Missionary Animation or Mission?

In the days when Europe was mostly Christian, it made sense for the missionary institutes “Ad Gentes” to make the people of God aware that the Church does not exist for herself, but for the Mission, and that the purpose of the Mission is to build the Kingdom of God. As a result of this missionary animation of the people of God, Europe took the Gospel to the four corners of the world.

While still maintaining a Christian worldview, Europe is no longer Christian. To be a missionary, one must be a believer; it is not possible to carry out missionary animation among non-believers; what one does among non-believers is Mission.

We cannot give what we do not have; in other words, we cannot exhort those who do not believe, or who doubt, or have a weak faith to share their faith and be missionaries. That is why the best way to do missionary animation here and now is to do Mission, and the best missionary witness is to be here and now what we once were a long time ago. Someone once said that the best way to honor a father is to be a good father.

The number of faithful has fallen and the number of priests has fallen even more, but the places of worship have not. The few existing pastors have several parishes under their care, and are often absorbed in the pastoral care of a small and scattered flock. Faced with this problem, many members of missionary institutes ad gentes have exchanged their nets for their staffs.

Is it by shepherding the few sheep that remain that we fill the void of the many that have left the flock? Those of us who are fishermen must adapt our hooks, nets and fishing techniques to the new situation, not change our profession; we cannot stop being what we are by vocation. But if we had to be shepherds, we should at least be Good Shepherds, and a good shepherd is like a fisherman, because he is the one who leaves the 99 to go in search of the 1 lost sheep.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC