|
Latest News 
 |
|
Back to Ratio IndexChapter II. A New Missionary Paradigm
The Second Vatican Council has had a profound effect
on the way the Church perceives its mission in the world. The fathers
of the Council, especially in the documents Lumen Gentium, Gaudium
et Spes and Ad Gentes, pointed the Church in new directions and created an
impetus for the development of a new model for mission. The new paradigm
for mission, which is still being refined and developed, envisions
the Church as a communion of local Churches in union with Rome, each
in service of the other. The missionary endeavor, in this perspective,
becomes multidirectional. The new paradigm does not just envision established
Churches sending personnel to the so-called young Churches; rather,
it contemplates multiple contexts for evangelization. It sees evangelization
as beginning whenever a missionary leaves his or her own culture and
crosses a human frontier (geographical or social) to announce the Gospel
in a new culture. The missionary not only proclaims the mystery of
Christ, but is evangelized too as he or she accompanies others in the
process of discovering the Spirit of the Lord already acting in a local
Church or culture.
Among the elements present in the new missionary paradigm,
four can be highlighted:
2.1 Evangelization
Evangelii
Nuntiandi (EN 27) describes the content of evangelization
in this way: „Evangelization will always contain ‚ as the foundation,
center and at the same time summit of its dynamism ‚ a clear proclamation
that, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made Man, who died and rose
from the dead, salvation is offered to all as a gift of God¼s grace
and mercy ... a salvation which indeed has its beginning in this
life but which is fulfilled in eternity.¾ Redemptoris Missio (RM 11)
adds: „We know that Jesus came to bring integral salvation, one which
embraces the whole person and all humankind, and opens up the wondrous
prospect of divine filiation.¾ The same document, focusing on the
Church¼s missionary activity, states (RM 44):
„Proclamation is the permanent priority of mission.... All forms
of missionary activity are directed to this proclamation, which reveals
and gives access to the mystery hidden for ages and made known in
Christ (cf. Eph 3:3-9; Col 1:25-29), the mystery which lies at the
heart of the Church¼s mission and life as the hinge on which all
evangelization turns.¾
Jesus announced the advent of the kingdom of God. He
has sent me to preach Good News to the poor, to proclaim liberation
to captives and sight to the blind, to give freedom to the oppressed
and announce a year of God¼s favor (Lk
4:18-19). The Good News he preached was the presence
of this Kingdom in his person and his ministry, touching the human
person at every level so that we can become a new creation. Paul
VI wrote in Evangelii Nuntiandi (EN 9): As the kernel and center of his Good
News, Christ proclaims salvation, this great gift of God, which is
liberation from everything that oppresses man but which is above
all liberation from sin and the Evil One.
This Kingdom, God¼s reign in our lives, transforms the world through
truth, freedom, love, justice and forgiveness, and it points to a
future not yet fulfilled.
The Church, the community of Jesus¼ disciples, continues
his evangelizing mission. The Church is not identical with the kingdom,
but cannot be separated from it. The Church is ... at the service
of the kingdom (RM 20). It proclaims the Good News of the Kingdom
through word and work, just as Jesus did. The goal of its proclamation
is that people encounter Christ. Through this encounter they come to
fullness of life.
The proclamation of the Kingdom involves communication.
The Good News can be communicated in many different ways, as Paul VI
noted in Evangelii Nuntiandi. A
frequent means is verbal communication ‚ preaching, catechizing, works
of education, sharing the scriptures, theological reflection. Modern
media provide a variety of instruments ‚ radio, television, Internet,
books, newspapers, magazines.
But proclamation also occurs in nonverbal ways. The
sacraments and sacramentals play an essential role. The arts (painting,
sculpture, music, dance, film, theater, and architecture) are other
ways to communicate the message of Jesus.
People today put more trust in witnesses than in
teachers, experience than in teaching, and in life and action than
in theories (RM 42). Evangelization, a process which begins with proclamation,
inaugurates a way of life in which the values of the Gospel are practiced. The message that is preached becomes a message
that is lived, a way of life that gives witness to the Good News.
The ways that the Gospel can be translated into Christian action
are without limit. Works of charity, the struggle for justice, the
promotion of human rights, community building, and projects for human
development are only some of the possibilities.
Redemptoris Missio envisions three situations for carrying out the Church¼s
evangelizing mission. The first is that of missions ad gentes. Strictly speaking, missions ad gentes are those in which the Gospel is preached to
people who have never heard it. This is sometimes called primary evangelization.
The second situation is evangelization in areas where the Christian
community is already established, but needs nurturing. The final situation
is that of peoples who have a long Christian tradition, but where many
have never effectively been confronted by the Good News. In this third
context, Pope John Paul II talks about the need for a new evangelization:
new in its ardor, new in its methods, new in its expression. Redemptoris
Missio, while describing these three different situations,
also notes that, in practice, it is often difficult to maintain such
clear distinctions.
2.2 Inculturation
Sensibility to culture and to inculturating the Gospel
is an important priority for the Church. Pope Paul VI states in Evangelii
Nuntiandi (EN 20): The split between the Gospel and culture
is without a doubt the drama of our time, just as it was of other times. Culture is the context through which people
understand the world. It includes a whole spectrum of ideas, beliefs,
symbols and values that are shared by a people. Everything learned,
including the message of the Gospel, is affected by it. People cannot
be truly evangelized unless they are addressed within the context of
their culture.
The modern world has become more aware of cultural diversity.
Cultures are not static, isolated entities. They change and develop.
All cultures have values and disvalues. Cultures constantly come into
contact with each other. These encounters can be mutually enriching,
but can also be confrontational.
