Yes, we gather as missionaries, as evangelizers.
We hail the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, especially found
in Lumen Gentium, Gaudium et Spes, and Ad Gentes, that refines the
Church’s understanding of her evangelical duty, defining the entire
Church as missionary, that all Christians, by reason of baptism,
confirmation, and Eucharist, are evangelizers.
Yes, the Council reaffirmed, especially in Ad Gentes, there are
explicit missionaries, sent to lands and peoples who have never heard
the very Name by which all are saved, but also that no Christian is
exempt from the duty of witnessing to Jesus and offering His invitation
to others in his own day-to-day life.
Thus, mission became central to the life of every local church, to
every believer. The context of mission shifted not only in a
geographical sense, but in a theological sense, as mission applied not
only to unbelievers but to believers, and some thoughtful people began
to wonder if such a providential expansion of the concept of
evangelization unintentionally diluted the emphasis of mission ad
gentes.
Blessed John Paul II developed this fresh understanding, speaking of
evangelizing cultures, since the engagement between faith and culture
supplanted the relationship between church and state dominant prior to
the Council, and included in this task the re-evangelizing of cultures
that had once been the very engine of gospel values. The New
Evangelization became the dare to apply the invitation of Jesus to
conversion of heart not only ad extra but ad intra, to believers and
cultures where the salt of the gospel had lost its tang. Thus, the
missio is not only to New Guinea but to New York.
In Redemptoris Missio, #33, he elaborated upon this, noting primary
evangelization — the preaching of Jesus to lands and people unaware of
His saving message — the New Evangelization — the rekindling of faith in
persons and cultures where it has grown lackluster — and the pastoral
care of those daily living as believers.
We of course acknowledge that there can be no opposition between the
missio ad gentes and the New Evangelization. It is not an “either-or”
but a “both-and” proposition. The New Evangelization generates
enthusiastic missionaries; those in the apostolate of the missio ad
gentes require themselves to be constantly evangelized anew.
Even in the New Testament, to the very generation who had the missio
ad gentes given by the Master at His ascension still ringing in their
ears, Paul had to remind them to “stir into flame” the gift of faith
given them, certainly an early instance of the New Evangelization.
And, just recently, in the inspirational Synod in Africa, we heard
our brothers from the very lands radiant with the fruits of the missio
ad gentes report that those now in the second and third generation after
the initial missionary zeal already stand in need of the New
Evangelization.
The acclaimed American missionary and TV evangelist, Archbishop
Fulton J. Sheen, commented, “Our Lord’s first word to His disciples was
‘come!’ His last word was ‘go!’ You can’t ‘go’ unless you’ve first
‘come’ to Him.”
read the rest of Dolan's speech
2/18/2012
Where is your missio?
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