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2. The pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature, since it is
from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that
she draws her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the
Father.
This decree, however, flows from the "fount - like love" or
charity of God the Father who, being the "principle without
principle" from whom the Son is begotten and Holy Spirit proceeds
through the Son, freely creating us on account of His surpassing and
merciful kindness and graciously calling us moreover to share with Him
His life and His cry, has generously poured out, and does not cease
to pour out still, His divine goodness. Thus He who created all
things may at last be "all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28), bringing
about at one and the same time His own glory and our happiness. But
it pleased God to call men to share His life, not just singly, apart
from any mutual bond, but rather to mold them into a people in which
His sons, once scattered abroad might be gathered together (cf.
John 11:52).
3. This universal design of God for the salvation of the human race
is carried out not only, as it were, secretly in the soul of a man,
or by the attempts (even religious ones by which in diverse ways it
seeks after God) if perchance it may contact Him or find Him,
though He be not far from anyone of us (cf. Acts 17:27). For
these attempts need to be enlightened and healed; even though, through
the kindly workings of Divine Providence, they may sometimes serve as
leading strings toward God, or as a preparation for the
Gospel. Now God, in order to establish peace or the communion
of sinful human beings with Himself, as well as to fashion them into a
fraternal community, did ordain to intervene in human history in a way
both new and finally sending His Son, clothed in our flesh, in order
that through Him He might snatch men from the power of darkness and
Satan (cf. Col. 1:13; Acts 10:38) and reconcile the
world to Himself in Him (cf. 2 Cor. 5:19). Him, then, by
whom He made the world, He appointed heir of all things, that
in Him He might restore all (cf. Eph. 1:10).
For Jesus Christ was sent into the world as a real mediator between
God and men. Since He is God, all divine fullness dwells bodily in
Him (Gal. 2:9). According to His human nature, on the other
hand, He is the new Adam, made head of a renewed humanity, and full
of grace and of truth (John 1:14). Therefore the Son of God
walked the ways of a true Incarnation that He might make men sharers
in the nature of God: made poor for our sakes, though He had been
rich, in order that His poverty might enrich us (2 Cor. 8:9).
The Son of Man came not that He might be served, but that He might
be a servant, and give His life as a ransom for the many - that is,
for all (cf. Mark 10:45). The Fathers of the Church
proclaim without hesitation that what has not been taken up by Christ
is not made whole. Now, what He took up was our entire human
nature such as it is found among us poor wretches, save only sin (cf.
Heb. 4:15; 9.28). For Christ said concerning Himself,
He whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world (cf. John
10:36): the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He
anointed me; to bring good news to the poor He sent me, to heal the
broken - hearted, to proclaim to the captives release, and sight to
the blind" (Luke 4:18). And again: "The Son of Man has
come to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10).
But what the Lord preached that one time, or what was wrought in Him
for the saving of the human race, must be spread abroad and published
to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8), beginning from Jerusalem
(cf. Luke 24:27), so that what He accomplished at that one
time for the salvation of all, may in the course of time come to
achieve its effect in all.
4. To accomplish this, Christ sent from the Father His Holy
Spirit, who was to carry on inwardly His saving work and prompt the
Church to spread out. Doubtless, the Holy Spirit was already at
work in the world before Christ was glorified. Yet on the day
of Pentecost, He came down upon the disciples to remain with them
forever (cf. John 14:16). The Church was publicly displayed
to the multitude, the Gospel began to spread among the nations by
means of preaching, and there was presaged that union of all peoples in
the catholicity of the faith by means of the Church of the New
Covenant, a Church which speaks all tongues, understands and accepts
all tongues in her love, and so supersedes the divisiveness of
Babel. For it was from Pentecost that the "Acts of the
Apostles" took again, just as Christ was - conceived when the Holy
Spirit came upon the Virgin Mary, and just as Christ was impelled
to the work of His ministry by the same Holy Spirit descending upon
Him while He prayed.
Now, the Lord Jesus, before freely giving His life for the world,
did so arrange the Apostles' ministry and promise to send the Holy
Spirit that both they and the Spirit might be associated in effecting
the work of salvation always and everywhere. Throughout all
ages, the Holy Spirit makes the entire Church "one in communion and
in ministering; He equips her with various gifts of a hierarchical and
charismatic nature," a giving life, soul - like, to ecclesiastical
institutions and instilling into the hearts of the faithful the
same mission spirit which impelled Christ Himself. Sometimes He
even visibly anticipates the Apostles' acting, just as He
unceasingly accompanies and directs it in different ways.
5. From the very beginning, the Lord Jesus "called to Himself
those whom He wished; and He caused twelve of them to be with Him,
and to be sent out preaching (Mark 3:13; cf. Matt.
10:1-42). Thus the Apostles were the first budding - forth
of the New Israel, and at the same time the beginning of the sacred
hierarchy. Then, when He had by His death and His resurrection
completed once for all in Himself the mysteries of our salvation and
the renewal of all things, the Lord, having now received all power in
heaven and on earth (cf. Matt. 28 18), before He was taken up
into heaven (cf. Acts 1:11), founded His Church as the
sacrament of salvation and sent His Apostles into all the world just
as He Himself had been sent by His Father (cf. John
20:21), commanding them: "Go, therefore, and make disciples
of a nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you" (Matt. 28:19 ff.). "Go into the whole
world, preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is
baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe, shall be
condemned" (Mark 16:15ff.). Whence the duty that lies on the
Church of spreading the faith and the salvation of Christ, not only
in virtue of the express command which was inherited from the Apostles
by the order of bishops, assisted by the priests, together with the
successor of Peter and supreme shepherd of the Church, but also in
virtue of that life which flows from Christ into His members; "From
Him the whole body, being closely joined and knit together through
every joint of the system, according to the functioning in due measure
of each single part, derives its increase to the building up of itself
in love" (Eph. 4:16). The mission of the Church,
therefore, is fulfilled by that activity which makes her, obeying the
command of Christ and influenced by the grace and love of the Holy
Spirit, fully present to all men or nations, in order that, by the
example of her life and by her preaching, by the sacraments and other
means of grace, she may lead them to the faith, the freedom and the
peace of Christ; that thus there may lie open before them a firm and
free road to full participation in the mystery of Christ.
Since this mission goes on and in the course of history unfolds the
mission of Christ Himself, who was sent to preach the Gospel to the
poor, the Church, prompted by the Holy Spirit, must walk in the
same path on which Christ walked: a path of poverty and obedience, of
service and self - sacrifice to the death, from which death He came
forth a victor by His resurrection. For thus did all the Apostles
walk in hope, and by many trials and sufferings they filled up those
things wanting to the Passion of Christ for His body which is the
Church (cf. Col. 1:24). For often, the blood of Christians
was like a seed.
6. This duty, to be fulfilled by the order of bishops, under the
successor of Peter and with the prayers and help of the whole Church,
is one and the same everywhere and in every condition, even though it
may be carried out differently according to circumstances. Hence, the
differences recognizable in this, the Church's activity, are not due
to the inner nature of the mission itself, but rather to the
circumstances in which this mission is exercised.
These circumstances in turn depend sometimes on the Church, sometimes
on the peoples or groups or men to whom the mission is directed. For
the Church, although of itself including the totality or fullness of
the means of salvation, does not and cannot always and instantly bring
them all into action. Rather, she experiences beginnings and degrees
in that action by which she strives to make God's plan a reality. In
fact, there are times when, after a happy beginning, she must again
lament a setback, or at least must linger in a certain state of
unfinished insufficiency. As for the men, groups and peoples
concerned, only by degrees does she touch and pervade them, and thus
take them up into full catholicity. The right sort of means and
actions must be suited to any state or situation.