The reality of cultural pluralism has influenced the
new missionary paradigm. The Second Vatican Council stated that:
The Church, sent to all peoples of every time and
place, is not bound exclusively and indissolubly to any race or nation,
any particular way of life or any customary way of life recent or
ancient. Faithful to her own tradition and at the same time conscious
of her universal mission, she can enter into communion with the various
civilizations, to their enrichment and the enrichment of the Church
herself (Gaudium et Spes, 58).
The difficulty for missionaries is that, although the
Gospel is not identified with any particular culture, it is always
communicated through the medium of culture. Missionary evangelization,
therefore, always implies the meeting of cultures. At times missionaries
have confused the Good News of Jesus with the way their culture has
embodied Jesus¼ message. They imposed their culture along with the
Gospel.
Today¼s missionary paradigm highlights the importance
of communicating the Gospel in terms of the local culture. Pope Paul
VI put it this way: What matters is to evangelize human culture
and cultures (not in a purely decorative way as it were by applying
a thin veneer, but in a vital way, in depth and right to their very
roots), in the wide and rich sense which these terms have in Gaudium
et Spes, always taking the person as one¼s starting-point and always
coming back to relationships of people among themselves and with God (EN 20). In this way the Gospel permeates the culture
and becomes incarnate in it. This creates a dynamism which enables
God¼s Word to transform the culture by promoting values already present
in it, while also questioning what is not of God within a culture and
what violates the human person.
The missionary crosses not only geographical but also
cultural boundaries to announce the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Inculturation
of the Gospel is not merely the translating of theological propositions
into a different language, as if the Good News was a set of ideas to
be learned. It is communicating the message of the Kingdom by word
and work in such a way that people can encounter the person of Christ
and become disciples.
Missionaries, while being faithful to the message of
the Gospel, must also seek to discover the seeds of the Word in the
local culture. Inculturation is a long and difficult process. It requires
study and reflection. It calls for dialogue, respect and humility.
It involves a conscious awareness of one¼s own cultural values, meanings
and prejudices as well as an understanding of the local context. The
encounter between cultures which always accompanies evangelization
can be mutually enriching, but only if a dialogue of cultures takes
place in an atmosphere of respect, openness and sensitivity.
2.3 A
Polycentric Church
A logical consequence of inculturating the Gospel is
recognition that there are many ways to live faith in Jesus. Evangelii
Nuntiandi points
this out:
The universal Church is in practice incarnate in
the individual Churches made up of such or such an actual part of
mankind, speaking such and such a language, heirs of a cultural patrimony,
of a vision of the world, of an historical past, of a particular
human substratum. Receptivity to the wealth of the individual Church
corresponds to a special sensitivity of modern man (EN
62).
The alternative, an approach focused on Western culture
or any other single culture, in the long run will render the universal
Church¼s evangelizing mission impossible.
The new missionary paradigm places much responsibility
for evangelization on the local Churches. Much of the initiative and
creativity for devising ways to inculturate the Gospel and the practice
of faith must come from local Christian communities. The paradigm envisions
a communion of local Churches which support each other as equals by
sharing concerns and by responding to each others¼ needs. The flow
of missionaries, then, is not only from North to South, but multidirectional.
The polycentric Church lives in worldwide communion
through its faith in the person of Jesus, the bonds of charity that
draw its members together, and a unifying ecclesial structure ‚ the
college of bishops, in union with Peter, that continues Jesus¼ ministry
of teaching, governing, and sanctifying. The Catholic Church is both
one and universal. It is a sign of unity within diversity. Pope Paul
VI noted in Evangelii Nuntiandi:
Let us be very careful not to conceive of the universal
Church as the sum, or, if one can say so, the more or less anomalous
federation of essentially different individual Churches. In the mind
of the Lord the Church is universal by vocation and mission, but
when she puts down her roots in a variety of cultural, social and
human terrains, she takes on different external expressions and appearances
in each part of the world (EN 62).
The role of the college of bishops, in union with the
Bishop of Rome, is to promote the unity of the Church, but a unity
in diversity. The concretization of how this diversity takes shape
in liturgy, law and practice requires much dialogue between the local
Churches and the Holy See. This is a perennial challenge for the Catholic
Church as a missionary Church.
2.4 Respect
for Other Religions and Ecumenism
In every country the Catholic Church encounters people
who are members of different ecclesial communions or religions. Inter-religious
dialogue is a part of the Church¼s evangelizing mission (RM 55). Because the Church itself is called to continual
conversion it welcomes dialogue with men and women of other faiths. Dialogue
does not originate from tactical concerns or self-interest (RM 56). It is a consequence of the Church¼s respect for
human freedom. Sharing with people of other faiths can be mutually
enriching. It can provide both parties with insight into God¼s action
in the world and create new sensitivity to different experiences of
life.
This mutual enrichment comes about through respect,
understanding, and a common search for the truth. Missionaries must
be aware that truth also resides beyond the confines of the Catholic
Church. Other religions with deeper roots within a country often have
more insight into local cultures than we do. From the wisdom of other
religions we can learn much that will strengthen our own Christian
faith and make us aware of God¼s presence in ways we had never previously
considered.
Inter-religious dialogue does not imply abandoning the
Church¼s mission to evangelize. Self-identity is an essential part
of any sincere dialogue. While calling for dialogue, the Holy Father
cautions against relativizing Christ and his message. Christians cannot
speak about God¼s action in history and the world without reference
to Christ. Dialogue will discover areas of agreement and mutual concern.
It will also uncover points of divergence and disagreement.
Missionaries in dialogue always need to recall that the
Church proposes, she imposes nothing (RM 39). Faithfulness
to Christ and the Gospel does not involve intransigence towards other
faiths. On the contrary, Christian witness involves love, respect
and freedom.
|