Mission Accomplished!

Mission. The etymology of the word comes from the Latin word mittere which means “send”, or “to send”, and which act of ‘sending’ was first used by the Jesuit missionaries in 1598. The Jesuit priests who are under the religious order of the Society of Jesus used to send their members overseas to establish schools and churches which is why their priests and also those in other religious orders like the Dominicans, Augustinians, and Franciscans are also called “missionaries”, crossing borders and cultures for missionary work. Divine inspiration has had it, embracing Jesus’ Great Commissioning to his twelve apostles “to go and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:18).

Jesus as a historical figure is also sent; He broke the timeline of the earth’s history for a mission: “to bring glad tidings to the poor, restore sight to the blind, and to set the captives free” (Isaiah 61:1); he came in a saving mission ‘so that you may have life’ ( Jn 10:10).

Mission has its own dynamism as in the life of Jesus who came “not on his own will but to do his Father’s will who sent him” (Jn 6:38), and “as the Father has sent me, so I send you” (Jn 20:21). Consequently, mission stories are heard and read the world over even to extend outside the realm of religion; the secular world is coming to terms as well.

The Pandemic: Mission vs. Transmission

Covid-19 is already claiming lives in millions globally in over a year now. To confront the disease with the bravery of a mission is halted with a big question “how”, by our brothers and sisters who are primarily in the field of medicine and whom we call front liners, and health experts. Their sense of mission as professed in their Hippocratic Oath, or in their pro-life, pro-care mantra is now put to an unimaginable test. A number of them did not make it to the end of the fight, and the word mission may have gone with the loss of its very meaning and purpose. Many of our health professional brothers and sisters especially the nurses are caught in the dilemma: to stay in the mission or to leave for fear of transmission.

The Mission Challenge to Filipinos

The pandemic poses insurmountable challenges to those who are called and sent to restore health to the sick; who “come so they may have life”. Still a pretty good number of doctors and medical experts remain resolute to their call of duty. They cannot remain self-referential. They welcome the difficulty as God’s invitation to love more; the missionary impulse far outweighs their fear of transmission, “for God himself created them, and their gift of healing comes from the Sovereign (Sirach 38: 1-2). They received it as a gift, they give it as a gift (Mt. 10:8); they are gifted to give (Missio ad Gentes). They engage in the fraternal care not just the sick in the hospitals; they walk in friendship with those who are mired with anxiety, isolation, pandemic fatigue and stress, disillusionment… (Pope Francis’ Fratelli Tutti).

Love is the source and driving force of mission, the soul of all missionary activity, the principle which must direct every action, and end to which that action must be directed. When we act with a view to charity, or are inspired by charity, nothing is unseemly and everything is good —Redemptoris Missio no.60.

St. John Paul II in his 1981 visit to the Philippines said, “I wish to tell you of my special desire that the Filipinos will become the foremost missionaries of the Church in Asia”. If and when we Filipino people will take up Christ’s GO missionary mandate in order to share in his saving mission, could that be a mission accomplished? (Cynthia Chu)

(Cynthia Chu is a volunteer at the Metropolitan Ecclesiastical Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Davao. She has a Master’s Degree in Theology. Major in Religious Education, and is currently working on her dissertation for the completion of her Doctorate at the Ignatian Institute of Religous Education Foundation, Inc., Davao City)