The Foundations of the Enduring Validity of the Missio ad gentes
Conference “Dalla Maximum illud alla Evangelii gaudium. Sull’urgenza della trasformazione missionaria della Chiesa” at the Urban Pontifical University, Rome, 27 November 2019
CARDINAL KURT KOCH
1. The Universality of Mission
After his resurrection, Jesus meets his disciples in Galilee on the mountain, and tells them: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). The well-known missionary mandate of the Risen One narrated in the Gospel of Matthew documents the fundamental perspective that has marked the great missionary momentum of the Church from the beginning, and that has aimed at universality, in a three-fold sense.
It is true that, on the mountain, it is his disciples that Jesus first sends on mission; however, the significant insertion of the missionary mandate into the end of the Gospel of Matthew suggests that all baptized are sent out to give testimony. They are called to live and work as missionary witnesses. The second form of universality refers to the recipients of the mission, that is, “all nations.” The message that the disciples should transmit to all nations concerns, in fact, all peoples and all of humanity. The God whom we Christians witness to is not only the God of Christians, but the God of all human beings. As we Christians profess in the Apostolic Creed, he is “creator of heaven and earth.” In the Christian message, which is not intended for a small circle of people, but for all, lies the reason for which Christianity understands itself as a religion which has been entrusted with a universal mission and with a well-defined concept of mission. As the missionary theologian Michael Sievernich points out: “For Christianity, mission is not just a sign of life, but also an essential and indispensable characteristic without which it would deny the very reason for its existence.”[1]
The third form of universality is manifested in the contents of the Risen One’s missionary mandate, within which four different elements may be distinguished; however, they remain closely connected to each other, and express the global fullness of mission.[2] First, the Risen One’s commandment contains a truly missionary dimension: “Go [to] . . . all nations”; second, a pastoral dimension: “make disciples of all nations”; third, a liturgical dimension: “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”; and fourth, a prophetic dimension: “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
2. The Mission of the Church as Continuation of Christ’s Mission
This three-fold universality highlights the fact that mission is not, and must not be, a merely supplementary activity of the Church and her vocation in the world, and is therefore not undertaken for the Church’s mere pleasure. Mission pertains to the very nature of the Church, and determines its “being or non-being”, as the bishop emeritus of Limburgh, Msgr. Franz Kamphaus has affirmed poignantly: “Christianity exists only because mission exists; otherwise, it would have remained in Judaism.”[3] While Judaism does not carry out mission, in Christianity it is, so to speak, the soul of the Church, because the Church is called to operate as the sacrament of salvation for the whole world. There is no doubt that she can accomplish this task only by proclaiming Christ crucified and transfigured in the Paschal Mystery, who is the original sacrament of salvation for the whole world. As the introduction to the missionary mandate in the Gospel of Matthew shows – “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me” – the vocation to the missio ad gentes is deeply rooted in Christology.
The word and the reality of the missio are of fundamental importance for Jesus because they touch upon his very identity. Indeed, in the Scriptures, and especially in the Gospel of John, Jesus Christ is presented to us as God’s envoy. Jesus not only carries the title of “sent”, he is the “one who is sent” in its innermost essence. He is sent into the world to bring God into the world, and to witness to his truth, as he himself testifies to Pilate, the praetor: “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (Jn 18:37). Because Jesus Christ is the faithful witness par excellence, in the New Testament the concept of mission characterizes the person and work of Jesus Christ to such an extent that his very being consists in being sent to give testimony. The “first and most profound justification of every theology of the mission” is therefore encountered in “the mission of the Son sent by the Father for the salvation of the world.”[4]
The fact that essence and mission coincide with Jesus Christ himself, and that he, in all his very being, is “the one who is sent,” also signifies that his existence derives completely from the One whom he addresses with the term “Father”, being himself the “Son”, as clearly emerges in the declaration of the Johannine Christ: “My teaching is not my own, but is from the one who sent me” (Jn 7:16). The very nature of the Son, who lives entirely by virtue of the Father, before whom he sets nothing of his own, knowing himself to be his envoy, extends also to the Holy Spirit in the farewell discourse in the Gospel of John, where it is affirmed of the Holy Spirit: “He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming” (Jn 16:13). It is clear, therefore, that the Christological dimension of the concept of mission opens itself automatically to its Trinitarian dimension, allowing the figure of God the Father to reveal itself. The Father who, in the Son’s mission, not only offers himself to the world, but reveals himself as the highest good that can be shared: that is, as self-giving love to humanity.
