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 a more dispersed form of Church. This 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 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 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 turning around and seeing our Church 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.

Leaven in the World

A good analogy is that of leaven in a loaf of bread. We are like leaven, as we bring the Gospel by who we are, and in what we do and say. Our action can be a real catalyst that brings people to Christ. It is the Holy Spirit that brings about transformation in people, and we are essential co-operators in this work by our witness.

Sherry Weddell speaks of disciples as ‘living bridges’ who are the connection between people and the parish, between people and God. Each Christian can be a bridge that invites people to explore faith. Without these living bridges, many may not be able to access the Christian story. We become a bridge through our relationships with the people right in front of us, who through us, see something that can draw them towards Christ. We become Jesus for the other person.

What if each person’s seed of faith was awakened? What if it kept growing, right where it was - in that family, in that workplace, in that neighbourhood? An act of love and care for a relative could lead them to better understand God’s love and care. An invitation to a lonely neighbour could connect them with the faith community and introduce them to Jesus. The sharing of my faith story and trust in God with an anxious colleague could give them some hope in difficult times and encourage them to find out more about this hope we have in Christ. As Christians, we are the carriers of the Jesus story, and its transmission depends on us. My seed will bear fruit when the Good News is passed through me to someone else.

Jesus tells us, “as the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). The gift of COVID-19 has been to allow us to see this more clearly; to shake us up from a purely inward-looking, self-referential Church, to an outward-looking missionary Church. As well as in person, we have also been able to leverage technology to further allow the message of Jesus to spread into new territories and into new hearts. Now that COVID-19 has sent us out to new fields of mission, let’s continue to stay there.