What is Mission?

Mission is defined in the Ad Gentes as the “term usually given to those… heralds of the Gospel, sent out by the Church… to carry out the task of preaching the Gospel and planting the Church among peoples or groups who do not yet believe in Christ (AG, 6).”According to missiologists Stephen Bevans and Roger Schroeder, this is the stricter sense of mission.[1] But this idea is presented in the context of the wider and deeper reality that the church, as such is missionary by its very nature, because it itself is the result of the overflowing love of God, expressed in the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit (AG, 2). Mission, therefore, is understood fundamentally as rooted in the continual self-giving and self-revelation of God within the history of creation. This movement of God should not only be understood in the mystery of God, but as God moving in saving love within the world. Thus, we are also called to participate and be agents and cooperators in God’s outreach to the whole creation.[2]

In Evangelii Nuntiandi, mission is defined distinctly in paragraph 15 that says “The Church remains in the world when the Lord of glory returns to the Father. She remains as a sign… of a new presence of Jesus, of His departure and of His permanent presence. She prolongs and continues Him. And it is above all His mission and His condition of being an evangelizer that she is called upon to continue. For the Christian community is never closed in upon itself. The intimate life of this community… only acquires its full meaning when it becomes a witness, when it evokes admiration and conversion, and when it becomes the preaching and proclamation of the Good News. Thus it is the whole Church that receives the mission to evangelize, and the work of each individual member is important for the whole (EN, 15).”

In Redepmtoris Missio, mission must be understood in the light of Christ’s redeeming act in the history of salvation. Mission is an issue of faith, an accurate indicator of our faith in Christ and his love for us (RM, 11). Jesus Christ is the center and goal of mission of the Church (RM 6).  For the Church cannot fail to proclaim that Jesus came to reveal the face of God and to merit salvation for all humanity by his cross and resurrection (RM 11).

Then after all the three major church documents on mission, a contextualized document on mission was appropriated for the need of Asia in the Post-synodal exhortation Ecclesia in Asia. Mission is to respect and appreciate local cultures (EA 9); the engagement with cultures (EA 21); to share the light of Jesus Christ with everyone (EA 10) that centered on salvation for it can be found in the person of the Son of God made man and the mission entrusted to him alone as the Son, a mission of service and love for the life of all (EA 13); and through inculturation the Church, for her part, becomes a more intelligible sign of what she is, and a more effective instrument of mission (EA 21).

Asia is home to many cultures and religions. Thus, an emphasis on inculturation was addressed because it has challenged the church how to transmit her values and truths from the multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural situation. The church urges to missionaries and evangelizers to take from various cultures the positive elements already found in them.

A more particular and specific approach was addressed in the Asia in making a holistic evangelization, which is through the FABC’s Triple Dialogue Approach. Triple dialogue is an operative paradigm of holistic evangelization, which is the interpretive key to understanding and appreciating the inculturation process in Asia today.[3] Triple Dialogue is dialogue with the poor of Asia, dialogue with the religions of Asia and dialogue with Asia’s diverse cultures.[4] The dialogue with cultures takes place through the process of inculturation; the dialogue of religions takes place through interreligious dialogue and dialogue with the poor is in view of facilitating integral human development and liberation.

Divergence and Convergence

Each document was written for a particular context. However, they contain the same essential content of the faith. The uniqueness and emphasis of each document in the message would be considered as the divergence. So, divergence matters on the center and goal of each document.

Ad Gentes, on the first hand, is centered on the role of the Trinity in the missionary activity of the Church. It is said that when the document was created it was patterned from the document on the church, Lumen Gentium, which is Trinitarian. The foundation of mission here participates in the Trinitarian life and mission of God.

On the second hand, based from the definition of  EN above, mission then means what it means to be church, because to be church means to share in the mission of Jesus, which was to preach, to serve and to witness with his whole heart to the kingdom of God. As the church receives the authority of proclaiming his life and teachings from Jesus, she then has to preach, to serve and to witness in his name. The task of evangelizing does not limit to clerics and religious but to community of believers that includes the laity.

On the third hand, for RM, according to Pope John Paul II, the proclamation of the name of Jesus Christ is the ‘permanent priority of mission’ not only because of ‘Christ’s explicit mandate’, but also because men and women should not be deprived of the truth, the good news that they are ‘loved and saved by God.’ (RM, 44). All peoples have a right to the fullness of truth, and so the church must be in mission.

The convergence between AG, EN, and RM is about the theology of mission per se, which can be grounded that mission is a participation in the and mission of the Trinity; mission as continuation of the mission of Jesus and mission as the proclamation of Christ as the world’s only savior. The Church here is only an agent in mission as she was commanded by Jesus Christ. Moreover, the documents provide a framework in the study of mission in general.

            The convergence then between EA and FABC’s Triple dialogue deals with the practical and contextualized application of the three preceding church documents.  

But above all, one of the most important things that we should know about here is that the church is not of ultimate importance. What is ultimate importance is the reign of God, and it is from the church’s commitment to fulfill her mission to preach, serve, witness to that reign that the church receives and maintains its identity.[5]

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[1] Stephen B. Bevans and Roger P. Schroeder, “Constants in Context: A theology of Mission for Today,” (Philippines: Claretian Publications, 2005),  286.

[2]  Constants in Context: A theology of Mission for Today, 287.

[3]  James H. Kroeger, MM, “The Faith-Culture Dialogue in Asia: Ten FABC Insights on Inculturation” in East Asian Pastoral Review, Vol. 45 No. 3 (http://eapi.admu.edu.ph/content/faith-culture-dialogue-asia-ten-fabc-insights-inculturation).

[4]  Clemens Mendonca, Mission According to the Catholic Church in Asia: A New Way of Being Church. (http://www.edinburgh2010.org/fileadmin/files/edinburgh2010/files/pdf/Clemens%20 Mendonca%20 2009-2-27.pdf).

[5]  Constants in Context: A theology of Mission for Today, 396.

What is Missiology?

Missiology is the systematic study of the mission of the Church and of the ways in which its mission is carried out.[1] As a science, it is a systematized knowledge. Its principal sources are Sacred Scripture and Tradition; the decrees, counsels, and mission encyclicals of the popes; the directives of the congregation for the Propagation of the faith; and the works of missiologists. It sometimes assumes the character of an interdisciplinary study, so that in addition to the subject matter mentioned above, missiology utilizes relevant findings of the discipline of Can and civil law, geography, anthropology, linguistics, politics, sociology, economics, history and administration.[2]

            Historically, missiology is an academic discipline born in 19^th century. It is a systematic theology of mission developed by Scottish missionary Alexander Duff in Edinburgh. However, Gustav Warneck would be recognized as the founder of missiology as a discipline in its own right. For Catholic tradition, it would be the historian Joseph Schmidlin as the founder. He was influenced by Warneck’s work and eventually led him to lecture missiology at the University of Munster in 1910.[3]

            In other words, missiology is an academic or systematic method in exercising missionary activities. Thus, in the Decree of Ad Gentes, we find the importance of missiology in carrying out the mission of the Church as Christ commanded (eg. Mt 28:19), which says, “Since the right and methodical exercise of missionary activity requires that those who labor for the Gospel should be scientifically prepared for their task, and especially for dialogue with non - Christian religions and cultures, and also that they should be effectively assisted in the carrying out of this task, it is desired that, for the sake of the missions, there should be fraternal and generous collaboration on the part of scientific institutes which specialize in missiology and in other arts and disciplines useful for the missions, such as ethnology and linguistics, the history and science of religions, sociology, pastoral skills and the like.”[4] The same calling is also addressed in Redemptoris Missio by Pope John Paul II in the importance of missiology as a formation entrusted to priests and their associates, to educators and teachers, and to theologians, particularly those who teach in seminaries and centers for the laity.[5] Above all these, missionary activity must first of all bear witness to and proclaim salvation in Christ.[6]

            Substantial had been said by the Church on the meaning of missiology as a science and discipline however it only implies that in taking the responsibility of proclaiming the word of God a formal education is needed in order for the missionary to be equipped intellectually, spiritually, physically and emotionally in his role. Proper training is a must before one becomes a missionary to other cultures and societies. It is a human preparation on our part as servants of God and the Church however, “techniques of evangelization are good, but even the most advanced ones could not replace the gentle action of the Spirit. The most perfect preparation of the evangelizer has no effect without the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit the most convincing dialectic has no power over the heart of man.”[7]

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[1] R. Hoffman, “Missiology,” in New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. IX (USA: The Catholic University of America, 1967), 900.

[2] Ibid. 901.

[3]  Stephen B. Bevans and Roger P. Schroeder, “Constants in Context: A theology of Mission for Today,” (Philippines: Claretian Publications, 2005), 221.

[4] Ad Gentes, Vatican II, 34.

[5] John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 83.

[6]  Ibid. 83.

[7]  Evangelii Nuntiandi, 75.

