THE CHURCH IS MISSIONARY BY NATURE
believed that they were the true Israel, the
Elements that Make a Missionary Church
Dimensions of Christian life
Nature of the Church
Although the Church is more than just an
organization (because it is a community of faith),
it shares with other organizations that it has a
reason for being; it is meant for something. It
has a mission that flows from what it is as a
community of faith. In his letters to the Christian
communities he started, Saint Paul had specific
essential ideas about the Church. Sometimes
these are referred to as the Scriptural images of
the Church. These images include "People of
God." "Body of Christ," and "Temple of the Holy
Spirit." One of these is suggested by the
following texts from Paul's letter to the Romans
Read the texts guided by these questions. In the
texts, whom does Paul refer to as God's people?
Was Paul a member of this people? Was it
"undeserved grace" that made Israel God's
people? Was Israel always faithful to its being
God's people?
God's Election of Israel (Rom 9:1-5) "I am
speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying my
conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit,
that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish
in my heart For I could wish that I myself were
accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of
my brethren. my kinsmen by race. They are
Israelites, and to them belong the son ship the
glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the
worship, and the promises to them belong the
patriarchs, and of their race, according to the
flesh, is the Christ. God who is over all be blessed
for ever. Amen
The letters of Paul are our oldest sources in the
New Testament to reconstruct how the early
Christians defined their identity as a Church. Two
of the three images of the Church that we find in
them (People of God and Temple of the Holy
Spirit) are Jewish. The image or notion of the
Church as the Body of Christ is borrowed from
Greek political life.
The image of the People of God was the most
basic way for the Jewish people to express their
identity. In the Exodus experience, God made
them into a people, into a nation in which God
reigns (in Hebrew, "Israel"), to an assembly of
God (in Hebrew, Kahal Yahweh, ekklesia in
Greek). The early Christians applied this
important Jewish idea to their community, and
they called themselves the new people of God.
They believed that their community gathered not
only because of the Exodus experience but also
because they were convinced that they received
salvation or wellbeing from God through Jesus.
As the people of God, the early Christians
community where God truly reigns. They were
also the true seed of Abraham. We note here that
the Jews of Jesus' time were proud to refer to
themselves as children of Abraham, whom the
Bible describes as a man of faith and the father
of the Jewish nation. As people of God, the early
Christians understood themselves also to be the
true circumcision. For the ancient Jews,
circumcision was a mark of belonging to God's
chosen people. By claiming that they were the
true Israel, the true seed of Abraham, and the
true decision, the early Christian comities were
saying that they belonged to the faithful People
of God.
Aside from people of God, there are other images
used in the New Testament. Here are some of
them: When Jesus began his ministry, he
proclaimed, "the kingdom of God is at hand"
(Mark 1:15). When Paul began his ministry, he
preached Jesus Christ, the embodiment of that
kingdom. And he preached not to those he
identified as disciples but to those identified as
brothers and sisters, the body of Christ, and the
temple of God.
Paul's writings illuminate how the disciples and
first generations of believers came to understand
themselves concerning Christ and to one another.
Every generation since his time has continued to
feel challenged and shaped by these images. In
his correspondence with the Christians in Corinth,
Paul provides a rich language for the Church's
self-understanding. One such image is the
Church as a body Using the body to describe the
functions of an organization or society was quite
ordinary in the secular speech of the day, where
the seemingly more significant members
employed such language to keep the lesser
members in their place.
Paul takes that image in a new direction in 1
Corinthians 12. The body used in his analogy is
now the body of Christ, and in Christ, there is no
distinction between Jews or Greeks, slaves or
free, woman or man-no sense of the seemingly
lesser members being insignificant.
Paul says, "the parts of the body that seem to be
weaker are all the more necessary, and those
parts of the body that we consider less honorable
we surround with greater honor... so that there
may be no division in the body, but that the parts
may have the same concern for one another"
(12:22-25).
Individual and diverse responsibilities within the
Body of Christ are also highlighted in the fourth
chapter of Ephesians. Paul says to the local
church in Corinth, "you are Christ's body" (1
Corinthians 12:27), a lesson that will be echoed
through the centuries. St. Theresa of Avila's
great prayer begins, "Christ has no body now but
yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours."
The Second Vatican Council revived the use of
this Pauline image in its "Dogmatic Constitution
on the Church" and its "Pastoral Constitution on
the Church in the Modern World," where it speaks
of the Church using this imagery and others the
people of God. In his first letter to Corinth, Paul
addressed the local church's concern that some
follow him while others follow Apollos Paul
assured them that whoever plants and waters
means nothing since God causes the growth, and
then he says, "For we are God's co-workers; you
are God's field God's building" (3:9).
Paul rarely uses agricultural images such as
watering seeds or tilling a field. He is a city
person and a traveler who is seeing the wider
