Braindel Rene S.

Cabañog 10 September 2019

4th Year- SThB Missiology

THE MISSIONARY DIMENSION OF THE CHURCH

AND ONE MISSIONARY SAINT

The Church’s missionary dimension can be derived from the Scriptures

where the Son was sent by the Father. In the same way, He sent the Apostles. In
proclaiming Christ, we as Church, through the Holy Spirit moves the hearers of the Good
News to receive and profess the faith, prepares them to encounter God in the sacraments,
and sets them free from the slavery of sin and incorporate them to Christ.1 For this reason,
Ad Gentes would tell us that by nature, the Church is missionary. We see the both/and of
the Church – that is to be called and sent. Mary, our mother and model of Christian life,
was a missionary herself. Upon hearing the Word of God, she went out for Judah to meet
her cousin Elizabeth (Lk. 1:39). Mary preached the Gospel for when Elizabeth heard
Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb (Lk. 1:41). Mary herself was called and
sent.

Francis Sullivan would tell us that God calls the Church to promote the Kingdom
of God in this world. In this way, whether or not the people will come to know Jesus, those
who hear the Good News will live according to the gospel of love and justice.2 Pope Francis
would always challenge us to go to the peripheries – that is to be out of our comfort zones.
In his address to the bishops of Austria, he said: “Everyone is called, everyone is sent out.
However, the place of the call is not necessarily the parish center… not necessarily a
pleasant parish event. The call of God can reach the assembly line and in the office, in the
supermarket and in the stairwell… in the places of everyday life.”3

I was reminded of the life of this young saint, Pedro Calungsod, a missionary from
the Visayas. He, together with Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores, preached the Gospel to
the Chamorros in Guam. During his lifetime, they were able to convert natives, although
his life in the missions was cut short. His life in the missions is noteworthy. Even though
he comes from the peripheries (Visayas), he heard the Word of God through the
missionaries, and he himself turned out to be a missionary to the peripheries, to the
Chamorros in Guam. When time came for him to protect his friend, Fr. Diego, he did not
hesitate to offer himself and was killed by the natives. His offering of life was the greatest
testimony. In fact, that very little detail in the historical accounts turned out to be a detail
on how the Gospel was preached to the peripheries of that time, and eventually made him
a saint. With this, I realized that there is one thing necessary in the missionary dimension
of the Church: that is to offer one’s self upon hearing the Word of God.

1
See Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium (LG) (21 November 1964), no. 17.
2
Francis A Sullivan, “The Evangelizing Mission of the Church,” in The Gift of the Church: A Book
on Ecclesiology in Honor of Patrick Granfield, O.S.B., ed. Peter C. Phan (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press,
2000), 247.
3
Francis, “Everyone is Called, Everyone is Sent Out,” Address to the Austrian Bishops on January
30, 2014) in Disciples Togather on the Road: Words of Pope Francis for Priests, (2016): 151.