New evangelization versus Mission Ad Gentes "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Matthew 28:19
In the missionary commission, Jesus sent his apostles all over the world to make disciples of all nations and peoples, and not just of only one nation or people, i.e. his own. Today, however, obsessed with the decline of the faithful and the "New Evangelization" as the only solution to this problem, the Church, especially in Europe, has turned inward and placed "Mission Ad Gentes", the purpose for which Christ constituted it, on the back burner.
As a proof of this tendency, the Portuguese Episcopal Conference itself, which in its entire history only recently produced a document on the Mission, even placed the New Evangelization and Mission Ad Gentes in the same commission.
In the past, there were diocesan priests who wanted to become missionaries; today the movement is reversed; more and more missionaries are becoming diocesans. After having possessed the most perfect vocation in the Church, as our founder Joseph Allamano used to say, they now turn their backs to the Mission; after being fishers of men, they are now content to be shepherds; after being eagles, they are now content to be farmyard hens.
On the other hand, perhaps to "theologically" justify staying here, the concept of "Ad Gentes" has been watered down; today any pastoral activity is considered "Ad Gentes". When everything is "Ad Gentes" nothing is "Ad Gentes". What belongs to everyone belongs to no one; salt and sugar disappear from sight when they are diluted; the "Ad Gentes" turns into "Ad Nientes".
If the aim of the twelve apostles had been to convert all the people of Israel, and if they had remained in their own country, Christianity would not have the universal dimension it has today, and the Jews would not have converted either.
The thesis of Otto Kuss’ book "The Third Church at the Gates" argues that it will be the evangelized from other countries, who will once again evangelize the old continent. The new evangelization will therefore not be carried out by us, but by those to whom we went to evangelize many generations ago; in fact, there are already among us, missionaries, clergy and lay movements from these countries among us, perhaps trying not to achieve a "New Evangelization", as John Paul II understood it, that is, to evangelize again, but rather an "Evangelization Anew", as Cardinal Martini understands it, that is, a new way of evangelizing.
There was a time when Europe gave, out of its abundance, to the universal Church; today, in the face of scarcity, it is natural to think more of oneself and to close in on oneself; it may be natural, but it is not evangelical.
This is not what we learn in the Old Testament, in the episode of the widow of Zarephath who made a loaf of bread for the prophet Elijah from the last bit of flour that she had reserved for herself and her son, before they both died of hunger. The same idea is highlighted in the New Testament, in the episode of the poor widow who gave from what she needed to survive. From the point of view of the gospel, it is not those who withhold who have, but those who give.
Pastoral maintenance
"What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?" Matthew 18:12
The sad reality is that parishes do not go out of their "business as usual" routine, which translates into maintenance ministry that can be graphically represented in the inversion of the parable of the lost sheep: all that the shepherd does is keep and entertain the one sheep in the fold and does not care about the 99 that are lost.
In fact, going in search of them is the work of a "good shepherd" and the good shepherd is more like the fisherman, because he leaves his comfort zone to go in search of the lost. Since I do not see any major "New Evangelization" initiatives in our Church, could this have been invented to counteract and take away strength from the Mission Ad Gentes? And therefore, a pretext for doing neither?
A citizenship card or a passport?
When we are born our name is written in the civil registry, and later we are given a national identity document, which defines us legally in the same way as our DNA defines us biologically. Later we are given our baptismal certificate, when our name is registered in the Christian community book.
The citizenship card only defines us as Portuguese in Portugal, while the passport, although it is no more than a duplicate of the citizenship card, defines us as Portuguese in the world; it opens for us the doors to all the countries that make up this planet. Everyone in Portugal has a citizenship card, but not everyone has a passport; similarly, everyone registered in the baptismal book is a Christian, but not everyone is a missionary.
"Every Christian is a missionary", it was said here a while ago, and theoretically this is true, but in practice this is not so; there are Christians who are Christians in name only, they are Christians of course, but just as a candle does not need to be lit to be a candle, but they are not missionaries, i.e. they are unlit candles.
Like all talents, faith grows when it is shared and declines when it is not shared; it either spreads or it is extinguished; Christians who are not missionaries, who do not share their faith, sooner or later, like any talent that is not exercised, they lose what they do not give, thus ceasing to be Christians.
A missionary is someone who aside from having a citizenship card, which defines him within the country, also has a passport, which defines him outside the country and enables him to respond to Christ’s call to leave his country and his people, and go into the whole world proclaiming the Good News.
The Christian is a member of the Church, the missionary is a member of the Kingdom of God, which is the objective of the mission. Christ founded the Church to spread the Kingdom of God in the world, not for the Church to be a castle in the middle of a world without God as King.
"The seventy returned with joy, saying, 'Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!' He said to them, '(...) do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." (Luke 10:17-18, 20)
As Christians, our names are written in the parish book; if we want them to also be written in heaven, we have to be more than Christians in name only, we have to be missionaries. Not every Christian is a missionary, just like not every disciple is an apostle. Christ called the twelve as disciples and send them out as apostles; it is as apostles that their names are written in heaven, not as disciples. (Lucas 10, 20)
Salvation is for everyone; we are saved to the extent that we contribute to others being saved; in the same way, we are happy only when we contribute to the happiness of others. The Mission is something for all Christians; Christ said these things not in the context of the mission of the 12, but rather in the context of the mission of the 70, meaning the members of the Sanhedrin, who were the representatives of the Jewish people. Similarly, all Christians are called to be missionaries, from far and near.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
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