world. His images are usually more urban After
he tries to settle their concerns, he drops the
image of the field and develops the image of
God's building. Paul's specialty as a "builder" is in
laying foundations firm and steady because they
are built on Jesus Christ. A large part of his
legacy is the number of faithful communities who
got their start from his preaching and example,
communities in Thessalonica, Colossae, Philippi,
and other places we may never know. When
speaking to the local churches, he affirms their
identity as the building that comes forth from this
foundation. This image comes with a particular
emphasis on the call to holiness. To the
Corinthians, he says, "Do you not know that you
are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God
dwells in you?... For the temple of God, which
you are, is holy" (3:16-17).
A temple is a place where humans meet God, and
in Christ, that meeting place is in the hearts of
believers and communities of followers. The
Church is the community where its members
meet God in one another and where those
outside the community are drawn to meet God.
Paul's letters express his desire to build up the
community (2 Corinthians 108, 12:19, 13:10;
Galatians 2:18). Likewise, he encourages
behavior worthy of God's call to holiness
(Ephesians 4:1-6, Philippians 1:27; 1
Thessalonians 5.11). The Church, then, should be
alive with compassion, forgiveness, and truth
(Ephesians 4:25-32), a community that rejoices
in hope, endures in affliction, perseveres in
prayer, and conquers evil with good (Romans
12.9
Paul crafted language and imagery that has
informed the Church about its identity for almost
20 centuries. In his time, he could never have
imagined a worldwide instinational Church, but
his words still stir our hearts and imaginations
about the kind of community we are called to be.
As people of God, the Church is missionary. It
does not exist for itself. Therefore, according to
E. Castro, a missiologist, the mission is the
"fundamental reality of Christian life." When we
were baptized, we took upon this mission. Read
the following excerpts from the message of Pope
Francis. Focus on the relationship between
baptism and mission. "Baptized and Sent: The
Church of Christ on Mission in the World." Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
For October 2019, I have asked that the whole
Church revive her missionary awareness and
commitment as we commemorate the centenary
of the Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud of Pope
Benedict XV (30 November 1919). Its farsighted
and prophetic vision of the apostolate has made
me realize once again the importance of
renewing the Church's missionary commitment
and giving fresh evangelical impulse to her work
of preaching and bringing to the world the
salvation of Jesus Christ, who died and rose
again.
The title of the present Message is the same as
that of October's Missionary Month Baptized and
Sent: The Church of Christ on Mission in the
World. Celebrating this month will help us
rediscover our faith's missionary dimension in
Jesus Christ, a faith graciously bestowed on us in
baptism. Our filial relationship with God is not
something simply private but always about the
Church. Through our communion with God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we, together with so
many of our other brothers and sisters, are born
to new life. This divine life is not a product for
sale we do not practice proselytism-but a
treasure to be given, communicated, and
proclaimed that is the meaning of mission. We
received this gift freely, sharing it freely (cf. Mt
10:8), without excluding anyone. God wills that
all people be saved by coming to know the truth
and experiencing his mercy through the ministry
of the Church, the universal sacrament of
salvation (ef 1 Tim 2-4, Lumen Gentium, 48)
The Church is on a mission in the world. Faith in
Jesus Christ enables us to see all things in their
proper perspective, as we view the world with
God's own eyes and heart. Hope opens us up to
the eternal horizons of the divine life that we
share. Charity, of which we have a foretaste in
the sacraments and fraternal love, urges us to go
forth to the ends of the earth (cf. Mic5:4; Mt
28:19; Acts 1:8, Rom 10:18) A Church that
presses forward to the farthest frontiers requires
a constant and ongoing missionary conversion.
How many saints, how many men and women of
faith, witness to the fact that this unlimited
openness, this going forth in mercy, is indeed
possible and realistic, for it is driven by love and
its most profound meaning as gift, sacrifice and
gratuitousness (cf. 2 Cor 5:14 21)! The man who
preaches God must be a man of God (cf.
Maximum Illud).
This missionary mandate touches us personally: I
am a mission, always; you are a mission, always,
every baptized man and woman is a mission.
People in love never stand still: they are drawn
out of themselves, they are attracted and attract
others in turn; they give themselves to others
and build life-giving relationships. As far as God's
love is concerned, no one is useless or
insignificant. Each of us is a mission to the world,
for each of us is the fruit of God's love. Even if
parents can betray their love by lies, hatred, and
infidelity, God never takes back his gift of life. He
has destined each of his children to share in his
divine and eternal life (cf. Eph 1:3-6). I am a
mission, always; you are a mission, always;
every baptized man and woman is a mission
People in love never stand still they are drawn
out of themselves; they are attracted and attract
others in turn, they give themselves to others
and build life-giving relationships.
Our mission, then, is rooted in the fatherhood of
God and the motherhood of the Church. The
mandate given by the Risen Jesus at Easter is
inherent in Baptism: as the Father has sent me,
so I send you, filled with the Holy Spirit, for the
reconciliation of the world (cf. Jn 20:19-23; Mt
28:16-20). This mission is part of our identity as
