The Primary Mission of The Church

[Steeltemplar]

Given the recent debate concerning Catholic voting and, by extension, the values to which we Catholics should be striving, I found myself extremely inspired by Pope John-Paul II’s Redemptoris Missio. In an age where social justice is often a focus of Catholics around the world, the Pope made an crystal clear statement on what our true mission is:
Redemptoris Missio:

But what moves me even more strongly to proclaim the urgency of missionary evangelization is the fact that it is the primary service which the Church can render to every individual and to all humanity in the modern world, a world which has experienced marvelous achievements but which seems to have lost its sense of ultimate realities and of existence itself. “Christ the Redeemer,” I wrote in my first encyclical, “fully reveals man to himself… The person who wishes to understand himself thoroughly…must…draw near to Christ… [The] Redemption that took place through the cross has definitively restored to man his dignity and given back meaning to his life in the world.”

and also in the document…
Redemptoris Missio:

It is not right to give an incomplete picture of missionary activity, as if it consisted principally in helping the poor, contributing to the liberation of the oppressed, promoting development or defending human rights. The missionary Church is certainly involved on these fronts but her primary task lies elsewhere: the poor are hungry for God, not just for bread and freedom. Missionary activity must first of all bear witness to and proclaim salvation in Christ, and establish local churches which then become means of liberation in every sense.

No matter how much food a person has, they are still starving if they lack the Word. No matter how much freedom, they cannot be free without the salvation of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Anyone who would seek to take up the Church’s primary mission, which St. Augustine considered the greatest act of mercy, would find a great treasure in Redemptoris Missio. Even reading a portion of it imparts the great wisdom which Pope John-Paul II radiated to the whole of the Church:

vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_07121990_redemptoris-missio_en.html

 

[Ad_Gentes]

Redemptoris Missio is one of my favorite encyclicals. I would like to share the following quote:

Since they are members of the Church by virtue of their Baptism, all Christians share responsibility for missionary activity. “Missionary cooperation” is the expression used to describe the sharing by communities and individual Christians in this right and duty [emphasis mine]. (RM 77)

There are many ways to provide “missionary cooperation”. These are just a few:

Among the forms of sharing, first place goes for spiritual cooperation through prayer, sacrifice and the witness of Christian life. (RM 78)

Cooperation is expressed above all by promoting missionary vocations. (RM 79)

The missionary Church gives what she receives, and distributes to the poor the material goods that her materially richer sons and daughters generously put at her disposal. (RM 81)

World Mission [Sunday], which seeks to heighten awareness of the missions, as well as to collect funds for them, is an important date in the life of the Church, because it teaches how to give: as an offering made to God *in *the Eucharistic celebration and for the missions of the world. (RM 81)

In his 2008 message for World Mission Sunday, Benedict XVI said that “[t]he Mission is a question of love” and that we are called to “[e]vangelize always”. World Mission Sunday, which is sponsored by the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith, is celebrated on the next to last Sunday in October. Next year it will be held on October 18, 2009.

For more information about missionary cooperation and World Mission Sunday, visit the website of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States.