From the Trinitarian foundation of the missio ad gentes there emerges also, and spontaneously, its ecclesiological dimension. In fact, Jesus primarily involves the twelve in his mission. With their election he implies his very mission in Israel, consisting of gathering anew the qahal of the Old Testament and making it the root of the community of his followers. The figure of the twelve created by Jesus passes into the ministry of the Apostles after the Paschal Mystery, when the Risen One involves also the disciples in his mission: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (Jn 20:21). Just as Jesus is sent by the Father, so the apostle is sent by Jesus Christ. Therefore, the apostolate is anchored in the heart of Christology, as Pope Benedict XVI has highlighted: “The apostolate presents itself as a ministry with Christological roots; if mission is the representation of the one who sends, and in this sense, a mediation towards the one who sends, then this central ministry of the nascent Church is, without a doubt, a ministry of mediation.”[5] The nature of such a mediation therefore either rises or falls on the basis of the non-egocentrism of the messenger, who works exclusively as one sent by Jesus Christ and who, therefore, does not proclaim himself, but transmits only what he has received, confessing in turn: “My teaching is not my own.”
Therefore, the mission of the Son sent by the Father for the salvation of the world continues in the mission of the Church as Body of Christ. On the basis of Christ’s own mandate, the Church herself is revealed as “sent” and as “mission” of witness, in accordance with what the risen Christ promised his disciples: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). In this mission of witness lies the reason why the Church must transcend herself and is always sent to mankind: “She can never be sufficient to herself; rather, the flowing emanation of the divine goodness never ceases and is rooted in the mission of the Son, in this “overflow” of love.”[6] If the mission of the Church, in its most intimate being, is love that offers itself to others, just as God has given his own Son to humanity and Christ has made a gift of himself, then it can only realize itself in love: “Mission is not the undertaking of some kind of conquest to incorporate others into itself. Mission is primarily the witness of the love of God who is revealed in Christ.”[7]
If we consider the Christological, Trinitarian, and ecclesiological dimensions of mission as interrelated, then we can identify the deepest foundation of Christian mission in the divine origins of Jesus Christ’s teaching, and in the conviction of faith that this teaching contains the truth about God, man, and the world. This fundamental conviction was recalled by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith during the Jubilee year of 2000, in its Declaration Dominus Iesus, in which the singularity and salvific universality of Jesus Christ was knowingly associated with that of the Church.[8]
This conviction of faith runs, today, into a great obstacle. In effect, modern society, characterized by multi-religiosity, has a marked tendency to regard the various religions as relativized expressions of a single absolute that stands behind all of them. Accordingly, there follows the assumption that God did not reveal himself definitively in the historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth, but only in a specific cultural group. Such an assumption explains why the conviction that Jesus Christi is the sole mediator, and thus the universal mediator of salvation for all human beings, has now become obsolete. Due to this position of religious pluralism, which is present even within the Church, not only is the identity of Christianity and of the Church put at stake but the very foundations of mission itself are threatened.[9]
3. Mission as Essential Actualization of the Church’s Identity
For these reasons, the term “the mission of the Church” has begun to arouse suspicion in the minds of many people, and even in those of many Christians. Many people immediately connect the word “mission” and its practice exclusively with ugly memories and negative associations, particularly the problematic link between colonization and mission over the course of history. With the beginning of the final phase of decolonization midway last century, this link was inverted to the extent that, with the end of colonialism, it was believed that the missionary activity of the Church should end as well.
3.1 Missionary Emphasis in the Second Vatican Council
Responding to the underlying crisis that the idea of “mission” faced in the middle of the last century, the Second Vatican Council recalled that mission is an essential actualization of the Church and an integral part of the Christian faith’s innermost identity. The Council underlined the theologically indispensable missionary mandate of the Church and gave a renewed impetus to evangelization.[10] If one takes even only a cursory glance over the doctrinal documents of the Council, it is immediately evident that the theme of mission is neither an incidental question nor an individual issue that could be treated only in a specific way. Rather, it stands as a question at the heart of Conciliar concerns.