"Missions" is the term usually given to those particular undertakings
by which the heralds of the Gospel, sent out by the Church and going
forth into the whole world, carry out the task of preaching the Gospel
and planting the Church among peoples or groups who do not yet believe
in Christ. These undertakings are brought to completion by missionary
activity and are mostly exercised in certain territories recognized by
the Holy See. The proper purpose of this missionary activity is
evangelization, and the planting of the Church among those peoples and
groups where it has not yet taken root. Thus from the seed
which is the word of God, particular autochthonous churches should be
sufficiently established and should grow up all over the world, endowed
with their own maturity and vital forces. Under a hierarchy of their
own, together with the faithful people, and adequately fitted out with
requisites for living a full Christian life, they should make their
contribution to the good of the whole Church. The chief means of the
planting referred to is the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
To preach this Gospel the Lord sent forth His disciples into the
whole world, that being reborn by the word of God (cf. 1 Peter
1:23), men might be joined to the Church through baptism - that
Church which, as the body of the Word Incarnate, is nourished and
lives by the word of God and by the eucharistic bread (cf. Acts
2:43).
In this missionary activity of the Church various stages sometimes are
found side by side: first, that of the beginning or planting, then
that of newness or youth. When these have passed, the Church's
missionary activity does not cease, but there lies upon the particular
churches already set up the duty of continuing this activity and of
preaching the Gospel to those still outside.
Moreover, the groups among which the Church dwells are often
radically changed, for one reason or other, so that an entirely new
set of circumstances may arise. Then the Church must deliberate
whether these conditions might again call for her missionary activity.
Besides, circumstances are sometimes such that, for the time being,
there is no possibility of expounding the Gospel directly and
forthwith. Then, of course, missionaries can and must at least bear
witness to Christ by charity and by works of mercy, with all
patience, prudence and great confidence. Thus they will prepare the
way for the Lord and make Him somehow present.
Thus it is plain that missionary activity wells up from the Church's
inner nature and spreads abroad her saving Faith. It perfects her
Catholic unity by this expansion. It is sustained by her
apostolicity. It exercises the collegial spirit of her hierarchy. It
bears witness to her sanctity while spreading and promoting it. Thus,
missionary activity among the nations differs from pastoral activity
exercised among the faithful as well as from undertakings aimed at
restoring unity among Christians. And yet these two ends are most
closely connected with the missionary zeal because the division
among Christians damages the most holy cause of preaching the Gospel
to every creature and blocks the way to the faith for many.
Hence, by the very necessity of mission, all the baptized are called
to gather into one flock, and thus they will be able to bear unanimous
witness before the nations to Christ their Lord. And if they are not
yet capable of bearing witness to the same faith, they should at least
be animated by mutual love and esteem.
7. This missionary activity derives its reason from the will of
God, "who wishes all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of
the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and
men, Himself a man, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as a ransom
for all" (1 Tim. 2:45), "neither is there salvation in any
other" (Acts 4:12). Therefore, all must be converted to
Him, made known by the Church's preaching, and all must be
incorporated into Him by baptism and into the Church which is His
body. For Christ Himself "by stressing in express language the
necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mark 16:16; John
3:5), at the same time confirmed the necessity of the Church,
into which men enter by baptism, as by a door. Therefore those men
cannot be saved, who though aware that God, through Jesus Christ
founded the Church as something necessary, still do not wish to enter
into it, or to persevere in it." Therefore though God in
ways known to Himself can lead those inculpably ignorant of the Gospel
to find that faith without which it is impossible to please Him
(Heb. 11:6), yet a necessity lies upon the Church (1 Cor.
9:16), and at the same time a sacred duty, to preach the
Gospel. And hence missionary activity today as always retains its
power and necessity.
By means of this activity, the Mystical Body of Christ unceasingly
gathers and directs its forces toward its own growth (cf. Eph.
