A Reflection on the Year of the Parish as Communion of Communities (Part 5)

From burden to privilege

Fr. Pernia underlines a third shift of attitude from burden to privilege in the Church’s mission today.

From the mandate of Jesus to go out to all the world and baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19-20), mission is seen as sacrifice in obedience to His command. In giving up everything for the mission, the deprivation and hardship of the missionary is regarded as a burden.

An example of this is St. Paul’s mission: “Five times at the hands of the Jews I received forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I passed a night and a day on the deep; on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure.” (2 Cor 11:24-27).

However, seeing mission as Missio Dei makes us realize that mission is not just a burden and a sacrifice but a privilege and a gift. Mission is God’s mission, and our call to mission is really a call to participate in God’s mission. And participation in God’s mission cannot just be a burden and a sacrifice. It must be, above all, a gift and a privilege.

As St. Joseph Freinademetz, our first SVD missionary to China, wrote in one of his letters to his family: “Thank God… that the Lord has given us the grace of having a missionary in our family… I do not consider this as a sacrifice that I offer to God, but as the greatest gift that God is giving me”. And again from China he wrote: “I cannot thank the Lord enough for having made me a missionary in China”… [In 1887 he said:] “When I think of the countless graces that I have received and continue to receive until now from God… I confess that I could cry. The most beautiful vocation in the world is being a missionary”.

Pope Francis says in Evangelii Gaudium (cf. 1-13), that every genuine encounter with Jesus is an experience of joy…. Thus, proclaiming the Gospel must also be an experience of joy. It cannot just be a sacrifice and a burden, but a privilege and gift. In mission, the Pope says, “God asks everything of us, yet at the same time he offers everything to us.” (Evangelii Gaudium 12).

“We cannot approach the Eucharistic table without being drawn into the mission which, beginning in the very heart of God, is meant to reach all people. Missionary outreach is thus an essential part of the Eucharistic form of the Christian life” (Sac. Caritatis of Pope Benedict XVI, 84)

Conclusion: A synodal Church

“Our vision of Church as communion, participation and mission, Church as Priestly, Prophetic and kingly people, and as Church of the Poor, a Church that is renewed, is today finding expression in one ecclesial movement. This is the movement to foster Basic Ecclesial Communities.” (PCP II,137)

The thrust of the parish as communion of communities continues to be our mission. This mission finds expression in the Basic Ecclesial Communities. For Evangelii Nuntiandi BECs are mission-oriented that they constantly grow in missionary consciousness, fervor, commitment and zeal. (Evangelii Nuntiandi 58)

Furthermore, the same document exhorts us of the meaning of these communities that should become manifest in its orientation for mission. For Evangelii Nuntiandi BECs are mission-oriented that they constantly grow in missionary consciousness, fervor, commitment and zeal. (Evanagelii Nuntiandi 58)

A synodal Church is a Church which listens, which realizes that listening “is more than hearing”. It is mutual listening in which everyone has something to learn. (Pope Francis, #10, Synod of Bishops, October 17, 2015)

African Proverb: “When you walk alone you walk fast, when you walk with others you walk far.”