This important perspective can be clarified, above all, by briefly taking into consideration the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et spes. The Council, after having “probed more profoundly into the mystery of the Church, now addresses itself without hesitation, not only to the sons of the Church and to all who invoke the name of Christ, but to the whole of humanity. For the council yearns to explain to everyone how it conceives of the presence and activity of the Church in the world of today.”[11] With this programmatic affirmation, the Pastoral Constitution from the very start not only introduces its fundamental theme, which is that of the mission of the Church in the world, but also reveals its deep connection with the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium, which explains that the mission of the Church is realized, so to speak, in concentric circles.[12] Thus, the Church turns her attention, firstly, to “Catholic faithful,” then to all those “who, being baptized, are honoured with the name of Christian,” and, finally, to “those who have not yet received the Gospel.” The missionary activity of the Church refers to this third, more external circle.
The fundamental importance of the theme of mission for the Second Vatican Council also shines through in the fact that it speaks of the missionary task of the Church in almost all of its constitutions, decrees, and declarations.[13] In the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei verbum, for example, the Gospel occupies the central position in the sense that evangelization must be achieved through the Word and the whole life of the Church. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, defines the liturgy as the privileged place for the proclamation of the Gospel. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium, understands the special mission of all the baptized as that of imbuing the world with the leaven of the Gospel. The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et spes, focuses specifically on the Church’s witness of faith in the world. What is highlighted in all of these important conciliar doctrinal documents ultimately finds its most concise formulation in the Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church, Ad gentes, which begins with the following programmatic affirmation: “Divinely sent to the nations of the world to be unto them ‘a universal sacrament of salvation,’ the Church, driven by the inner necessity of her own catholicity, and obeying the mandate of her Founder (cf. Mark 16:16), strives ever to proclaim the Gospel to all men.”[14]
The overarching presence of the theme of mission found in the conciliar documents is essentially due to the fact that the Second Vatican Council places the missionary task of the Church within the broad horizon of God’s universal salvific plan for humanity, which aims at the eschatological gathering of all peoples promised by the prophets in the Old Testament: “Missionary activity is nothing else and nothing less than an epiphany, or a manifesting of God’s decree, and its fulfilment in the world and in world history, in the course of which God, by means of mission, manifestly works out the history of salvation.”[15] Highlighting the epiphanic nature of mission, the Council recalls that the evangelizing mission of the Church is an integral part of her deepest nature, and that the Church exists precisely so as to evangelize: “The pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature.”[16]
The Council, therefore, defines the work of evangelization as “a basic duty of the People of God” and calls all of the baptized to a deep inner renewal, so that, “having a vivid awareness of their own responsibility for spreading the Gospel, they may do their share in missionary work among the nations.”[17] This shows that the theme of mission is of such fundamental importance for the Council that, according to its thought, the opposite of the term “conservative” is not “progressive”, but “missionary” and that the Council even marks “the transition from a conservative disposition towards a missionary disposition.”[18]
3.2 The New Evangelization as Musical Key of the Petrine Magisterium
The pontiffs who have followed after the Second Vatican Council have all placed the missionary conviction that the Council had deeply encouraged at the heart of the life of the Church. They have done so primarily with the perspective of the New Evangelization in mind, promoting and deepening the reception of the theme of the mission, so dear to the Council, with exceptional continuity and coherence.[19]
Faced with new challenges, in 1975, on the tenth anniversary of the closing of the Council, Pope Paul VI promulgated his magnificent Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi, which recognizes the Church’s core identity in her evangelic activity: “Evangelizing is, in fact, the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity.”[20] Having diagnosed the real drama of contemporary humanity as a profound break between the Christian Gospel and secular culture, Pope Paul VI hoped that a new missionary zeal would heal this fracture.
Pope John Paul II, during his long pontificate, called for an extended New Evangelization at the global level as the pastoral way for the Church of the future, strongly underlining that this is not a “re-evangelization” but a “New Evangelization.” New for three reasons: “new in its zeal, in its methods, and in its expressions.”[21] In particular, in Redemptoris missio, the Encyclical on the enduring validity of the Church’s missionary mandate, he points out that we are at the beginning of a new phase of Christian mission, and that the mission of the evangelization of the world corresponds to the intrinsic identity of the Church.
