From life to Mission

"...what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life, (...) we declare to you...". 1John 1:1-3

Faith leads to the experience of Christ; the experience of the risen Christ leads to a new life because it reconfigures, inspires, guides and gives meaning to our life. This new way of living in Christ is already evangelizing per se.

Mission, therefore, is not fundamentally about preaching the Word of God and being charitable towards our neighbours, especially the most disadvantaged, this comes after; mission is primarily about bearing witness to the intimate, personal and loving relationship we have with Christ, who brought health to our body and soul, and gave meaning to our lives.

Finding Christ in our lives is like the one "who having encountered a pearl of great value, sold everything that he had and bought it" (Matthew 13:44). It is like "a treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field" (Matthew 13:44).
    
A "missionary" is that neighbour who tasted this or that tea, herb or medicine, and who on seeing herself cured, never tires of announcing to the four winds the miracle that the medicine in question has worked on her.  Those who listen to her, moved by her testimony, believe and their own faith compels them to try it for themselves; if this experience is favourable, with the resulting transformation of life, the process starts all over again.

My soul magnifies the Lord. 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. (Luke 1:46-55)

To be a missionary is, like Mary, to sing the Magnificat of the wonders that the Lord has done in our lives, of how he has reprogrammed it, redirected it and gave it purpose. Mary's Magnificat, like that of anyone who has experienced the presence of God acting in his or her life, is an explosion 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, the one who catechizes, the one who speaks "objectively" about Jesus, about his story, his life and miracles; this would be proselytizing, not mission. The missionary does not speak "objectively" about Christ but subjectively, because it is from his own encounter and experience of Christ that he proclaims the "Kerygma", that is, the gospel.

Speak the gospel at all times and if it is necessary, use words. Living life as authentic Christians is already a mission, which is why Jesus called the apostles the light and the salt of the world; salt and light do not speak, they operate in silence. Works replace words, but words do not replace works, and are hollow and powerless to convince unless they are reinforced by works. Jesus spoke with authority because there was a complete correspondence between what he said, who he was and what he did.

By way of conclusion, we could say that the missionary proclamation is done in three stages:

1. It begins with the silent witness of our lives; our "modus vivendi"; how we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world; our way of being in the world, our daily behaviour, our works and our social commitments, especially to the most disadvantaged.
2. It continues in the chanting of our magnificat, about the wonders the Lord has worked in our lives: "When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, 'The Lord has done great things for them.' The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced. "(Psalm 126:1-3);
3. And it leads to evangelization, that is, the systematic proclamation of the life and work of Jesus and the gospel of the Kingdom.

The encounter with Jesus at Jacob's well transformed and saved the Samaritan woman’s life (John 4:5-42). Even though she had not been sent, she felt the irresistible desire to share her experience of Christ with the people in her village. Moved by the Samaritan woman’s enthusiasm, they believed and went to meet Jesus themselves.

The word of wisdom, which comes from intellect and scholarship, may or may not generate life; but the word of witness, which springs from lived experience, always generates life.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

From Expereince to Life

-    I heard that you have become a Christian, so you must know a lot about Christ; in which country was he born?
-    I don't know.
-    How old was he when he died?
-    I also don’t know.
-    You must know at least how many sermons he preached?
-    Hum...this also I don’t know.
-    You seem to know very little for someone who claims to be a convert to Christ.
-    That's true, and I’m ashamed that I know so little. But what I do know is that before I was addicted to alcohol; I was up to my neck in debt; my family was torn apart; my wife and children dreaded the hour when I would come home late at night; there was no money for notebooks or furniture. After knowing Christ I stopped drinking, got out of debt, and now my home is a happy one.
-    Hum... and you really believe that he turned water into wine?
-    I don't know, I wasn't there, but what I do know is that in my house he turned wine into furniture and notebooks, and misery into happiness.

Dogs or cats without owners are in danger for their lives, and they wander around, approaching people, begging someone to save them. If someone is moved by them, and gives them a pat on the head or some food, they will follow that person wherever he goes. The same thing happens among humans, despite the millions of years of evolution that separate us from these animals. The blind man in Jericho, the Samaritan woman, Zacchaeus, Mary Magdalene, are examples of people lost in life, without bread, without health and without love; when they met Jesus, they found salvation and, leaving behind their old life, they followed him and became his disciples.

It has always amazed me that most of the saints of the Catholic Church were people who had everything that the world can offer and what most people seek so much: youth, wealth, nobility, beauty, fame and power. If they left all this behind upon meeting Christ, it must not have been because they were stupid, but because they found something better and greater in Christ.

In life we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes; however, since life is short and there isn’t enough time to make all the mistakes and learn from them, why not learn from the mistakes of others? In this way, why not accept the testimony of so many saints, and stop searching for what they had and judged to be rubbish, in order to cling to Christ, the only way, the truth and the life?

Bartimaeus - The encounter with Jesus cured him of his blindness; it opened his eyes and he began to see life in a different way, in one leap he left behind the former life (symbolized by the cloak) and followed Jesus. (Mark 10:46-52)

Samaritan Woman – Having found in Jesus the true water, she abandoned her pitcher at the well, symbol of a life of wandering, in search of water that can never satisfy.

Paul of Tarsus - His encounter with Christ reversed the course of his life; the same energy he used to fight Christ was later used to spread the good news of the Master throughout the entire ancient world.

Francis of Assisi - Young and the only son of a rich bourgeois family who could afford his every whim; he met Christ and abandoned material wealth to embrace spiritual wealth.

Nuno Alvares Pereira - Young, noble, famous hero of the battle of Aljubarrota, he owned half of Portugal and deserved, more than the Master of Aviz, to be the king of Portugal; he abandoned all for a greater treasure, Christ.

Francis of Borgia – A nobleman from the great Borgia family, he served with dedication the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, he married the beautiful Isabel of Portugal, eldest daughter of Dom Manuel I. When he saw the young and beautiful empress on her deathbed, he said: "Never again, never again serve a master who may die on me."

Beatrice da Silva - The queen’s jealousy caused the beautiful young Beatrice to be imprisoned in a cell; there she encountered Christ, and when she managed to free herself, she said goodbye to the court life and followed her master.

In all these lives, there was one before meeting Christ and another after meeting him. Anyone who says he or she has met Christ and has an intimate and personal relationship with him, but has not changed, walks deceived and deluded.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC