Church’s mission is work of Holy Spirit, not of our ‘techniques’

By Andrea Tornielli – Port Moresby

How can we get young people excited about mission? “I don’t think there are any ‘techniques’ for this.”

In this question posed by Jacques, the catechist, and in the response of Pope Francis, one of the themes dearest to the Holy Father emerges: what is at the heart of being a missionary? How can we proclaim the Gospel?

These questions are relevant everywhere and at all times, but here in Papua New Guinea, a country where 841 different languages ​​are spoken, they take on a particular resonance.

During his meeting with the authorities and civil society in Port Moresby on Saturday, the Successor of Peter reiterated his fascination for the extraordinary cultural and human wealth of this archipelago of islands, where communication is complicated and catechesis must deal with a large number of languages ​​without equivalent in the world.

“I imagine that this enormous variety is a challenge for the Holy Spirit, who creates harmony in the midst of differences!” he said.

In response to James’ question during the meeting with bishops, clergy, religious and catechists, the Pope responded by emphasizing the essence of Christian witness, which is to “cultivate and share the joy of being Church.”

Pope Francis often quotes the words of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, spoken in Aparecida in 2007: “The Church does not proselytize. On the contrary, it grows by ‘attraction.'”

In his book-interview with Gianni Valente (“Without Him We Can Do Nothing,” LEV 2020), Pope Francis explains that “mission is his work. There is no need to get agitated. There is no need to organize and shout. There is no need to resort to tricks or stratagems. We simply need to ask to experience today what makes us say: ‘It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.’ The Lord’s mandate to go and proclaim the Gospel comes from within, driven by love and attraction. One does not follow Christ, much less become a proclaimer of Him and His Gospel, because of a decision taken at an office or self-induced activism. Even missionary zeal can be fruitful only if it comes from this attraction and transmits it to others.”

Faced with the disorientation and weariness that many Christians experience in certain parts of the world, only the witness of forgiven sinners attracted by love makes the mission.

Otherwise, as Pope Francis has often said, “the Church becomes a spiritual association, a multinational that launches initiatives and messages of an ethical-religious nature,” because “we end up domesticating Christ. We no longer bear witness to what Christ does, but we speak in the name of a certain idea of ​​Christ. An idea that we possess and that we have tamed ourselves. We organize events, we become a low-level manager of ecclesial life, where everything happens according to an established program, simply following instructions. But the encounter with Christ, the encounter that touched your heart at the beginning, is no longer repeated.”

Nothing is safe from this risk: from pastoral projects to the organization of major events, from “digital” missionary techniques to catechesis. The danger is to take the essential for granted and to concentrate instead on methods, language and organization.

But the truest answer to James’ question, the one that embodies the Pope’s words, is found in the smiling and joyful faces of the missionaries who have traveled miles on foot, by car and by plane to be close to their brothers and sisters and to bear witness to the love of Jesus to every woman and every man in this land of magnificent and colorful nature.

For “if you are drawn to Christ, if you move and act because you are drawn to Christ, others notice it without any effort on your part. There is no need to prove it, much less to show it.”