At the centre of Pope Benedict XVI’s commitment to New Evangelization was the effort to replenish the substance of the missionary pursuit with the Christological kerygma, thus reviving the testimony rendered to Jesus Christ. In order to solidify and deepen this vision, Pope Benedict XVI instituted the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, with the conviction that “at the root of all evangelization lies not a human plan of expansion, but rather the desire to share the inestimable gift that God has wished to give us, making us sharers in his own life.”[22]
Today, the aims of New Evangelization are brought forward in a coherent way by Pope Francis, in large part on the basis of the missionary impetus of the message issued by the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, to which Cardinal Bergoglio contributed considerably. Not by chance, this message was defined as “the Latin American Evangelii nuntiandi” by Pope Francis himself, who wished in this way to pay special homage to Pope Paul VI’s missionary zeal. With his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, Pope Francis exhorts the Christian faithful to a “new chapter of evangelization,”[23] that consists in undertaking a “missionary transformation of the Church” in order to foster a “Church which goes forth.”[24]
4. Credible Ways for Mission
In light of the Council’s guidelines, and those of successive pontiffs, it is evident that the mission of the Church corresponds to her innermost identity, and essentially consists of bearing witness to God’s love in the world. In fact, as the Second Vatican Council underlined: “The pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature, since it is from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she draws her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the Father.” This plan “flows from the ‘font-like love’ in which the “charity of God the Father” encounters us in a more authentic way.[25] The next step, therefore, will be to ask ourselves what conditions must be met so that Christian mission can be achieved in a credible manner.
4.1 Mission without Proselytism
The first fundamental condition is the awareness that the missionary dynamic is viable only if Christians generously transmit the message of the Gospel as a great gift that has been entrusted to them, and invite others to receive it; however, without imposing it in any way. Christian mission is a completely free process that engages the other in freedom without ever infringing upon it. Mission is a free invitation addressed to the freedom of others, an invitation to engage in an exchange, and to commit oneself to a stimulating dialogue. Any kind of proselytism is therefore completely contrary to Christian thinking.
The term “proselytism” raises a problem that every reflection on the theology of mission must come to terms with, in such a way that Christian mission does not remain weighed down by a heavy burden inherited from the past. A burden which the ecumenical movement has had to struggle with from the very beginning. Since the study document approved by the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in New Delhi in 1961, within the ecumenical discourse the word “proselytism” has been taken to signify all endeavours of a religious community to gain new members at any cost and by any means. For this reason, the document cited above reads: “Proselytism is not something totally distinct from authentic witness: it is the corruption of witness. Witness is distorted when, subtly or openly, cajolery, bribery, undue pressure, or intimidation are applied in order to achieve a seeming conversion.”[26] It is to this negative connotation, already prevalently used within the ecumenical movement, that the Second Vatican Council too made reference, rejecting every form of proselytism in its Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis humanae. In this spirit, it affirms that “in spreading religious faith and introducing religious practices,” one must avoid “any manner of action which might seem to carry a hint of coercion or of a kind of persuasion that would be dishonourable or unworthy, especially when dealing with poor or uneducated people.”[27]
With this Declaration, the Council asked itself the complex question as to how to reconcile the Church’s missionary task with the principle of religious freedom and the rejection of every form of proselytism that freedom entails.[28] To avoid possible misunderstandings, in particular the impression that the Council had also decreed the end of missionary activity through its Declaration on Religious Freedom, article 14 of Dignitatis humanae unequivocally states: “For the Church is, by the will of Christ, the teacher of the truth. It is her duty to give utterance to, and authoritatively to teach, that truth which is Christ Himself, and also to declare and confirm by her authority those principles of the moral order which have their origins in human nature itself.”
The conciliar Declaration on Religious Freedom does not, therefore, in any way oblige the Church to abandon missionary witness to the truth of the faith; rather, it calls for missionary activity to renounce those means that do not correspond to the joyful message of Jesus Christ, and to use only the methods indicated by the Gospel – that is to say, the proclamation of the Word and the witness of life, which may go so far as the witness of one’s own blood. The conciliar Declaration on Religious Freedom has therefore contributed considerably to rendering missionary work both purer and truer. In the context of modern life, deeply marked by the contemporary aspiration for freedom, mission would not be able to operate any differently, as Pope Benedict XVI highlighted during the inauguration of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean in Aparecida, on 13 May 2007: “The Church does not engage in proselytism. Instead, she grows by ‘attraction’: just as Christ ‘draws all to himself’ by the power of his love, culminating in the sacrifice of the Cross, so the Church fulfils her mission to the extent that, in union with Christ, she accomplishes every one of her works in spiritual and practical imitation of the love of her Lord.”[29] Evangelization “by attraction,” which is completely foreign to proselytism, is the real demonstration of credible mission.
4.2 Mission and Interreligious Dialogue
The question of evangelical compatibility between the missionary task of the Church and the recognition of the principle of religious freedom, which the Council considers to be rooted in the dignity of the human person, is particularly relevant in today’s increasingly multi-religious societies. It centres, above all, on the way in which the necessity of interreligious dialogue can be reconciled with the conviction of the absolute truth of the Christian faith, from which every mission must begin, since it is indissolubly linked to the proclamation of the salvific universality of Jesus Christ and his message. Are mission and interreligious dialogue compatible, or must Christian mission be substituted by interreligious dialogue?[30]
In order to undertake mission in a credible way, the Church must begin from the assumption that the universality of Christian faith does not imply a claim to an absolute, factual truth that lies exclusively within the realm of human knowledge: a truth which is our prerogative and which we can assert against on other religions. The universality of the Christian truth is, rather, the opposite of polarization, exclusion, self-affirmation, and intolerance. In fact, the universality of the truth to which the Christian faith witnesses is the very person of Jesus Christ, who said of himself: “I am the truth.” But this truth is a personal, pure, universal love that includes all and everything, and which excludes no one and nothing. A love that has revealed itself in Jesus Christ, as Pope John Paul II underlined in his Encyclical Redemptoris missio: “The universality of salvation means that it is granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church. Since salvation is offered to all, it must be concretely available to all.”[31]
In principle, even within the modern choir of different religions, the Church cannot renounce this confession of the universality of the truth of the love of God manifested in Jesus Christ, if it does not also want to abandon its own faith and even its service to mankind. The non-delegable service of Christianity in the public sphere consists in pointing to Jesus Christ and to God’s radical and universal love manifested in him, and made even more clearly visible on the Cross. On the Cross, Jesus Christ reveals himself to be the Good Shepherd, precisely because he himself became lamb and numbered himself among the lambs: with those who are trampled upon and sent to slaughter. He gave his life for them and for the reconciliation of all humanity. The Cross of Jesus is the great day of God’s reconciliation, the permanent and universal Yom Kippur. The Cross, which is the innermost fulcrum of Christian faith, therefore does not obstruct interreligious dialogue in any way; rather, it outlines the sure path for Jews and Christians above all, but also those confessing other religions, on how to accept each other mutually in a deep and inner reconciliation, and on how this mutual reconciliation can become the leaven of peace for the world. As Christians, we can offer our service to interreligious dialogue if we profess Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd and if we proclaim God’s universal love made pure on the Cross.
The belief in the universality of the person of Jesus Christ and the absolute truth of Christian faith in a God of love is surely a lofty claim. One which, at first glance or superficially, may seem the “greatest obstacle to building up a constructive relationship among religions”. However, looking at things more deeply, we must agree with the Catholic biblist Thomas Söding who, on the contrary, recognizes in this claim “the opening up of the possibility of a dialogue” which “goes beyond a simple exchange of pleasantries.”[32] It is only at this level that the Christian faith’s specific claim concerning universal truth can be defended today in a credible way. And it is only in this basic approach that Christian mission demonstrates that it is not an obstacle or contradiction with respect to interreligious dialogue; rather, it shows itself to be a viable and honest way to reconcile Christian faith conviction and religious freedom.
4.3 The Symphony of Mission and Ecumenism
To defend the Christian faith’s claim to truth and to proclaim the salvation of God for all men in a world where so many evils and divisions exist will become credible only if mission is undertaken in an ecumenically reconciled way.[33] This brings us to another litmus test for the credibility of the Church’s missionary task, to which Pope Benedict XVI referred when establishing the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization: “The challenge of the New Evangelization calls into question the universal Church and asks us to continue with commitment our search for full Christian unity.”[34]
The close connection between mission and ecumenism has been clear from the beginning of the ecumenical movement, which has always been a missionary movement. Its orientation found particular expression in the First World Missionary Conference held in 1910 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The inherent scandal in the fact that the various Churches and Ecclesial Communities were competing in missionary work was well apparent to the participants, to the extent that the credibility of the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was threatened, above all in the furthest continents. This is because along with the Gospel, they had also brought with them the divisions of the Church in Europe. The Conference participants were aware that lack of unity among Christians was the greatest obstacle to mission in the world. Since credible witness in the world could only be possible if the Churches overcame their divisions in faith and ecclesial life, in Edinburgh especially the Anglican missionary bishop Charles Brent urged that vigorous efforts be made to overcome the differences in the doctrine of the faith and church order that impeded the journey towards unity.
