VATICAN - International Congress 50th anniversary Encyclical Fidei Donum - “ If we stop being concerned for the mission to evangelise and stop sharing our resources to meet the needs of the people of God, we stop being the Church of Jesus Christ””

Friday, 11 May 2007

Rome (Fides Service) - Starting from the Most Holy Trinity, the heart and source of mission, Cardinal Gaudencio B. Rosales, Archbishop of Manila, Philippines intervened on 9 May at the International Congress to mark the 50th anniversary of the Encyclical Fidei Donum (see Fides 21/4/2007) with a paper on the theme “Urgency and necessity of mission «ad gentes» ad extra in the model of communion among the Churches - the Gift of Faith - a priest for all the needs of missionary activity ”.
“Communion and mission are the two precious gifts which the Church is always ready to share with others - the Cardinal said-. However, Our Lord Jesus Christ can continue His mission to spread the Good News of the Father's love only through his disciples. He says in fact: “As the Father sent me so I send you ”. Clearly no one can undertake his own 'personal mission'. Priests and missionaries can evangelise only in the name and on behalf of Jesus Christ; therefore they must be first of all sent on mission by the Church and on behalf of the Church founded by the Lord Jesus. But as with those whom the Lord chooses to be his disciples, evangelisers too must be formed in a profound and intimate communion with Jesus Christ.”
Cardinal Rosales mentioned three important moments “in the task entrusted to the apostles to live according to the will of the Master. These three moments (like the colours of light in a prism) are not separate, they follow each other and merge to create new colours. In Christian life the vocation merges with mission so that mission often integrates the condition of the disciple”. These three steps indicated by St Mark the Evangelist, are: the call by Jesus which corresponds to the vocation to the priesthood. “He chose Twelve to be with Him”, to be with Jesus is the apex of discipleship; the third moment is “sending them to preach”. “Being sent to preach the good News defines the activity explicitly called mission. This is the moment when the apostles are sent to preach, to speak of the Lord's wisdom, love and compassion among the peoples and cultures they are sent to evangelise. Evangelisation is therefore the third step in the life of the chosen disciple which implies both the privilege of being called and the full realisation of being a disciples and announcing the Kingdom which only the Lord can inaugurate”. After recalling that evangelisation is addressed to all peoples and all cultures, according to the mandate of the Lord Jesus, the Archbishop of Manila spoke of the Church's missionary nature: “The proclamation of the Good News of God's love, the evangelisation of peoples, constitutes the essential mission, grace, vocation, identity proper to the Church. The Church exists in order to evangelise, to teach and to be a channel of the gift of grace. The Church would not be fully herself if she did not reach out to others (on mission)… Therefore for the Church the mission of evangelisation is not a question of need or temporal urgency it is her vary nature and identity.”
In the closing part of his intervention, Cardinal Rosales said the modern day phenomenon of human mobility was a new challenge to the mission of the Church and he recalled that “being a member of the Church means being concerned not only about the Church but also all her members. This is not a question of urgency or necessity. If we stop being concerned for the mission to evangelise and stop sharing our resources to meet the needs of the people of God, we stop being the Church of Jesus Christ”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 11/5/2007; righe 44, parole 625)


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