At a change of era, what is mission?

At a change of era, what is mission? By Diego Irarrazaval What are the criteria to carry out the Christian mission in today s world? On one hand it is necessary to face an unheard of dynamism. Either we are getting across a period of transition of an era or we are already in a new stage of human history. In these contexts, where there are uncertainties and possibilities, which are the human underlying criteria in our options as believers? On the other hand the evangelizing vocation was reconsidered in Aparecida. The Church as missionary community wishes to reconfigure itself. This outlines a new horizon. In the 21st century what are the theological and pastoral lineaments that will configure the mission? Based on the event and the text of Aparecida big steps were already taken and now it is necessary to draw up the proposals for the future. There are two intertwined requirements: a) to face the human paradigm of a change of era; b) to develop the model for the missionary Church. These two challenges (the human and the ecclesial) are neither parallel nor one comes firstly and the other in second place, but they must interact with one another. 1) Aparecida and post-aparecida In the presence of an important event it is usual to have a series of interpretations of what happened and, besides, there are always debates. What was the Fifth Conference and what are its consequences? Many say rightfully that it reinforces today the personal meeting with Jesus and his evangelization. Others stress the discipulate and, in particular, the option for the poor. There is also the wish of rebuilding the missionary strategy in the pluralist and modern circumstances where indifference is common. In addition the missionary efforts are revitalizing some specific pastorals: education, catechesis, youth, woman, urban pastoral and migration, means of communication. It is opportune to sum up these dimensions and weigh up the interpretations. It is also suitable to have a tranquil debate with proposals in the long term. I wish to emphasize two questions with basis on the event in Aparecida and mainly make a bet for the years to come. Among the present human processes which would be the most crucial? The most crucial is the fact that there are signs of a change of era and the answer to the clamors of humankind implies to rethink the Mission. To the silence and clamor of humankind we answer with a community in love with the Lord. This does not imply to put in second place the dimensions already pointed out, but that each aspect is approached from the point of view of a global transformation. The second question: how does the missionary discipulate redesigns his service for humankind? This breaks up the pastoral apathy and stimulates creativity in order that everybody has life in Him. However, beside the commendations to people and 73

texts and even above the lack of action and institutional meanness it is necessary to contribute for a missionary protagonism of the whole Church. Let s hope that San Domingo is not repeated (with the poor repercussion in the Church and in the Latin- American society). I think that the post-aparecida is going to be fertile if it answers the present human clamors. In other others, the Mission will not concentrate on internal aims (to increase the participation of Catholics etc) but will be a generous diakonia at the change of era. It is necessary to contribute for the emerging processes in order to have plenitude of Life. That is, a bio-centered mission. It has been repeated uncountable times that the backbone of the Fifth Conference was the discipulate and the Mission. What still has to be defined in the post-aparecida is the missionary regeneration of each evangelizing entity. In this respect Paulo Suess underlined the action for which God s people are responsible, its intergentes feature, to continue and to put into operation the evangelic movement in Latin America, to be a church at the service of the Kingdom and the gratuity and plural unity of the Spirit. The Latin-American missionology has developed the missionary vocation for the world, its origin in God s love, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, the calling and delivery since Pentecost, the historical announcement of the transcendental Kingdom, the ad gentes and inter gentes mission and the Eucharistic gratuity that requires peace and non violence in the world. This splendid and efficient Mission is developed during a destabilizing change of civilization. It is this point that I wish to stress. 2) Present difficulties and opportunities In informal conversations it is usual to ask how are you? and to answer in a positive way. The truth is that human beings are neither tranquil nor have certainties. He is feeling hyper and surrounded by paradoxes. The technological sciences are fascinating and they function as a gospel of happiness. Advertising and entertainment industry are like factories of smiles. However in many respects the world is rotten. The population feels overwhelmed by disposable consumer goods and stereotyped communications means. To the human drama is added the environmental degradation. The planet is being pillaged. Water is becoming short. Everything is object of purchase and sale. The North Atlantic development targets and strategies are imposed on the country peoples. The daily routine is enchained to the world market. The individual is placed in the center of the universe and this is being plundered. Concerning the spiritual there is certainly an eagerness for the sacred and a lot of search for it. The pastoral success is measured by a charismatic standard. Fundamentalism is reappearing. Many people reject both fanaticism and mediocrity. Alternatives combining humanism with spiritual fervor are disseminated. However there are not just the difficulties and opportunities mentioned above. Nowadays we are undergoing some kind of labor pains. We are involved daily and at a planetary level in a change of era. This is called also globalization, post-modernism, change of paradigm, beginning of a new civilization. This implies digital communications, biotechnologies, economics that cares for the environment, webs and forms of social representation, conjugation of spiritual school of thoughts. One of the signs of this radical change is that today adolescents and even children teach us to accept the technological developments. During thousands of years old people and adults taught children and the youths; nowadays this is not so. Therefore there is a radical change in the relations between human beings and environment. There has been a change of paradigm. 74

