by Gianni Gennari

The task of the mission is born in us with baptism and is realized in different ways, but the essence is the same for everyone. The commitment of the mission with Pope Francis resonates with different tones, but the message is ancient: "Go into all the world".

In the previous meeting we read in the "he descended into Hell" the mystery of salvation in the dead and risen Christ offered to all men from always and forever. However, this does not mean that everything is only a thing of God. For those who have received them, therefore for us, Baptism and Confirmation are the basis of the Christian mission. Salvation, as much as it depends on God, is offered in a mysterious way to the freedom of all men, of all times and all places, by the infinite mercy of God's grace... We should only thank the Lord who has given us awareness of a “privileged” salvation? However, this is not the case: having received the announcement, the grace of divine sonship and the faith lived in the Church of Jesus alive at the right hand of the Father, gives us the obligation to communicate this to all those we meet. He "descended into Hell", announcer and - He - personally bearer of salvation. His disciples are also called to descend into the depths of human existence. Today Pope Francis speaks of our "mission" to the "existential peripheries", which are all of humanity - with the same "mission" of an announcement which - he often says - is made "even with words". Here, therefore, is the mystery of the Christian "mission" that concerns us all. The "twelve", and the other disciples, understood it at Pentecost, which transformed them from men dominated by "fear" into tireless heralds of that salvation in the name of Jesus... And us? Mission, in essence, comes to us from grace in the Holy Spirit, which is fundamentally offered to us in Baptism and ecclesial life. Mission is not "a" consequence of salvation, but it is its substance: only those who proclaim are saved, and in fact - we saw this at the end of the last meeting - Paul does not write "woe to you...", but "woe to me, if I have not preached the Gospel to you" (I Cor. 9, 16),
Baptism and Confirmation are our Pentecost, and from them flows the Christian "mission", modulated in a way corresponding to the life of each of us in the difference of charisms and services ("ministries") which in history have manifested themselves as conditions of the announcement , coessential to the Grace of God that takes possession - as a Father, as a Brother, as a Spirit of Love, never as a master! – Of the life of his creatures who open their freedom to the divinizing presence of him…
The mission is therefore the duty of all disciples of Christ. It is realized in different ways, but its essence is the same for everyone...Today we hear it resound with a voice that is certainly "new" in terms of tones, spontaneous communication, the innate liveliness of Francis, but which is the invitation that resonates in the world, and in the Church, for 2000 years: “Going into all the world proclaim the Gospel!”
Here I spare my words, and use the recent strong words of Francis at the painful and dramatic border of Lampedusa, an icon of all humanity, last September. Here are some of his songs.
“Dear brothers and sisters, (…) Today the Word of God speaks to us about mission. Where does the mission come from? (…) It is born from a call, that of the Lord and whoever is called by Him is called to be sent. What should be the style of the correspondent? What are the points of reference of the Christian mission? The Readings we have heard suggest three to us: the joy of consolation, the cross and prayer...".
First: the words of Isaiah – first reading of the day – and the joy after the darkness of exile: “Now the time of consolation has come for Jerusalem (…) It is a great invitation to joy. Why? (...) Because the Lord will pour out on the Holy City and its inhabitants a "cascade" (...) of maternal tenderness: "You will be carried in his arms and on your knees you will be caressed" (v. 12) (...) "Like a mother comfort a child, so I will comfort you" (v. 13). Every Christian, and above all us, are called to bring this message of hope that gives serenity and joy: the consolation of God, his tenderness towards everyone (...) finding the Lord who consoles us and going to console the people of God. This is the mission (…)We bear witness to the mercy, the tenderness of the Lord, which warms the heart, which awakens hope, which attracts towards good. The joy of bringing God's consolation!
Second: “The second point of reference of the mission is the cross of Christ. Saint Paul, writing to the Galatians, states: «As for me, let there be no other boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ» (6,14).(…) This is the paschal mystery of Jesus: the mystery of death and resurrection (…) The paschal mystery is the beating heart of the Church's mission!
And if we remain within this mystery we are protected both from a worldly and triumphalistic vision of the mission and from the discouragement that can arise in the face of trials and failures (...) Conforming to the logic of the Cross of Jesus, which is the logic of come out of yourself and give yourself, the logic of love. It is the Cross - always the Cross with Christ, because sometimes they offer us the cross without Christ: this is not right! – it is the Cross, always the Cross with Christ that guarantees the fruitfulness of our mission.
Third: Finally (…) prayer. In the Gospel we heard: "Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send laborers into his harvest" (Lk 10,2:XNUMX). The workers for the harvest are not chosen through advertising campaigns or appeals to the service of generosity, but are "chosen" and "sent" by God.
it is He who chooses, it is He who sends, it is He who gives the mission (…) Mission is grace. If the apostle is the fruit of prayer, in it he will find the light and strength of his action. Our mission, in fact, is not fruitful, indeed it is extinguished the moment the connection with the source, with the Lord, is interrupted. One of you, one of your formators, told me the other day... Listen carefully: "evangelization is done on your knees". Always be men and women of prayer. Without the constant relationship with God the mission becomes a profession. (…) The risk of activism, of trusting too much in structures, is always lurking. If we look at Jesus, we see that on the eve of every important decision or event, he collected himself in intense and prolonged prayer. Let us cultivate the contemplative dimension, even in the vortex of the most urgent and heavy commitments. And the more the mission calls you to go towards the existential peripheries, the more your heart is united with that of Christ, full of mercy and love.
Here lies the secret of pastoral fruitfulness, of the fruitfulness of a disciple of the Lord! Jesus sends his men without "purse, bag or sandals" (Lk 10,4:XNUMX). The spread of the Gospel is ensured neither by the number of people, nor by the prestige of the institution, nor by the quantity of resources available. What matters is to be permeated by the love of Christ, to let yourself be led by the Holy Spirit, and to graft your life onto the tree of life, which is the Cross of the Lord. Dear friends (...) In this way your life will be rich and fruitful!
The mission for everyone, therefore. Not only, as was once said, "consecration of the entire world to God" with the tools of lay competence and the specific charisms of each one, different and to be respected, but profound union with Jesus Christ in the ordinary, not shouted, not arrogant invasion , but helpful, that is, "ministerial", of the Holy Spirit thanks to Baptism and normal Christian life: "on our knees" even when we are standing and running through the streets of the world, without the pretense of clericalizing ourselves, while too many priests seem to secularize too much…
this is a real risk of conceiving the service of proclamation by mixing charisms, and forgetting that the Gospel - precisely what Francis insists on - always announces itself, "also" with words...