Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - In his invaluable address to the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for the Clergy, held in the Vatican 16-18 March, the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, among many important indications, offered one of particular interest with regard to the themes of mission.
Regarding the coincidence, in Christianity, between the contents and the method of proclamation, the Pope says: «As the Church, and as priests, we announce Jesus of Nazareth Lord and Christ, crucified and risen, Lord of time and history, in the happy certainty that this truth coincides with the deepest longings of the human heart. In the mystery of the incarnation of the Word, that is, in the fact that God became man, lie both the contents and the method of Christian proclamation. Here mission has its true thrust : in Jesus Christ, precisely».
This truth of faith is not fully understood and therefore not concretely lived. It suffices to think of all the energy used to organise "structures", to “arrange ourselves” as an institution, without ever living an authentic personal encounter with Christ, who reveals to man the new horizon of which the human heart has such need.
So the Incarnation is not only a truth of faith to be accepted, it is the method of evangelisation. That is: just as the mystery of the eternal Word chose to assume our human nature in order to reveal to us the face of the Father, so too, still today, again through the human, those who have been changed by an encounter with Christ, reveal to others the beauty and the “convincing convenience”, also human, of following Christ.
The real focal point of mission today, as always, is not to 'invent' new structures and even less to change the language used. These are clichés which keep coming back, but which more serious theological reflection has long put aside. In fact even pastoral experience demonstrates that 'new structures' are often 'empty vessels' which with great effort we strive to fill, never imagining that, if there must be a structure, it must be born of a new life, which, normally we organise and arrange ourselves, and there is no need for anyone to 'put it into plaster' prematurely.
In the indication of the connection between contents and methods of mission, there echoes the thought of H.U. von Balthasar, for whom Christ is both contents and method of proclamation, as the Letter to the Hebrews affirms, indicating in Jesus, unity of person and mission: «Since in Jesus, the Son of God, we have the supreme high priest who has gone through to the highest heaven, we must hold firm to our profession of faith. For the high priest we have is not incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us, but has been put to the test in exactly the same way as ourselves, apart from sin» (Heb 4, 14-15).
The Pontiff's indication needs to be developed and pondered and adequately studied could lead to important consequences for the planning of missionary activity: for example, overcoming the fake distinction between pre-evangelisation and evangelisation, or between human promotion and evangelisation.
God chose the method of entering what is human in order to reveal Himself to mankind. The Church, in her mission, through the members of the mystical Body of Christ, that is all the baptised, simply imitates her Lord, using God's own method. (Fides News Service, 18/3/2009)
