MODERN MISSIONARIES

“The importance of renewing the Church’s missionary commitment and giving fresh evangelical impulse to her work of preaching and bringing to the world the salvation of Jesus Christ” is the focus of Pope Francis’s message for World Mission Sunday Oct. 20 and for the special celebration in 2019 of October as “Missionary Month.”

In many past Blogs we have spoken of missionary saints, even some not canonized. When we recall  missionaries we think of Sts. Paul, Augustine, Patrick, Benedict, Francis of Assisi, Ignatius  of Loyola, Damien of Molokai and some women like Marianne of Molokai and Mother Teresa. But some of the great women, who stayed more at home than the men, were also evangelizers in their day:  Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila.

ST. THERESA of the CHILD JESUS (The Little Flower) never left her convent and yet is considered the patroness of the missions, a title given to her by Pope Pius XI because of her devotion of praying for missionaries.

 In our own country we had JACQUES MARQUETTE, S.J., JUNIPERO SERRA, FATHER KENO- who evangelized the southwest.

In past Blogs we have noted JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, to be canonized next Sunday. He influenced countless people to convert and today his name is given to the Newman Centers on numerous college & university campuses which seek to proclaim the Good News of Christ to young adults.

Another modern saint whose efforts in the new mediums of radio and television proved to be quite epic and prescient was BISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN. I have no doubt in my mind my own mother would have converted if this Venerable had lived longer.

And then we have ST. JOHN PAUL II,  the most traveled and beloved pope of modern times. This man knew the Good News and shared it with others whenever and how ever he could. He was not afraid to be joyful. Indeed, he told us to “Be not afraid! Open wide the doors to Christ!”

Sometimes I tell people that even though I am in a Contemplative order, I am a missionary.  Growing up I had visions of being a doctor-missionary, traipsing through the jungles of some far off wild country. In fact I am more a missionary here in our small islands, than if I was in those far off places, as there are so few people here who practice religion of any kind. And there are many who have heard the Word, but have fallen along the wayside.

“The conditions of the society in which we live oblige all of us therefore to revise methods, to seek by every means to study how we can bring the Christian message to modern man. For it is only in the Christian message that modern man can find the answer to his questions and the energy for his commitment of human solidarity.” (St. Paul VI)

 The simplest way to say what evangelization means is to follow Pope Paul VI, whose message Evangelii Nuntiandi (On Evangelization in the Modern World) has inspired so much recent thought and activity in the Church. We can rephrase his words to say that evangelizing means bringing the Good News of Jesus into every human situation and seeking to convert individuals and society by the divine power of the Gospel itself. At its essence are the proclamation of salvation in Jesus Christ and the response of a person in faith, which are both works of the Spirit of God.

On my mother's side there is a long tradition of missionaries- granted they were Scottish Presbyterian, but lay Christians who felt it their duty to spread the Gospel of Christ.  In the 1800s it is said my ancestors, the MacMillans, gave up home and country to do missionary work- I believe in New Zealand!  Then there is the famous cousin of my grandmother, Donaldina Cameron, who rescued the Chinese girls from the opium dens of San Francisco (see Blog 2/25/2013). So I guess you could say this desire to evangelize is in my blood, though I am not often conscious of this and think of it as a "side-effect" of my call to religious life.

Donaldina with some of her "children"

“Let us therefore preserve our fervor of spirit. Let us preserve the delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow. May it mean for us – as it did for John the Baptist, for Peter and Paul, for the other apostles and for a multitude of splendid evangelizers all through the Church’s history – an interior enthusiasm that nobody and nothing can quench. May it be the great joy of our consecrated lives."

The bottom line is all Catholics are called to be a missionary. It is not just reserved for a religious who has dedicated their life to this apostolate.  And we do not have to travel far to do this work.  We are called to be missionaries in our neighborhoods and work places. 

"And may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the Good News not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christ, and who are willing to risk their lives so that the kingdom may be proclaimed and the Church established in the midst of the world.” (St. Paul VI)