We thus found ourselves in the middle of fascinating challenges. It can be said that living creatures and the whole universe are experiencing labor pains. Each person and the whole creation have been called for the Life. We call the search for the well-being (for which we take part in religious circles and we are humanists) by many different names: happiness, to love God and thy neighbor, justice and peace. On the other hand many strategic plannings do mercantilize happiness in a secular way or pseudo-religious form (Christmas, Halloween etc). In the complex Latin- American context the teams and institutions are increasingly applying marketing to the pastoral action. In general terms the great modern problematic is that everything dances to the music of the world economic agenda. Undoubtedly there is the other face of the coin. We have the planetary opportunity of feeling the labor pains and of generating a new stage of humankind. 3) The Church accepts the challenges If there is a change of era it is necessary to move daringly. It is necessary to face so much secular obstacle to the Mission, so much hedonism, so much worldly idolatry. Moreover it is essential to face the internal difficulties in the church: the intimist spiritualism, the intention of Christianizing through marketing. Thus, how to announce the Good News in this complex present world and what is possible and desirable to do on a daily basis? The Fifth Conference has taken up again the tradition of the Vatican II and Medellin: to read our reality with faith, to evangelize completely, to opt for the poor. The Aparecida s text repeatedly records the great changes in the continent and in the world. Without doubt the change of era (or any similar concept) is not weighed up and this could help to explain the unheard-of situation and its implications. This is amazing because some previous documents in Aparecida (by CELAM and other episcopacies) underlined the change of era. Other weakness is not to select the difficult choices. When we find ourselves in a completely new reality we should reschedule the evangelization structures and criteria. In order to be truly a missionary church it has to re-launch its daily action and remodel the missionology. Our bishops showed courageously the convenience, the stagnation, the half-heartedness, the fact of being regardless of the poor sufferings (# 100, 362, 363, 370). It is possible to abandon the obsolete structures that do not favor anymore the communication of faith and to carry out the spiritual, pastoral and institutional reforms (# 367). The missionary reformulation is of such magnitude that it can occupy us throughout the 21 st century. As pointed out by Jose Comblin, since the twelfth century the Church has been inclined to preserve the past. In Latin America since the sixteenth century the mission carried out by the religious congregations has been intense. Today 80% of people live in towns; the method of the rural mission does not anymore match the urban necessities. Could it be that the missionary charisma is being rebuilt in urban contexts where indifference towards ecclesial is increasing and where spiritual searches are proliferating? Now the main lineaments of Aparecida can be implemented placing a bet on a change of civilization. First: to teach the faith in a down-to-earth-manner and look at the horizon. The see, judge, act method (Aparecida # 19) contributes for this. From our believers condition the human reality is weighed up (see), it is understood with the faith eyes 75

(judge) and is performed by the missionary discipulate (act). If the look is placed at the change of era (and not just towards a modernity and globalized post-modernity) likewise judgment and performance will be re-orientated. Second: the option for the poor has been reasserted (# 128,146,393, 397-399). Benedict sixteenth s opening speech recorded splendidly that the optional preference for the poor is implicit in the Christologic faith for God made himself poor There are excluded and ignored people in their misery and pain (# 358); that is why believers are turning towards the culture of life. The urban crowds live according to intercultural and interreligious codes. The Christological option for the poor who admires several faces of God should be studied thoroughly. Third: the fundamental in Aparecida was to impel the missionary discipulate. This is absolutely daring. Such strategy affects the ecclesial structures and planning (# 365, 370). Besides it involves the human change in all levels. It is about evangelizing by means of social action (# 367, 399-405), an ecological agenda (470-475, 491) and everything that we experience as church. A missionary reform of such magnitude requires new leaders and institutions because what already exists is stagnant. One bets on a mission for a new era. These three lineaments involve opportunities and good challenges. In Latin America (and throughout the world) there are energies that assemble themselves and result into complex identities. When the church chooses to cooperate in the birth of a new era its mission is carried out within cultures and religions that favor humanization. The mission core is in the existence of peoples in which the Spirit of Christ makes wonders. As individuals we quench our thirst in different spiritual springs. The call is for disseminating the Good News of God s Kingdom for the peoples in the East and West, in the North and South. To proclaim and to implement the Good News includes all and every God s people and not only who is labeled as a missionary. According to the Aparecida s document God s people launches again its mission under the new Latin-American and world circumstances with faithfulness and audacity (# 11). Besides that peoples become subjects of evangelization and human advancement (# 398). And at no time in the past the concern for the environment was so much emphasized (# 470-475). In many places there is a mosaic of caring projects. The voluntary work is common: in which we believers join the action of people with different feelings and faiths. They are projects that give priority to neglected persons and to the pillaged environment. Such projects can be considered as a humanizing missionary movement. Instead of religious proselytism it is carried out a transcendental human coexistence. Conclusion I have stressed the change of era when evangelizing within new human processes. Lucid and daring steps are required. We are fragile people but also passionate and jointly responsible in the ecclesial family. The renovating energy does not descend from the heights of a missionary planning but springs up from the bottom, from the people s faith in God. The Latin-American population accumulates the Christian tradition. Moreover it moves within different cultures and it has access to a wide range of spiritual and religious themes. For this reason, when assuming critically and with responsibility a change of era, the new missionary paradigm dialogues with different ways of living and believing. 76

As to the ecclesial institution it intentionally and concretely cooperates for the birth of the new earth and new heavens. The fidelity to Jesus and his Spirit prevents us from being mediocre and spiritless. On the first century in the Palestinian context a fragile and vulnerable Lord daringly announced the universal Kingdom. Nowadays each fragile and small community witnesses God s universal love in different cultures and religions. It is like this that one contributes for the humanization from the bottom, with the arms open for the Promise (Exodus 3:8) of the land flowing with milk and honey. The mission is carried out in such way that humankind enjoys the milk and honey at the change of era. 77