments are virtual encounters with God. The great prophet Isaiah found his vocation in a well celebrated liturgy where he felt God’s presence. It is the beauty of the temple where it is celebrated, the beauty of the ministers' vestments, the prayers, the singing, the music, the incense, the silence, the recollection as they all contribute to make our hearts vibrate and feel the presence of God like Isaiah had felt.
Chant your Magnificat
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name... Luke 1:46-55
Being a missionary is, like Mary, to chant the Magnificat of the wonders that the Lord has worked in our lives, of how he has reprogrammed it, reoriented it, and given it a purpose. The Magnificat of Mary, like that of anyone who has experienced the presence of God active in his life, is a burst of joy; it is a "non plus ultra", the realization that God fills us to the brim, that "in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
The missionary, therefore, is not primarily the one who proclaims the gospel, nor the one who catechizes, or the one who speaks "objectively" of Jesus, of his history, life and miracles; that would be more proselytism than mission. The missionary does not speak "objectively" of Christ, but subjectively, because it is from his experiences and living in Christ that he proclaims the "evangelion", that is, the gospel.
Itinerant
For many evangelists nowadays, the norm is to live withdrawn from social life, confined to a narrow circle of Rectory-Church-Rectory, waiting for the people to hear the bell ringing and calling on the "sparrows to come to the nest", that is to the Church, and feeling frustrated when very few come.
For Jesus, the norm was to go out and experience the life of the people where this was taking place. Only once in a while, especially at night when the people were resting, would He also withdraw to enter into intimacy with His Father. Jesus was like a letter carrier who delivered to each person a personalized Good News and everyone found in Jesus the health-salvation they sought with faith.
Oftentimes the very same evangelist confines himself; at other times, it is the very same people of God that confines him, because they do not look kindly on his presence in certain settings. It is necessary to remind both sides that Jesus entered the houses of sinners, ate with them and lived with women, both reputable and otherwise, and he was not infected by their sins or way of life: on the contrary, all who came in contact with Him were positively influenced by his words, his deeds and way of life.
"Omnia munda mundis", to the pure, all things are pure. Just as for Jesus, for the present-day evangelist there must be no out of bound places. "Where the sun does not enter, the doctor does" – since the evangelist is, at the same time, the Sun and the doctor, if he does not enter as the sun, he enters as a doctor.
Jesus was itinerant, so were Paul, Francis of Assisi, Francis of Xavier, etc. The evangelists of today must also be itinerants. If Jehovah's Witnesses can manage to get proselytes with such a poor and deficient message, how much more could we achieve if we had their daring and zeal.
Jesus chose fishermen for his disciples, not shepherds. Fishermen have no sheep to take care of, they have nothing, they can have fish if they go out with their boats and catch them, as Peter and his brother Andrew did. To catch them, they need to mend their nets, like the sons of Zebedee did with their father, which is to say that today's missionary must be a person of prayer and ongoing formation.
Prayer is not time wasted that could have been spent on evangelization; on the contrary, through it and in it, the missionary purifies the word of God from the impurities that he himself places in it with his character, personality, prejudices, convictions and other beliefs.
In addition to prayer that puts the missionary in contact with the Lord of the Vineyard and the message that the evangelist proclaims, the missionary must also be a man of reflection. You can’t catch flies with vinegar, for each type of fish there is a type of net or hook or bait. The preacher does not preach in the same manner to children, young people and adults, in one culture or another; he must adapt the Word to those who hear it.
Lover of the new Media
The Internet is the sixth continent. Pope Francis
With social media, the internet is no longer just the new encyclopedia of knowledge where everyone goes to do their research, but it is also a virtual meeting place in real time between peoples of different latitudes and longitudes, cultures, ethnicity and religions. From this virtual pulpit, the Word of God reaches more people and particular groups of people who, for one reason or another, do not attend the Church in person.
It is true that in this domain the Word of God contends with many other words; but, since there is no Good News that is more beautiful, more reasonable and more human than the gospel, one does not even need to be a great speaker to make it yield 100 fold when it is sown. (Cf. the parable of the Sower in Matthew 13: 1–9, 18–23)
Today's evangelist who neglects this new areopagus is not being faithful to the words of Jesus to "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15).
Conclusion – Rooted in tradition, supported by a community, today's evangelist preaches in season and out of season, along the way and out of the way, in all the areopaguses, that is, in all the places where people gather.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
