Notes in CFE 5A – CICM Mission in Action: JPIC, IPs and IRD

INTRODUCTION TO CICM MISSION IN ACTION

CONTEXT
The life of a CICM Missionary is one that is:
- Dedicated to Jesus, the Incarnate Word. Such dedication leads him to be
available for the work of redemption and devoted to the service of Christ.
- Inspired by Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word. Mary, the Patroness of the
CICM, is the CICM Missionary’s model of faith and of total dedication to God
and to her Son’s mission
- Animated by Fr. Theophile Verbist, the Founder. Fr. Verbist lived a life of
competence and creativity in Jesus’ name; and faithful discipleship at the service
of the community.
- Marked by the charism Ad Extra, Ad Intra. A CICM Missionary goes out to those
who are in most need (ad extra), and brings the Good News of Jesus Christ
wherever it is most needed (ad intra).
Such missionary identity or spirituality was already lived out even during the
Apostolic Age. Christianity, a missionary religion by nature, was first spread by the
biblical apostles and by laypeople in the course of their daily life and travels. We
remember Saint Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, the greatest missionary of
Christianity. Saint Paul undertook three missionary journeys as recorded in the Acts of
the Apostles (Acts 15:36 – 28:31).

INSPIRED WORD: Paul’s Speech at the Areopagus (Acts 17:22-34)

22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I see

how extremely religious you are in every way.

23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your

worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an

unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim
to you.
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of

heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,
25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since

he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.
26 From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and

he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places
where they would live,
27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find

him — though indeed he is not far from each one of us.

28 For 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your

own poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.'

29 Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like

gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of

mortals.
30 While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he

commands all people everywhere to repent,

31 because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in

righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given

assurance to all by raising him from the dead."
32 When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but

others said, "We will hear you again about this.”

33 At that point Paul left them.
34 But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius

the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
The narrative is part of Paul’s second missionary journey, which lasted about
three years. To escape the hostility of the Jews of Thessalonica, he left for Greece and
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Notes in CFE 5A – CICM Mission in Action: JPIC, IPs and IRD
while resident in Athens attempted, without success, to establish an effective Christian
community there.
Although Athens was a politically insignificant city at this period, it still lived on
the glories of its past and represented the center of Greek culture. The setting describes
the conflict between Christian preaching and Hellenistic philosophy.
The “Areopagus” refers either to the Hill of Ares west of the Acropolis or to the
Council of Athens, which at one time met on the hill but which at this time assembled in
the Royal Colonnade. In Paul’s appearance at the Areopagus he preaches his climactic
speech to Gentiles in the cultural center of the ancient world.
The speech is more theological than Christological. Paul’s discourse appeals to
the Greek world’s belief in divinity as responsible for the origin and existence of the
universe. It contests the common belief in a multiplicity of gods supposedly exerting
their powers through their images. It acknowledges that the attempt to find God is a
common human endeavor. It declares, further, that God is the judge of the human race,
that the time of the judgment has been determined, and that it will be executed through
a man whom God raised from the dead.
The speech reflects sympathy with pagan religiosity, handles the subject of idol
worship gently, and appeals for a new examination of divinity, not from the standpoint
of creation but from the standpoint of judgment.

CHURCH TEACHING
“After preaching in a number of places, Saint Paul arrived in Athens, where he
went to the Areopagus and proclaimed the Gospel in language appropriate to and
understandable in those surroundings. At that time, the Areopagus represented the
cultural center of the learned people of Athens, and today it can be taken as a symbol of
the new sectors in which the Gospel must be proclaimed.” (see Redemptoris Missio,
Encyclical on the Permanent Validity of the Church’s Missionary Mandate # 37)