Augustine’s Way of Preaching

Augustine’s Way of Preaching

Introduction: Preaching in the 21^st Century

In 2010 a bishop from South Africa was very much concerned with his priests’ homilies and this concern came not from himself but from the people attending masses.

Bishop Mariano Crociata, the secretary-general of the Italian bishops’ conference, has said that many congregations’ minds are not sufficiently nourished by the quality of the homilies they hear at Sunday Mass. “Too often, sermons are just boring mush, unappetising fare, and certainly not too nourishing,” the bishop said, urging priests to pay greater attention to their sermons.[1] Moreover, it’s a common stereotype and assumptions that some homilies delivered are extra-biblical or outside biblical context.

‘The problem seems to extend across the world.’ Consequently, there had been numerous means to at least help and equip priests in delivering homilies at the altar. There are also aids to support preachers develop their preaching style through the availability of technology. As the life of the Church continually tries to explore new means to preach the Word of God, so let us re-examine the kind of preaching that was developed in the past particularly in the time of Augustine. Perhaps this is a way of revisit in order to know the kind of preaching Augustine delivered. We might as well get a little piece of advice and inspiration from this great father of the Church.

The intent of this short paper is not to solve the perennial problem of preaching but rather to give a little exposition of how Augustine defined the meaning of preaching in his time.

Augustine’s Preaching

In the early life of the Church, the task of preaching was normally entrusted to a bishop. It is a primary and important responsibility of a bishop since he is seen as the spiritual link between the apostles and the contemporary disciples of the period, like that of Augustine, the bishop of Hippo.

What did Augustine preach?“Augustine’s preaching is Christocentric.”[2] According to Doyle this is the thematic concept of all of Augustine’s sermons. He could be Theocentric or anthropocentric yet his preaching always runs on the salvific act of Christ. He further adds that Augustine reflects again and again on the central importance of the Word made flesh in John’s Prologue more often than any other biblical text. In fact over 1000 times in his surviving works that he used this term repeatedly.[3](S. 187; 189; 212; 215; 272,1). As William Griffin quotes Pope, author of Saint Augustine of Hippo, ‘It was the Bible all the time’ that Augustine preached.” “It is the quarry for all his doctrine; it is the Word of God that feeds his soul and out of which he ‘provides old things and new’ for the spiritual needs of his flock.”[4]Augustine as preacher acclaims that “They aren’t my sermons, anyway; I only speak at the Lord’s command” (S. 82,15). And also he is only a caretaker of the Word of God and it’s not about himself or even ideas. (S. 114,1)

            How did Augustine do his preaching? There is an estimate of 8,000 sermons that Augustine preached in his priestly and episcopate life, which is according to Verbraken that includes Saturday and Sunday liturgies, daily liturgies of Lent and Eastertime and not to mention sermons in honor of saint and martyrs.[5]With this given figure, we can picture an image of Augustine as a ‘long-winded’[6] preacher. According Alvarez, OSA “mahahabaangkanyangmga sermon, umaabothanggangdalawa o tatlongarawnakabanata!Bihirang-bihira and maikling sermon niya (tuladng S. 320 at S. 321) natumagalnangdalawang minute langyata dahlia siya ay may sakit noon!”[7] Moreover, scholars have estimated that the average length of his sermons ranged from a half-hour to as long as two hours in some instances.[8]

 [This article is not yet done.]

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[1]http://www.scross.co.za/2010/01/preaching-problem/

[2] Augustine, The Works of Saint Augustine, A Translation for the 21^st Century: Essential Sermons, transl. Edmund Hill, OP, ed. BonifaceRamsey, (New York: New York Press, 2007), 13.

[3]Ibid., 13.

[4] Augustine, Augustine of Hippo: Sermons to the People, trans. And ed. William Griffin, (New York: Doubleday, 2002), xxiii.

[5] Pierre-Patrick Verbraken, “Saint Augustine Sermons: Why and How to Read Them Today?” Augutinian Heritage 33 (1987), 110-122. This work was quoted by Daniel E. Doyle, OSA, who wrote the introduction and Notes inAugustine, The Works of Saint Augustine, A Translation for the 21^st Century: Essential Sermons, transl. Edmund Hill, OP, ed. Boniface Ramsey, (New York: New York Press, 2007), 13.

[6]Ibid.,13. 

[7] Emmanuel Czar Alvarez, OSA, “Paanoba mag-Sermon?” in In Deum (Quezon City: Pacifico F. Manalili Printing Press, March 2011), 25. 

[8]The Works of Saint Augustine, A Translation for the 21^st Century: Essential Sermons, 13.

