Series: Mission Today

When I think of mission, there are faces that come to my mind. Faces of the people with whom I share the river of life that carries me and makes me feel immersed in the inexhaustible and ever-shifting complexities of the human condition. The majority of them are poor, humble people struggling to support themselves and their families, obsessed with putting together something to eat everyday, and being able to pay their rent at the end of the month. They are people who are in many ways in a transition between tradition and modernity, at the mercy of social, economic and cultural forces that are immensely stronger than them. But when you talk to them about God they manifest a genuine faith. I speak of the challenges to my life as a missionary only thinking of the people I have met in recent times, of the questioning eyes that have searched my eyes, and of the questions they have sometimes asked without even opening their mouth.

Reconciliation is needed, otherwise, differences degenerate into aggressivenessand violence. Hence, the boundless and long-awaited need of Christ as the Mediator and Reconciler. Pentecost, the announcement of the harmony between many languages and different peoples, is the manifestation of the victory of the Spirit of the Risen Christ: the successful entrance and penetration in human history of the Trinity, the divine mystery of the perfect symbiosis between diversity (the three Divine Persons) and unity (one God).

Gospel, Spirit and Mission walk together making use of ‘the many languages’ of humanity
right from the beginning. The more we manage to express the Gospel in the many languages, mentalities, and cultures of humanity, the more we are being faithful to the impulses of the Spirit. Even a very quick look at the history of the Church would clearly show that the times of infidelity and of ‘going astray’ are often linked with the ever present temptation to be led by fear and to seek refuge behind the closed doors of one language and one culture.

Can we bring a message of peace to situations of conflict which seem to increase daily? Can we offer a message of uprightness in an atmosphere of corruption? Can we hold up a message of hope in situations of despair? Can an assurance about the future be carried to contexts of helplessness? Can a word of faith be brought to a society that is fast losing its religious convictions? These are challenges before us. There is much work that a believer can do every day of his/her life.