The mission center director took us through a definition of mission founded in the “following of Jesus Christ.” This definition has biblical warrant, as the earliest followers of Jesus branded their movement “The Way.” According to Padre Alejandro, the first Christian communities understood that faith in Jesus implied an openness to the world and to all of humanity. Walking us through the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament, Padre Alejandro described the different ways in which those first Christian communities recalled Jesus’ charge to announce the Good News to all peoples. We do not, of course, have the exact words that Jesus gave to his followers, as each Gospel relates his commission in a distinctive manner. The meaning of his sending forth, the modes in which his mission has been realized, and the content of the commission have been objects of reflection and practice throughout the history of the Church.
For example, the conclusion of the Gospel of Matthew prioritizes the formation of new disciples, as the first followers of Jesus go forth to all peoples, to baptize and to teach all that Jesus had handed on to them. The Gospel of Mark in its coda calls on Jesus’ followers to go out to all the world, announcing the Good News to all of creation. The Gospel of Luke charges the disciples to preach to all the nations a conversion of heart for the forgiveness of sins. As witnesses to the Resurrection and to all that God has done through Jesus Christ, they are to be sent forth as God had sent Jesus. The Gospel of John also picks up on the parallel between God’s commission to Jesus and Christ’s commission to his followers. As Jesus received the Holy Spirit from God, so do the followers of Christ receive the Holy Spirit.
We spent some time analyzing the meaning of the words of commission found in these Gospels. All four texts relate a displacement, as the disciples must go forth from their place to meet all peoples, even to the ends of the earth; and not only all nations, but all of creation. To be a disciple means hitting the road to proclaim and enact what Jesus himself proclaimed and enacted. To be a missioner implies going out to the margins where life is threatened to proclaim that another world is possible—and then to realize it.
To make disciples is to give birth in others an experience of encounter with Jesus and to form in them a new way of life. Making disciples is the primary activity of evangelization. It is more than merely increasing the number of church members; it is about preparing the way of discipleship. It requires a mystic attitude that shows others the presence of the holy in our lives and our story. More than catechesis and preparation for the sacraments, making disciples is about having a personal and communal encounter with God and with other followers of Jesus.
The Good News of Jesus is that the reign of God is near. Padre Alejandro says we are called to attend to the construction of that reign. Mission should always be about practices of faith that demonstrate the values of God’s reign alive in the Church and in society. The struggle for justice, peace, economic inclusion, social equality, care of creation, and the defense of everyone’s rights, is the work of those who have committed to proclaiming the Good News.
We do not answer the summons to discipleship alone. Jesus was sent from the heart of his experience of community with God. Discipleship in this world is an experience of communion that images the intimacy of the divine persons of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit in the Trinity. The communion of the holy One-in-Three is a communion in diversity, and a dynamism of power and knowledge. Through our communion with God in Christ we have access to this holy power and knowledge so as to create new social relations, new ways of being between women and men, and new forms of relationship with nature.
The gift of the Holy Spirit enables missionary disciples to be witnesses to the power of God at work changing the world. It is not solely our own decision or our own insight that enables us to be Christians; it is the encounter with the Holy One who gives us a new way of life.
The activity of baptizing others is meaningful insofar as it brings about the formation of disciples. But the baptism of which Padre Alejandro spoke was of disciples’ own immersion in the real life of other peoples, a submersion into their reality and finding Jesus in that encounter. Evangelization is about fidelity to Jesus’ mission of bringing about the reign of God in every time and place. That means surrendering to God’s will in all things, of being actually submersed in God, living a God-filled existence.
As the conference concluded, we were left to ponder what it means to be missioners in another land, especially in the context of Latin America. Already we have come to know more about the people of Latin America, their languages, cultures, and lifestyles; their joys and sorrows and sufferings; their political, social, and religious structures; and the “signs of the times” that the Spirit brings to our awareness. As I prepare to return to the United States, I wonder if I can search out and appreciate the plurality of the culture present in upper Manhattan, where I live and minister, as easily as I can notice and discern Bolivian culture from an immersion environment.
I thank Padre Alejandro for sharing with us his perspective on being a disciple who witnesses and “builds” the reign of God in other lands. His clarification of terms associated with mission and evangelization bring me back to my time of formation as a disciple at Boston University School of Theology. When he meets with me on Friday morning, I would like to talk to him about domestic mission, or “reverse mission,” as I will be returning to my homeland to be a Christian witness striving to prepare the way for the reign of God in New York City.
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