Defining and keeping the Christian Faith in the Church

Defining and keeping the Christian Faith in the Church

(A reflection on Porta Fidei)

In the 1500s, the Catholic Church had finally reformed herself after a long struggle of reform. Reforms at the ranks and at below were unsuccessful since there was no universal desire to undergo such change. Reform had been separately dealt by few secular clergy, few temporal rulers, few religious congregations and others. However, in 1545 the Catholic Church had finally settled the struggle of reform after the havoc and distortions that had been caused by the Protestant Reformation. The Ecumenical Council of Trent was primarily a reaction against the controversies and inquiries raised by Martin Luther and his followers. In the first phase of the Council, 1545-1547, one of the issues discussed was the opposition of Luther against the source of faith. For Luther there is only one source that is the Holy Scripture or Sola Scriptura. However, the Church responded to it that there is only one source or deposit of faith. It was revealed to mankind and channeled into two ways, Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Trent did not cater the two-source theory that was being accused of to the Church. This is one of the significance of Trent in the history of the Church by defining finally through a decree. Nevertheless, faith was kept in this matter into two ways, Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.

On October 11, 2011 Pope Benedict XVI wrote the Muto Propio, Porta Fidei, by declaring a Year of Faith starting October 11, 2012. He called for a year of faith at the anniversary of the convocation of the Vatican Council II in 1962. He wrote some of his personal reasons on why he declared a year of Faith, “It often happens that Christians are more concerned for the social, cultural and political consequences of their commitment, continuing to think of the faith as a self-evident presupposition for life in society.” (Porta Fidei, 2). He further adds that in reality, this presupposition has been openly denied. At the same time, he had convoked for a Synod of Bishop on that same day on October 11, 2012 to rediscover and reflect faith using the documents of Vatican II as the point of departure in the synod. He gave the theme, “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”. Benedict XVI also believes in the same purpose of Paul VI, his venerable predecessor, to declare another Year of Faith in order for all Christians to have the “exact knowledge of the faith, so as to reinvigorate it, purify it, confirm it, and confess it” (Porta Fidei, 4). Nevertheless, in context with the realities of the 21^st century, the Church tries to find ways on how faith should be kept by looking for new evangelization and how Christian faith should be transmitted to people.

            Our faith has been defined already long since the foundation of Christian faith through our Lord, Jesus Christ, but it was later only proclaimed and clarified in Trent. However, knowledge on faith wasn’t enough to make people live a holier and fulfilled Christian life that until now it is still the constant call of the Church. Keeping the faith is nonetheless the need to be addressed in the Synod of Bishops of October 2012 calls for.

            This faith then that we constantly yearn for is “to profess faith in the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is to believe in one God who is Love (cf. 1 Jn 4:8): the Father, who in the fullness of time sent his Son for our salvation; Jesus Christ, who in the mystery of his death and resurrection redeemed the world; the Holy Spirit, who leads the Church across the centuries as we await the Lord’s glorious return.” (Porta Fidei, 1).

            

Communio 2012

Just had a wonderful experience at Colegio San Agustin - Biñan for the 11th Communio gathering of RST and ICMAS last September 15 and 15, 2012. 

SACS VALUES LIFE! NO TO RH BILL!!!

"Every birth is a gift from God; every new life, a blessing, every birth a cause for rejoicing and praising God who create new life only out of love."

CBCP

SACS VALUES LIFE! 

NO TO RH BILL!!!

Social Media is the new Areopagus of the kerygma by an Evangelized evangelizer

              Last July 14-15, 2012, I, together with Fray Alvin John Salgado, OSA and Asp. Keith Lawrence Ermac, attended the First Catholic Social Media Summit in Renaissance Convention Center in Marikina City.

I am grateful and thankful to our community (San Agustin Center of Studies – Formation house of the Order of St. Augustine – Philippines) for allowing us to participate in the summit. With a positive outlook from our formators, they strongly supported us with this endeavor. For without them, we won’t experience the many wonderful things we encountered and nourished, particularly, the thoughts, ideas, information, trends, workshops, variety of sharing, stories and the people as well.

After that two-day summit, I was blissfully evangelized by the various speakers from the uninterrupted wonderful teachings and information about social media. Listening to them may look tiresome yet I never got bored and fell asleep to their practical and trending concerns of the society. We had speakers like Fr. Stephen Cuyos, MSC, who talked about becoming a true and authentic Christian in the Digital World, Arch. Luis Antonio Tagle, who shared about the spirituality of Social Media, Carlo Ople from TV5 sharing his marketing experience in the Social Media and finally Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, who shared about winning the Digital World through the Word. Moreover, there are other breakout sessions within the summit especially workshops, a talk show, and a free concert with Rivermaya.