In virtue of this prophetic insight, not only has the first World Missionary Conference become the starting point of the modern ecumenical movement, but the Church’s missionary task has also been given growing importance on the ecumenical agenda. Since Edinburgh, the missionary commitment and the aim of ecumenism have become ever more closely intertwined. Mission and ecumenism have become twin interests that mutually sustain and need each other, following an internal logic. As Christian mission at its most basic level involves the gathering of humanity into the one love of God, who in Jesus Christ embraces all, mission is in itself a “sign of unity”: “As sins distance men from one another, so the one faith draws them together into a new man: ‘you are one in Jesus Christ (Gal 3:28)’.”[35]
The insight of the insoluble link between mission and ecumenism has also found a binding expression in the Second Vatican Council, which recognizes the foundation for this bond in the eschatological dimension of Christian mission. In the second chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium ‒ in which the Church is seen primarily as the people of God on their earthly pilgrimage between the “already” and the “not yet”, walking in history with a missionary task ‒ the Church herself is understood as an eschatological movement. It is within this momentum that the ecumenical movement too is embedded, and linked with the missionary movement. Mission and ecumenism, therefore, prove to be the two fundamental forms of the Church’s eschatological journey, as Cardinal Walter Kasper highlighted: “A missionary Church must also be an ecumenical Church; an ecumenically committed Church is the prerequisite of a missionary Church.”[36]
The awareness of a close correlation between mission and ecumenism has still not lost any of its relevance today, as Pope Francis continues to recall with perseverance, especially in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium. Even today, the division in the Christian world represents the major obstacle to credible evangelization. The Pope insists, therefore, on the fact that “the credibility of the Christian message would be much greater if Christians could overcome their divisions […]: given the seriousness of the counter-witness of division among Christians, particularly in Asia and Africa, the search for paths to unity becomes all the more urgent. Missionaries on those continents often mention the criticisms, complaints and ridicule to which the scandal of divided Christians gives rise.” For Pope Francis, therefore, “the commitment to unity which helps them to accept Jesus Christ can no longer be a matter of mere diplomacy or forced compliance, but rather an indispensable path to evangelization.”[37]
In reality, the close connection between mission and the ecumenical pursuit of Christian unity is as ancient as Christianity itself, appearing even in the upper room where Jesus, before his passion and death, prayed for the unity of his disciples: “So that […] the world may believe that you sent me” (Jn 17:21). With this final clause included in the Lord's Prayer, which is basically Christ’s last will and testament, John the Evangelist suggests that the unity of Jesus’ disciples is not an end in itself, but serves as a compelling proclamation of Jesus’ Gospel, and is the indispensable prerequisite for the credibility of the Christian message. The prayer for unity, as Pope Benedict XVI observed in his interpretation of the high priestly prayer of Jesus, has this very goal; in fact, through the unity of the disciples, the truth of his mission makes itself visible to mankind, thereby legitimizing Jesus himself: “It becomes evident that He is truly the ‘Son.’”[38]
5. Joy as Musical Key of the Christian Mission
What has been presented thus far allows us to arrive at the final consideration, which is the most important: at the centre of Christian mission stands the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Consequently, the missionary dynamic remains alive only if it is born from the joy of the Gospel and a witness transmitted through the desire to share the invaluable gift that God has given us with others. In faith, Christians hold that the very first word that began the history of salvation in the New Testament is a word of joy. That is, the greeting addressed to Mary by the Archangel Gabriel: “Kairê – Rejoice!” (Lk 1:28). Joy is the essential content of God’s message, which is called “Gospel.” Joy is not only contained in the word evangelium, but infects all those who hear, proclaim, and live the Gospel. The fact that the first word of the Gospel is a word of joy clearly demonstrates that Christianity, in its innermost being, is joy – that is to say, the replenishment of the joy offered by God.