THE NEW AREOPAGUSES OF MISSION

Therefore, the Church at present is challenged to be involved in the new sectors
of evangelization – the new Areopaguses of mission. “Mission today is described as
crossing boundaries. It is going to the public square. It is described as going to the new
Areopaguses of contemporary times (Redemptoris Missio 31-37).” The new sectors of
evangelization are: cultural sector, social sector, economic sector, civic life sector, scientific
research and technology sector, communications sector, and religious sector.
These new sectors of evangelization involve new techniques and circumstances
whereby the laity are called to participate. “The modern equivalents of the Areopagus,
therefore, define the parameters of the identity and mission of the laity in the
contemporary world.”
Today, we are called to give witness to the personal transcendent God. That is,
God being alive and part of human affairs (cultural sector).
Recognizing that the world today is the world of mega-migration, the laity hence
are invited to enter into collegiality (being interconnected and interdependent) with
other peoples and cultures (social sector).
In this age of commodification (everything has tag price/for sale), the laity are
called to live the evangelical idea of poverty (you have nothing; hence, you have
everything) (economic sector).
In this age of strife, the laity are called to participate in the pursuit for peace, the
liberation of people, the promotion of the indigenous peoples’ rights and the integrity of
creation (civic sector).
There is no doubt that at the present, science, technology and communications
have been making great innovations. They seem to become everything for the human
person. However, the laity are challenged to live their lives in aid of virtual reality and
not to deify virtual reality (science, technology and communication sectors).
Finally, the laity are called to return to religion that promote peace and inter-
existence and not on fundamentalism and violence (religious sector).
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Notes in CFE 5A – CICM Mission in Action: JPIC, IPs and IRD
THE NEW TRAJECTORIES OF THE CICM MISSION
The CICM in the Philippines in their vision for the “CICM Tomorrow” accepted
the challenge of re-conceiving their missionary identity – adapt to the process of
reinvention and revitalization, explore new missionary paradigms and develop new
missionary strategies – within the context of the new planetary transformation.
This is so, since the Philippines was not spared from the impacts of globalization.
The proliferation of new technology may mean loss of jobs for manual laborers. It
means more money for those who have capital, but it makes life more difficult for those
living in the margins of society. This is felt in the urban areas as well as the rural areas.
Farmers, for example, are greatly affected with the influx of imported goods and their
expensive farm inputs and high interest of farm loans. Poverty, hunger, unemployment,
depletion of natural resources, and migration are only few but present the drama of
globalization in the Philippines. As they rise, the crime rate is also rising, and terrorism
which is happening in other countries, are also at our doors.
This situation should not be dismissed and ignored. In a situation of
dehumanization and meaninglessness, the CICM Philippine Province is expected to
encourage and give hope. As the CICM claimed in one voice, “Today, the CICM as an
international group of missionaries, will be called upon to support the movement
towards the promotion of a global ethics which is the common quest for a meaningful
co-existence that is genuinely fostered by mutual respect for the world’s diverse
cultures and religions.”

MISSIONARY RESPONSE AND QUIZ-ASSIGNMENT: My Areopagus of Mission

Today
Inspired by the discussion on the new Areopaguses of Mission and the new
trajectories of the CICM Mission, reflect on how you can do mission in your current
circumstances.
Identify first a particular sector in which you can proclaim the Gospel concretely
and practically given our current quarantine conditions. On a Letter Size paper, draw
how you can concretely and practically proclaim the Gospel now in that specific sector
you identified.
Your output should clearly illustrate REALISTIC mission and sectors. You are
highly enjoined to make it creative and artistic.
Outputs are to be scanned or photographed such that the edges of the picture
should correspond to the edges of the output. Name the file as <SURNAME, Given
Name MI>. (e.g. EMPIZO, Michael Angelo F.) and submit it in PDF or JPEG format
through Google Classroom by September 14, 2020, Monday, 11:59 pm for Tuesday
Classes and September 16, 2020, Wednesday, 11:59 pm for Thursday Classes.

Prepared by:
MICHAEL ANGELO F. EMPIZO
Saint Louis College, City of San Fernando, La Union
Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
September 08, 2020

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