Pope Francis has repeatedly called on Christians to become missionary disciples. Evangelii Gaudium is one such place where he has expressed this clearly: “Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are ‘disciples’ and ‘missionaries’, but rather that we are always ‘missionary disciples’. If we are not convinced, let us look at those first disciples, who, immediately after encountering the gaze of Jesus, went forth to proclaim him joyfully: ‘We have found the Messiah!’ (EG, 120).
There are precedents for such a vision of the role of all believers, and thus of the church, as missionaries. Of course, some of the great Catholic missionary figures — like Xavier, Francis of Assisi, Isaac Jogues and the North American Martyrs — come to mind. But the ecclesiological vision of other Christians can be seen as influential here as well.
One such important figure is Lesslie Newbigin (1909-98), a British theologian and bishop in what came to be called the Church of South India, a union of Anglican and Protestant communities after India’s independence from Great Britain. He was also involved in the World Council of Churches and other projects after leaving Southeast Asia, once commenting that he was much busier in his retirement than he was when he was “employed” in the mission fields.
Deeply influenced by both the Western, academic culture and Indian philosophy, Newbigin offered unique analyses on the church’s relationship with the world at large, and with Europe in particular.
Newbigin is most famous for his theological reflections on missiology, and his argument that the church must become incarnated in specific situations and places, rooted in local communities, and radically trustful of the Holy Spirit’s role in fostering communities composed of men and women formed in their own social matrices. He often cited St. Paul, who he said did not view the communities he visited as outposts of a centralized “bungalow” mission composed of outsiders, but rather the holy catholic church in that place, ministered to and led by their local congregations.
Paul never established an Antioch or Galatia mission, he simply stayed with the peoples there long enough to give them the Gospel message, the sacraments, and the apostolic ministry, but then passed on, staying in touch with the local leaders who had received his message and encouraging them.
Thus, like Francis, Newbigin sees missionary activity as essential and foundational to the very nature of the church. Evangelization is then not so much something the church does, it is rather who the church is. “The idea of a salvation that is a completed experience for each of us privately, apart from the consummation of all things,” he says “is a monstrous contradiction in terms.”
A church which does not work for mission and for unity of all believers, betrays its own very nature.
We see in Newbigin’s thought a forerunner to Francis’s. “One who accompanies others has to realize that each person’s situation before God and their life in grace are mysteries which no one can fully know from without. The Gospel tells us to correct others and to help them to grow on the basis of a recognition of the objective evil of their actions (cf. Mt 18:15), but without making judgments about their responsibility and culpability (cf. Mt 7:1; Lk 6:37). Someone good at such accompaniment does not give in to frustrations or fears. He or she invites others to let themselves be healed, to take up their mat, embrace the cross, leave all behind and go forth ever anew to proclaim the Gospel. Our personal experience of being accompanied and assisted, and of openness to those who accompany us, will teach us to be patient and compassionate with others, and to find the right way to gain their trust, their openness and their readiness to grow. Genuine spiritual accompaniment always begins and flourishes in the context of service to the mission of evangelization” (EG, 172-3).
Collingswood native Michael M. Canaris, PhD, Loyola University Chicago.
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