            All the talks were fully loaded with essential content that missing a single part wouldn’t create the puzzle to form an aesthetic value. From the various speakers, I would much want to share my reflection about the thoughts of two speakers: namely Bishop Joel Baylon of the Diocese of Legaspi and Msgr. Pedro C. Quitorio III about the role of social media as the new areopagus for evangelization.

Social Media is the New Areopagus

            Bishop Baylon is the head of the Episcopal Commission on Youth of the CBCP. In a video interview, he asked young people that are very present in the cyber world, (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Linkedin etc.) the social networking sites, to join him in the endeavor to evangelize the world, this cyber world. It has been the recent call of the Church through the Holy Father Benedict XVI that this is the “new Areopagus”, the new place, for us to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, where many young people are present.

            This is the urgent call of the bishop about entering into a new place of evangelization, the Areopagus. This word is derived from the Sacred Scripture that refers to the place where Paul proclaimed the Good news.  “Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: ‘You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar in inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.” (Acts 16:22-23) At the time of the ancient world, Areopagus is a kind of a cultural center. Areopagus in Athens is a place of access for knowledge. It is where it is popularly known in ancient world. It is considered the birth place of great minds like Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and other great philosophers. Paul went there because a great number of audiences are present. Eventually, he was led by the Epicurean and Stoic Philosophers to go to the Areopagus.  However, what matters here is not the place but the message that was proclaimed by Paul. His proclamation on the Gospel of Christ made the place coined word for evangelization. The same message then should be proclaimed in our time despite the long span of years from Paul’s time and people of the 21^st century.

            The reality of social media in the 21^st century is an undeniable truth that should be considered in the life of many. In our context, social media has dragged people, especially the young, to be involved in this world wide trend, wherein people have all the access to everything in which they need and want to know either one is rich or poor.

It follows then that the Church should go to this place, the social media, as the new areopagus for the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Since we have identified the social media as the new areopagus for the proclamation of the Gospel, it leads us to ask, “How then are we going to preach it?”

           

Kerygma is E2E

One of the highlights of the talk was the six ideas of “Winning the World through the Word: Shaping a Digital Full of HOPE” shared by Msgr. Pedro Quitorio III. Among the six ideas, the third idea was simply relevant and timely for this year’s theme about Kerygma or proclamation. Msgr. Quitorio said that “The Catholic Social Media is the E2E way of proclaiming the Gospel.”

Above all it is called, ‘Catholic’ because it is not only associated to technology but it is also about the content and the unique perspective of truth, which is proclamation of the Gospel. On the other hand, ‘E2E way’ is the means to proclaim the gospel from an Evangelizer to another Evangelizer. Before a person becomes an evangelizer he/she then must first be evangelized. Then, the former is the evangelized evangelizer of the Word of God. E2E way is quite different from the P2P way (the old way) which means “Pulpit to People”. Through this, E2E intensifies the subjective value of the evangelizer rather than sounding objective (the P2P perspective).

Msgr. Quitorio then gave us the best example of an evangelized evangelizer. They are ‘Elizabeth’, the mother of John the Baptist and ‘Mary’ the Mother of Jesus (Luke 1:1-80). Both of them were provoked by the Word of God that was revealed to them through the same angel. As to Mary, she became the first woman to rejoice by praying the Magnificat that the savior of the Israelites is about to be born through her. Elizabeth also rejoiced when John was conceived that despite her being advanced in age she can still carry and deliver a child through the grace of God. Both of them were provoked with the Word but Mary had the greater part since in her womb was the savior of mankind. The Word was viral, in the language of social media, from the positive perspective that made Mary become and evangelized evangelizer. She was the first one to use the E2E way that contains the Gospel, which is our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Above all, a new frontier for mission has been opened to us as young servants of God. With the gift of technology in our generation, we were able to discover our purpose not only as mere active users of the social media but as emphatically as an active Christian Catholic user.

            I think it is clear that the kerygma or the proclamation of the Word of God is to be done in the social media but not as the sole means but one of the many ways.  

            Lastly, I strongly call my brothers in the community and also to you my reader to make use of social media as a means to proclaim the Word of God to people of every nation even when you are just at home.  And as Arch. Luis Antonio Tagle said in his talk on the Spirituality of Social Media let us adhere to call also “Don’t use it in a mere label. But use social media to proclaim the Word.”

Article 1-07-31-12