Book extract
A parish, by nature, is missionary. It opens out. It does not fold in upon itself. Jesus sent his disciples: ‘‘Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation’’ (Mark 16:15). A parish is expected to look out in a dynamic way for what it can do for Christ.
It does not settle down to a type of ordinary management, pastoral activity, to a type of “business as usual” method. Rather, it is called to launch out into the deep. There are in most parishes people who have not yet been reached with the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ in a way that changes their lives.
There are lapsed Christians waiting to be contacted. There are people influenced by a secular culture who need the liberating light of the Gospel. There are poor people or the sick who will welcome someone to show them love in the name of Christ.
Pope Benedict XVI stresses that a ‘‘missionary outreach is a clear sign of the maturity of an ecclesial community … The Church must go out to meet each person in the strength of the Spirit (cf 1 Corinthians 2:5) and continue her prophetic defence of people’s right and freedom to hear the word of God, while constantly seeking out the most effective ways of proclaiming that word, even at the risk of persecution’’ (Verbum Domini, 95).
This going forth to give witness to Christ can disturb one’s personal comfort. Readiness to make sacrifices for the Kingdom of Christ is part of what is required of the evangeliser. Pope Francis emphasises the point: ‘‘Each Christian and every community discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the ‘peripheries’ in need of the light of the Gospel’’ (Evangelii Gaudium, 20).
An outgoing parish is not afraid to get involved in the lives of others, to share their concerns, and to try to meet some of their needs. Pope Francis, who is known for his concern for the poor and the needy, insists:
An evangelising community knows that the Lord has taken the initiative, he has loved us first (cf 1 John 4:19), and therefore we can move forward, boldly take the initiative, go out to others, seek those who have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast. Such a community has an endless desire to show mercy, the fruit of its own experience of the power of the Father’s infinite mercy … An evangelising community gets involved by word and deed in people’s daily lives; it bridges distances, it is willing to abase itself if necessary, and it embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others (Evangelii Gaudium, 24).
This means that the parish community is to be ‘‘permanently in a state of mission’’ (Evangelii Gaudium, 25). It is ever engaged in the work of the Lord. It is never tired or retired. The Second Vatican Council exhorts pastors: ‘‘The care of souls should always be infused with a missionary spirit so that it reaches out as it should to everyone living within the parish boundaries. If the pastor cannot contact certain groups of people, he should seek the assistance of others, even laymen, who can assist him in the apostolate’’ (Christus Dominus, 30).
It is not too much to expect the parish to show interest in the worldwide mission of the Church. An able parish priest will know how to keep the vision of the parish properly focused on such matters.
An example is good information on the work of the Pontifical Mission Societies (the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Society of St Peter the Apostle, the Holy Childhood Association and the Pontifical Missionary Union). A diocesan or national bishops’ conference official is usually the person who makes contact with parish priests on such matters.
There is, for example, the Mission Sunday celebration every October, the Holy Father’s Peter’s Pence collection in June, and the collection for the Church in the Holy Land on Good Friday.
A prudent and missionary-minded parish priest will know how to help his parishioners be well informed on such dimensions of our worldwide mission. The lay faithful are not to regard evangelising as primarily the task of clerics and religious. The laity have their full share and responsibility. Canon law reminds them: ‘‘All the Christian faithful have the duty and the right to work so that the divine message of salvation may increasingly reach the whole of humankind in every age and in every land’’ (Code of Canon Law, canon 211).
‘‘Since the entire Church is missionary by its nature and since the work of evangelisation is to be viewed as a fundamental duty of the people of God, all the Christian faithful, conscious of their own responsibility in this area, are to assume their own role in missionary work’’ (Code of Canon Law, canon 781).
A pastor who is accustomed to one way of conducting the parish apostolate may feel uncomfortable at this suggestion to launch out into deep water. Fear of possible difficulties and mistakes and the raising of new and unforeseen problems may restrain him from a fresher approach. To such a pastor, Pope Francis has this assurance to give:
I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the centre and which then ends by being caught upin a web of obsessions and procedures. If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security. (Evangelii Gaudium, 49)
It follows that the success of a parish priest should not be based primarily on how many buildings he constructed in the parish, on how many structures and committees he set up, or on how much money he generated, nor should it be based on how efficient a manager he was in running parish accounts.
While there is no question of refusing to recognise the usefulness of such accomplishments as preparations or scaffoldings for evangelisation in the strict sense, the real measure of success for the best parish priest is the number of souls he has led to God, the degree to which he has helped people in the parish become holy Christians, the number of lapsed Catholics he has influenced to return to active practice of the faith, the number of poor people who have seen in him a visible sign of God’s love for them, the number of people who see him as their spiritual father, and the number who will shed sincere tears at the announcement of his death.
This is an extract from The Evangelising Parish (Ignatius). Cardinal Francis Arinze is the former prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship
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