4:11-16). The members of the Church are impelled to carry on
such missionary activity by reason of the love with which they love God
and by which they desire to share with all men the spiritual goods of
both its life and the life to come.
Finally, by means of this missionary activity, God is fully
glorified, provided that men fully and consciously accept His work of
salvation, which He has accomplished in Christ. In this way and by
this means, the plan of God is fulfilled - that plan to which Christ
conformed with loving obedience for the glory of the Father who sent
Him, that the whole human race might form one people of God
and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit which, being the
expression of brotherly harmony, corresponds with the inmost wishes of
all men. And so at last, there will be realized the plan of our
Creator who formed man to His own image and likeness, when all who
share one human nature, regenerated in Christ through the Holy
Spirit and beholding the glory of God, will be able to say with one
accord: "Our Father."
8. Missionary activity is closely bound up even with human nature
itself and its aspirations. For by manifesting Christ the Church
reveals to men the real truth about their condition and their whole
calling, since Christ is the source and model of that redeemed
humanity, imbued with brotherly love, sincerity and a peaceful
spirit, to which they all aspire. Christ and the Church, which
bears witness to Him by preaching the Gospel, transcend every
peculiarity of race or nation and therefore cannot be considered foreign
anywhere or to anybody. Christ Himself is the way and the
truth, which the preaching of the Gospel opens to all in proclaiming
in the hearing of all these words of Christ: "Repent, and believe
the Gospel" (Mark 1:15). Now, since he who does not believe
is already judged (cf. John 3:18), the words of Christ are at
one and the same time words of judgment and of grace, of death and of
life. For it is only by putting to death what is old that we are able
to approach the newness of life. This is true first of all about
persons, but it holds also for the various goods of this world which
bear the mark both of man's sin and of God's blessing: "For all
have sinned and have need of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).
No one is freed from sin by himself and by his own power, no one is
raised above himself, no one is completely rid of his sickness or his
solitude or his servitude. On the contrary, all stand in need
of Christ, their model, their mentor, their liberator, their
Savior, their source of life. The Gospel has truly been a leaven of
liberty and progress in human history, even in the temporal sphere,
and always proves itself a leaven of brotherhood, of unity and of
peace. Not without cause is Christ hailed by the faithful as "the
expected of the nations, and their Savior."
9. And so the time for missionary activity extends between the first
coming of the Lord and the second, in which latter the Church will be
gathered from the four winds like a harvest into the kingdom of
God. For the Gospel must be preached to all nations before
the Lord shall come (cf. Mark 13:10).
Missionary activity is nothing else and nothing less than an epiphany,
or a manifesting of God's decree, and its fulfillment in the world
and in world history, in the course of which God, by means of
mission, manifestly works out the history of salvation. By the
preaching of the word and by the celebration of the sacraments, the
center and summit of which is the most holy Eucharist, He brings
about the presence of Christ, the author of salvation. But whatever
truth and grace are to be found among the nations, as a sort of secret
presence of God, He frees from all taint of evil and restores to
Christ its maker, who overthrows the devil's domain and wards off the
manifold malice of vice. And so, whatever good is found to be sown in
the hearts and minds of men, or in the rites and cultures peculiar to
various peoples, not only is not lost, but is healed, uplifted, and
perfected for the glory of God, the shame of the demon, and the bliss
of men. Thus, missionary activity tends toward eschatological
fullness. For by it the people of God is increased to that
measure and time which the Father has fixed in His power(cf. Acts
1:7). To this people it was said in prophecy: "Enlarge the
space for your tent, and spread out your tent cloths unsparingly"
(Is. 54:2). By missionary activity, the mystical body
grows to the mature measure of the fullness of Christ (cf. Eph.
4:13); and the spiritual temple, where God is adored in spirit
and in truth (cf. John 4:23), grows and is built up upon the
foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being
the supreme corner stone (Eph. 2:20).
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