Christianity is the religion of joy, in the first place, because it proclaims God’s joy at his creation. From this emanates the joy that we Christians experience in God’s presence. Proclaiming this joy for God is the most important mission in Christianity today, as Pope Benedict XVI repeatedly called to mind: “Reawakening joy for God, joy for God’s revelation and for friendship with God seems, to me, an urgent duty for the Church in our age. The words addressed by Esdra the priest to the people, discouraged after the Exile, are still absolutely relevant to us today: “The joy of the Lord is your strength!” (Neh 8:10). Even for Pope Francis, “joy” is a keyword resonating already in his first Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium. In fact, Pope Francis is convinced that, with Jesus Christ, “joy is constantly born anew” and that we need “a new chapter of evangelization marked by this joy.”[39]
Joy is the most profound driving force of the Church’s mission. The simplest example of this is the German saying, taken from popular wisdom: “The mouth overflows because the heart is full of joy.” We perceive the truth of this ourselves: when people have experienced something truly beautiful, such as wonderful holidays, there is absolutely no need to ask or convince them to talk about what has happened, for they will do so spontaneously. Sometimes their passionate words enable us to take part in their experience. “The mouth overflows because the heart is full of joy”: this truth is even more valid for the Christian faith when it fills the hearts of the faithful, so much so that they start to proclaim the Gospel spontaneously, to speak about God with others, and to transmit the joy that has filled them
Thus, Christian mission today is not advanced by publicity campaigns aimed at consumers, through mountains of documents or by the mass media. The best instrument for spreading God’s truth are the believers themselves, living their faith credibly and giving the Gospel a personal face. If Christ truly illuminates us as the light of the world, then we will shine brightly, we will be luminous Christians. We will be like those famous Finnish candles that burn from the inside outwards, emanating light from within.[40] A missionary Christianity needs, above all, the baptized whose hearts have been opened by God and whose reason has been illuminated by the light of God, so that their hearts can touch the hearts of others, and their reason can speak to the reason of others. It is only through those who allow themselves to be touched by God that can God arrive at others.
Today, a new missionary impulse is required. Seeking to nurture this, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Benedict XV’s Apostolic Letter Maximum illud on the work of missionaries throughout the world, Pope Francis proclaimed an Extraordinary Missionary Month in October of 2019 with the goal of “more fully awakening the awareness of the missio ad gentes and to renew the missionary transformation of life and pastoral work with a new momentum.” We can respond to this call only by returning to the fundamental missionary task of Christians and the Church, which consists in witnessing to the faith and the true Christian joy given to us by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
[1]. Michael Sievernich, La Missione Cristiana. Storia e Presente (Brescia: Queriniana, 2012), 5.
[2]. Cf. Kurt Koch, “Mission Oder De-Mission der Kirche? Herausforderungen an eine Notwendige Neuevangelisierung,” in Mission als Herausforderung. Impulse zur Neuevangelisierung, eds. G. Augustin and K. Kramer (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder Verlag, 2011), 41-79, especially 55-71: “Dimensionen und Wege der Neuevangelisierung.”
[3]. Franz Kamphaus, Die Welt zusammenhalten. Reden gegen den Strom (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder Verlag, 2008), 125.
[4]. Joseph Ratzinger, “Considerationes quoad fundamentum theologicum missionis Ecclesiae. Überlegungen zur theologischen Grundlage der Sendung (Mission) der Kirche,” in Joseph Ratzinger, Zur Lehre des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils. Formulierung – Vermittlung – Deutung, Gesammelte Schriften 7/1 (Freiburg im Breisgau, Herder Verlag, 2012), 223-236, 223.
[5]. Joseph Ratzinger, “Der Priester als Mittler und Diener Christi im Licht der Neutestamentlichen Botschaft,” in Joseph Ratzinger, Theologische Prinzipienlehre. Bausteine zur Fundamentaltheologie (München: Wewel, 1982), 281-299, 288.
[6]. Joseph Ratzinger, “Considerationes quoad fundamentum theologicum missionis Ecclesiae,” op.cit., 224.
[7]. Ibid., 225.
[8]. Cf. Mauro Gagliardi, ed., La Dichiarazione Dominus Iesus a dieci anni dalla promulgazione (Torino: Lindau, 2010).
[9]. Cf. Raymund Schwager, Christus allein? Der Streit um die pluralistische Religionstheologie (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder Verlag, 1996).
