Pope Francis Encourages A Revival of the Church’s Missionary Charism
The Exhortation of the Joy of the Gospel
“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,” (Matthew 28:19). Jesus’s last words to His disciples before His ascension speak to us profoundly today in our walk of faith.
Pope Francis takes up the cross of encouraging the Church to renew her missionary calling in his exhortation to the faithful, consecrated persons, and the clergy, The Joy of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium).
His exhortation details several ways in which the Church needs to live out the New Evangelization today.
His Holiness discusses the basics of evangelization, our relationship with God, local community in the Church, the call to discipleship, and distribution of authority in the context of today’s world. He reminds us all that The Joy of the Gospel comes from actually living the Gospel. It is a call to modern Catholics to renew their commitment to the invitation of Jesus.
Missionary Disciples
Pope Francis explains in a very detailed way that we must reach out to those on the margins exactly as Jesus did.
“Indeed, ‘today missionary activity still represents the greatest challenge for the Church and the missionary task must remain foremost’. What would happen if we were to take these words seriously? We would realize that missionary outreach is paradigmatic for all the Church’s activity,” (Francis, 15).
His Holiness reminds the Church at the very beginning of his exhortation the very seriousness of Jesus’s call to a missionary discipleship. Quoting Pope John Paul II, an added support to his words, he points out this as the essence of our Church’s existence.
Indeed our Church has done a marvelous job at bringing the Gospel to all ends of the earth in times past. Pope Francis exhorts us to continually perfect this effort and keep it at the center of our purpose besides knowing the Lord ourselves.
He writes this in the context of an age where even the Church is at risk of giving into worldly allures. We as members of the Church absolutely must keep our missionary call at the forefront of our purpose.
As we come to know, love, and serve God ourselves, we must then go labor, bringing him to the world, especially to the peripheries. We must learn to be disinterested in a prosperity Gospel, and interested in the Gospel that serves.
Option of the Poor
“If we, who are God’s means of hearing the poor, turn deaf ears to this plea, we oppose the Father’s will and his plan; that poor person ‘might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt’ (Dt 15:9). A lack of solidarity towards his or her needs will directly affect our relationship with God,” (Francis, 148).
A particular focus of our missionary calling, the Holy Father reminds us, must be for the poor. We cannot only evangelize among those we know well or those who are easy to reach out to. We must respond to the needs of the poor, not only for them but also for the sake of our own souls and ability to connect with God. I have learned this reality in my own life.
Spending most of my life in a rural mid-western town in the United States, and coming from a middle-class family, I was very comfortable ignoring the plea of the poor before I began pursuing a relationship with the Lord and being formed in the Catholic faith.
Once you read the Gospels and seek the Lord, you cannot ignore this central responsibility we have as Catholic Christians. The Pope wisely uses scripture to prod our consciences.
Modern Acts of the Apostles
“It is not the same thing to try to build the world with his Gospel as to try to do so by our own lights. We know well that with Jesus life becomes richer and that with him it is easier to find meaning in everything… A true missionary, who never ceases to be a disciple, knows that Jesus walks with him, speaks to him, breathes with him, works with him,” (Francis, 199).
The above quotation reminds us all of the most important aspect of evangelization. It is not we who do the work in our own way, but only through the Grace of God and the Holy Spirit that we are able to evangelize effectively. We do not convert, but as St. Theresa of Calcutta understood well, are nothing but a “pencil in God’s hand”.
The Holy Father, in his closing section, reminds his audience that apart from God we can do nothing. We do not take on the responsibility of doing the work on our own, as we could not, lest we do so in vain. We simply say “yes” to the Lord and His call, and He walks with us.
The Joy of the Gospel is an invitation to a deeper commitment as faithful Catholics, and a reminder of what our purpose is. It broadens stereotypical understandings of the “missionary” life and defines it in various contexts in our modern world.
We are reminded of the necessity for mission to be our central work, how that relates to a preferential option for the poor, and is all accomplished by the work of the Holy Spirit, with our participation.
The Holy Father wonderfully and wisely expands on The Great Commission and what it means for us today. He uses scripture and the wisdom of his predecessors often throughout his book to reiterate and source his own exhortation. I highly recommend this thought provoking read for those seeking Jesus and a deeper participation in His life through the life of the Church.