Christians; it makes us responsible for enabling
all men and women to realize their vocation to be
adoptive children of the Father, to recognize their
dignity, and to appreciate the intrinsic worth of
every human life, from conception until natural
death. Today's rampant secularism, when it
becomes an aggressive cultural rejection of God's
active fatherhood in our history, is an obstacle to
authentic human fraternity, which finds
expression in reciprocal respect for the life of
each person Without the God of Jesus Christ,
every difference is reduced to a baneful threat,
making any absolute fraternal acceptance and
fruitful unity within the human race impossible.
The universality of the salvation offered by God in
Jesus Christ led Benedict XV to call for an end to
all forms of nationalism and ethnocentrism, or
the merging of the preaching of the Gospel with
the economic and military interests of the colonial
powers. In his Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud,
the Pope noted that the Church's universal
mission requires setting aside exclusivist
membership ideas in one's own country and
ethnic group. The opening of the culture and the
community to the salvific newness of Jesus Christ
requires leaving behind every kind of excessive
ethnic and ecclesial introversion.
Today too, the Church needs men and women
who, by their baptism, respond generously to the
call to leave behind home, family, country,
language, and local Church, and to be sent forth
to the nations, to a world not yet transformed by
the sacraments of Jesus Christ and his holy
Church. By proclaiming God's word, bearing
witness to the Gospel, and celebrating the life of
the Spirit, they summon to conversion, baptize
and offer Christian salvation, with respect for the
freedom of each person and in dialogue with the
cultures and religions of the peoples to whom
they are sent. The missio ad gentes, which is
always necessary for the Church, thus contribute
in a fundamental way to the process of ongoing
conversion in all Christians. Faith in the Easter
event of Jesus; the ecclesial mission received in
baptism; the geographic and cultural detachment
from oneself and one's own home; the need for
salvation from sin and liberation from personal
and social evil: all these demand the mission that
reaches to the very ends of the earth
To men and women missionaries, and to all those
who, under their baptism. share in any way in
the mission of the Church, I send my heartfelt
blessing.
Under baptism, the mission is a Christian
responsibility. The word baptism has its origin in
the Greek word "bapto," which means "to dip" or
"to immerse." We usually associate baptism with
water, which relates to life, death, cleansing,
and, to some extent, growth. Baptism is
understood as dipping or immersing oneself into
the water, symbolizing death or being buried.
And when one comes out of the water, one
symbolically begins a new life. In baptism, we die
from an old way of life of selfishness to a new
way of life that resembles that of Christ selfless
and compassionate
In the olden times, the Church Father Tertullian
used the word "Sacramentum" to refer to
baptism. But before the word was used for
baptism, it referred to a soldier's oath of loyalty.
Along this line, baptism can be understood as a
pledge of our loyalty to Christ by living according
to how he lived. In the process, we are
transformed, and we transform society by our
lives. That is why there are times during our
liturgical celebrations (particularly during Easter)
when we are asked to renew our baptismal
promises to be true to what Jesus stood for. If we
are faithful to these promises like loyal soldiers,
then our baptism is meaningful.
Undeniably, celebrations of baptism are prevalent
among Filipino Catholics and other Christians.
Such popularity is intensified by our strong family
ties and fondness for children. This fact makes us
look at baptism as an avenue for strengthening
familial and friendship ties. There is nothing
wrong with this. But the most important thing
about the sacrament remains this: Baptism calls
us to a lifetime of commitment to a new and
renewed life of mission.
One concept in the Filipino culture that expresses
our nature as human beings constituted by
relationships is "kapwa." The kapwa is defined by
the Filipino theologian Jose de Mesa as the one
with whom we share a common humanity, who
we are in solidarity Everybody is kapwa. If we
recognize that we share a common humanity
with others, we will care for them as we care for
ourselves. This recognition is the beginning of
empathy that enables us to do something for
others even when it becomes inconvenient, even
if it entails sacrifices. In Christianity, the model of
authentic pakikipagkapwa is Jesus, of course. He
made the ultimate sacrifice-giving up his life that
others may live. As human beings, as a Church,
we are other-directed. We are missionaries
according to our nature. There are many songs in
our Churches that express this reality Look for
some of these songs; learn them, sing them, and
teach them to others. Below is an example of the
song "Simo Ako" by Fr. Jose Castañeda that
describes who we are and our role flowing from
that identity

SINO AKO

Hiram sa Diyos ang aking buhay

Ikaw at ako'y tanging handog lamang Di ko

ninais na ako'y isilang Ngunit salamat dahil may
buhay bigaya ko Na ako'y isilang

Pagkat tao ay mayroong dangal Smo na may pag

ibig? Sino na nagmamahal?

Kung di ang tao Diyos ang pinagmulan, kung di

ako umibig Kung di ko man bigyang halaga Ang
buhay ko na handog Ang buhay ko ng hiram sa
Diyos, jram di ako nagmamahal Sino Ako

Sino ang thay pag-ibig Smo na nagmahal?

Kuna si ang tao. Diyos ang pinagmulan kung di

ako mabig Kung di ko man beyang halaga ang
bobay na hudoy Ang boliau ko ni hurm sa Diyon,
kung di ako magmahal Smo Ako

Kung di sk amibiu,kung di ko man bigyang halaga

Ana bilay na tando Ang buhay ko na hren in
12yos, kung di ako magmamahal

Kung di ako nagmamahal Sito Ako?