By Fr. Nicholas Onyait MCCJ
October is commemorated in the church as a missionary month. It is a good time to remind ourselves of the missionary nature of the Church. One might ask; what does it mean to be a missionary? How is the Church missionary by nature? Where does her missionary dimension stem from? “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Cf Mathew 28). With these words, Jesus gave the disciples the mandate by commissioning them to become missionaries, directed to proclaim the good news to all nations. The Church derives her missionary nature in this act of commissioning. Christ hands over the missionary mantle to the disciples.
Therefore, being a missionary means being sent to baptize, and to proclaim the good news. The message carried by the church in her missionary nature is the message of Christ, which is of hope and salvation. Through her missionary dimension, she lives the aspects of Christ himself; compassion towards sinners, the marginalized, and the poor.
The mission of the Church is directly associated with the mission of Christ and is actually its continuation. In the gospel of Luke 4:18, at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he proclaims, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind and to set the oppressed free. In these noble words, the Lord acclaims Himself as the anointed messenger of the Father who brings the message and action of salvation to humanity.
The Church, the body of Christ, which incorporates all the baptized has inherited this decree. In her proclamation, the Church utters out the message of Christ in its totality and truthfulness. Like Christ, she is consecrated for the mission; to proclaim good news to the poor, to liberate its members from the entanglements of evil, to become the light that enables the blind to see. Thus, in her participation in the mission of Christ, the church also assumes the prophetic role of announcing good news of hope and renouncing evil.
The Church is able to accomplish this mandate through the Holy Spirit sent by the Father and the Son. She participates in the establishment and proclamation of the kingdom of God. The Church, like the moon, does not reflect her own light but rather the light of the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (cf. The catechism of the catholic Church) For this year’s World Mission Sunday to be celebrated on the “10th of October, the Holy Father, Pope Francis calls all to reflect on the theme “Go and invite everyone to the banquet” (cf. Mathew 22:9).
It is a reminder of our role as the Church in bringing others to the banquet of Christ. This invitation, given in the present context of the world where many deliberately deny Christ and choose secularism, becomes a relevant reminder to all of us to fulfill our role as the Church, proclaiming good news, love,
and forgiveness. It reveals that there is still a lot to be done, a lot to accomplish.
This mission inscribed in the Church is a call to; invite others to the banquet. It reveals the Eucharistic and eschatological dimension of Christ (From the Eucharist as a banquet) and the Church. The mission is synodal. It calls for communion and participation. The Pope highlights in part in his message that “this is the heart of the mission of the Church, that all excluding no one. Every mission of ours, then, is born from the heart of Christ so that he may draw all to himself”.
The Church is the body of Christ and its members, the baptized are its parts. Every baptized person therefore is a missionary by virtue of baptism. Rather than say the church is missionary by nature, we could bring down the concept to every baptized person as a missionary of God, called to give witness and announce the good news.
