Joy of the Gospel: Chapter One

Introduction

We must be a church on a mission; a missionary Church:

“Ad Gentes” (1965): Speaks about the ultimate foundation of the Church’s missionary activity, it is participation in the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit; participation in the life of the Trinity. It is rooted in Missio Dei.

Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975): Apostolic Exhortation of Paul VI. It emphasises the essential missionary nature of the Church rooted in the mission of Jesus.

Redemtoris Missio (1990): John Paul, an encyclical talks about Christocentric Mission. Christ is therefore is the focus of any theological and missionary discussion and work.

An Overview

Missionary Church: we cannot stand still; we need to move forward – we need to be a Church that goes forth and does so with joy. We need to engage in the world, not separate from it. We need to begin by reforming ourselves and our parishes and even the papacy/Vatican. There is no room for complacency. As we take our message forth, we need to simply it and to use less church language. The message also needs to be more balanced, less judgemental and not always harping on the same issues or themes. It is important for the message we preach to be attractive to people.

Chapter One: The Church’s Missionary Transformation

1.     Christians of Easter: “There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter” (6). We have our joy in risen Christ; we are not good Friday Christians but Easter Christians. “Technological Society has succeeded in multiplying occasions of pleasure, yet has found it very difficult to engender joy”(7). Our joy is in Christ Jesus. We are evangelisers of joy of risen Christ and we must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral (10). Gospel of Christ is full of hope and happiness not static and melancholic fiction novel.

Question: can I still be joyful evangelizer while our society is bruised with violence, pain and suffering?

2.     Church as communion and missionary: The Catholic Church is not static but dynamic. We have to be in communion with Jesus and our fellow neighbours, this will impel us to mission; “communion and mission are profoundly interconnected.”(23). The Church that goes forth, Church (the Eucharist) sends us on a mission in the world.

Question: Do we really feel propelled to go out into the world to evangelize? How can we improve our Church activities so we feel propelled to go out to speak for God?

3.     Openness to pastoral conversion: We need a missionary openness for the contemporary times. Our world speaks a different language; our questions are different from the old times. “That the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channelled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation (270”. A change of complacent attitude of “we have always done this way (33)” must give rise to a holistic growth of the community. We need each other for we are all sojourners in this world towards the Omega Point (Teil de Charden).

Question: Do you think that your community is open to the changes even if it requires breaking away from traditional practices?

4.     Language of the faithful: In the missionary Church one has to transmit deposit of faith using a simple language of the people. It is the duty of the philosophers, scientists and theologians to speak that language and not to dwell on flabbergasting language. “The deposit of faith is one thing… the way it is expressed is another (41)”. Preaching has to be relevant to our current times (42). We need to evangelize more effectively without renouncing the truth (45) even if we need to use a different language than we used always.

Question: Do you think the Church speaks a friendly and welcoming language today?

5.     Non-filtering of God’s graces: The Eucharist must propel us to go out into the world and embrace the bruised and wounded like Mother Teresa. The Church sends us forth to the fringes of the society where Christ is present, “I have not come for the righteous but for the sinners.” Same way our Church doors must be open for every person in the society with all their problems because it is the house of the Father, not a “tollhouse”(47). The Eucharist is the powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak. Frequently, we act as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators. (47).

Question: Is our Church community open to people of every kind, divorced, weak, depressed, differently sex orientated, differently abled, other faiths (churches)? Do we filter God; who should experience God? Do we go out to see the bruised and dirty and hurting Church (49)?