[10]. Cf. Kurt Koch, “Evangelisierung aus der ‘quellhaften Liebe’ heraus,” in Die grossen Metaphern des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils. Ihre Bedeutung für heute, Mariano Delgado and Michael Sievernich eds. (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder Verlag, 2013), 355-372.
[11]. Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et spes, 2 (7 December 1965).
[12]. Cf. Second Vatican Council, Lumen gentium, 14-16 (21 November 1964).
[13]. Cf. Joseph Ratzinger, “Konzilsaussagen über die Mission Außerhalb des Missionsdekrets,” in Joseph Ratzinger, Das Neue Volk Gottes. Entwürfe zur Ekklesiologie (Düsseldorf: Patmos, 1969), 376-403, now in Joseph Ratzinger, Zur Lehre des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils. Formulierung –Vermittlung – Deutung, Gesammelte Schriften 7/2, (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder Verlag, 2012), 919-951.
[14]. Second Vatican Council, Ad gentes, 1 (7 December 1965).
[15]. Ibid., 9.
[16]. Ibid., 2.
[17]. Ibid., 35.
[18]. Joseph Ratzinger, “Weltoffene Kirche? Überlegungen zur Struktur des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils,” in Joseph Ratzinger, Das Neue Volk Gottes, 282-301, 300, now in Joseph Ratzinger, Zur Lehre des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils. Formulierung – Vermittlung – Deutung, Gesammelte Schriften 7/2, 980-1002, 1001.
[19]. Cf. Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, ed., Enchiridion della nuova evangelizzazione. Testi del Magistero pontificio e conciliare 1939-2012 (Vatican City: LEV, 2012).
[20]. Paul VI, Evangelii nuntiandi, 14 (8 December 1975).
[21]. John Paul II, Discorso all’Assemblea del CELAM, Port-au-Prince (Haiti) (9 March 1983).
[22]. Benedict XVI, Motu proprio “Ubicumque et semper” (21 September 2010).
[23]. Pope Francis, Evangelii gaudium, 1 (24 November 2013).
[24]. Ibid., 19-23.
[25]. Second Vatican Council, Ad gentes, 2.
[26]. Focko Lüpsen. ed., Neu-Delhi-Dokumente (Witten: Luther-Verlag, 1962), 104-106.
[27]. Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis humanae, 4 (7 December 1965).
[28]. Cf. Jèrome Hamer and Yves Congar, eds., Die Konzilserklärung über die Religionsfreiheit (Paderborn: Bonifacius, 1967).
[29]. Benedict XVI, Homily During the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean in Aparecida, (13 May 2007).
[30]. Cf. Kurt Koch, “Glaubensüberzeugung und Toleranz. Interreligiöser Dialog in christlicher Sicht,” in Zeitschrift für Missions- und Religionswissenschaft 92 (2008), 196-210.
[31]. John Paul II, Redemptoris missio, 10 (7 December 1990).
[32]. Thomas Söding, Einheit der Heiligen Schrift? Zur Theologie des Biblischen Kanons (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder Verlag, 2005), 94.
[33]. Cf. Kurt Koch, “Die Bedeutung der Ökumene für die Neuevangelisierung,” in Catholica 69 (2013):1-18.
[34]. Benedict XVI, Homily on the Solemnity of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, First Vespers, 28 June 2010.
[35]. Joseph Ratzinger, “Considerationes quoad fundamentum theologicum missionis Ecclesiae,” op.cit., 234.
[36]. Walter Kasper, “Eine missionarische Kirche ist ökumenisch,” in Walter Kasper, Wege zur Einheit der Christen, Gesammelte Schriften, 14 (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder Verlag, 2012), 621-634, 623.
[37]. Pope Francis, Evangelii gaudium, 244, 246.
[38]. Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI, Gesù di Nazaret. Dall’ingresso di Gerusalemme fino alla risurrezione (Città del Vaticano: LEV, 2011), 112.
[39]. Pope Francis, Evangelii gaudium, 1.
[40]. Cf. Kurt Koch, “Das Gute selbst ist kommunikativ – „bonum diffusivum sui“. Evangelisierung als Wirkung eines strahlenden Glaubens,” in Die Strahlkraft des Glaubens. Identität und Relevanz des Christseins heute, George Augustin ed. (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder Verlag, 2016), 45-67.