ACROSS OUR DIOCESE
BBN / AUGUST 2020
Dispersed for Mission By Pina Bernard, Catholic Life & Faith Formation Team Leader
There is nothing quite like a pandemic to shake up our perspective and to see things in a different light. Having our church buildings closed, for example, removed a central piece in our operational setup. In my parish, the light in the church was kept on overnight, and as I drove past, I would longingly wait for the day when I would be able to re-enter. But whilst the church building was closed, the Church was opened in a plethora of other places. It was opened when Christians offered a personal prayer to God or when they tried to participate as best they could in the live streaming of Mass. It was opened when parents watched a video on the Sunday Gospel with their children; when Lenten and Alpha groups met online; when rosaries were shared by families around the world via Zoom; and when palms were placed on balconies and doorways to say, “a Christian lives here.” Amidst much change, uncertainty and distancing, the one thing that has been constant is Jesus Christ. The centrality of Jesus is crucial to who we are and what unites us, and this has not changed. When it came to Church, though, we were compelled to look elsewhere, away from just looking towards our church building and community as something to which we ‘come’, to turning around and seeing our Church community as something from which we ‘go’. We saw the Church more active in our homes, in our streets and neighbourhoods, as we found new ways to connect more personally with each other, and to pray for and practically care for the needs of those around us. Being Church took place all week, not just on Sundays. Author and speaker Alan Hirsch uses the example of a game of chess. When 16 /
starting to learn to play chess, it is helpful to remove your own queen. Unable to rely on your most powerful piece, you need to learn how to best use all the other pieces. By analogy, without the gathering on Sunday, we have had to rediscover what all the other ‘pieces’ can do. Hirsch asks whether we can rediscover a more dispersed form of Church. This is the Church that exists in seed form in every believer no matter where they are. Each Christian carries Jesus and his message of love, hope and salvation with them wherever they go. The latent potential in that single seed can, in fact, transform the world.
To Come and to Go Archbishop Fulton Sheen spoke about the Christian life as able to be expressed in two words: “come” and “go”.
At the start of John’s Gospel, Jesus invites the first disciples to “come and see” where he is staying (John 1:39). Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is often calling people to come and follow him and to learn from him. We, too, can respond to this call, and can see our faith life as a life of coming. We come to Church; we come to Jesus to be fed in Eucharist; we come to be part of his community; we come to grow and learn; we come for the rich sacramental life - baptism, marriage, funerals; we come to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to find meaning, hope and fullness of life. We should indeed come - this is how we worship God and grow as disciples. We come to know
who Jesus is, in relationship with him and his Church, and choose to surrender and follow him. However, Jesus’ last words in Matthew’s Gospel tell us to ‘go’: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19). In recent times, we have been much better at coming than at going out to make disciples. But evangelising and making disciples is our core mission and task entrusted to us – to continue what Jesus started. Jesus went often to the temple, but he also went to the mountain and to the sea, and to the next town, and across the lake. He didn’t stay long in one place, but travelled about planting the seed of faith in as many people and places as he could. He met people where they were at, and loved them enough not to leave them there, but through his love for them, invited them into a fuller life.
A Clearer Focus on Mission This COVID-19 experience has allowed us to refocus more clearly on our core mission of going out. Now that we have had the experience of being scattered, it has given us a clearer picture of what a missionary mindset can look like. It is a recognition that all of us are on mission wherever we are. We all have a role. In fact, it has always been this way. The Church has always existed in the people who take the message into the culture and world. It has been said that it is not that “the Church has a Mission”, but rather that “the Mission of Jesus has a Church.” The Church carries out its mission best when it breaks out into the world through each of its members.
