CONCEPTS OF MISSION - Orbis Books

Mission in Contemporary Missiology 9
Mission ad Gentes
The development in mission theology after Vatican II has brought to the fore
the importance of safeguarding the validity of mission ad gentes. The mission
of the church is one; it is the same as Christ’s and the Spirit’s. Yet, it has its
own specific activities to make it distinctive and particular. One of these specific
activities is missio ad gentes. This aspect of the church’s mission is special
and specific. Therefore, missio ad gentes must be safeguarded. It cannot
be compromised. John Paul II does not accept that “evangelization” should
replace “mission” (RM 34). In fact, “mission” must be kept. It has biblical
and theological foundations and its own richness too.
Moreover, in Vatican II mission theology, the term “mission” regained all
its depth. When considered in the light of the Trinitarian mystery, the
church’s mission finds its origin in the love of the Father and is the continuation
of the mission of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (AG 2-5). Mission is
not something abstract, but it is part of human history with its problems and
values (AG 9, 11). The conciliar missionary decree Ad Gentes presents the
evangelizing initiatives in territories dependent on the Roman dicastery and
speaks of them as either places where Christ has not yet been announced or
where the church is not sufficiently established. The decree adds: these “are
generally called ‘missions’” (AG 6). Thus, the geographical term “missions”
is not presented as something absolute. Again, what is referred to as “missionary
activity” is a different activity from pastoral or ecumenical activity
only for external reasons, that is, because of the means it uses and the goal
it seeks. But all these activities “flow immediately from the very nature of the
church.” A real specificity of the mission ad gentes is found in the response
to a special call from the Spirit, who demands that they “go forth (exeunt)
in faith and obedience to those who are far from Christ as ministers of the
Gospel so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be sanctified by the Holy
Spirit” (AG 23).
In fact, Paul VI, in the exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, speaks of the
“universal mission” with a geographical connotation (EN 50) and of the
“missionary endeavor” as an activity different from the “new evangelization,”
because it consists of a “first proclamation of Jesus Christ” addressed
to those who have never heard the Good News (EN 51, 52). The exhortation,
in particular, presents the “missionary action” of the church (EN 76).
The church “born of such a mission [Christ’s mission] is sent” and called to
“prolong and continue the saving mission of Christ himself in the power of
the Holy Spirit.” Thus, the whole church has received the “mission to evangelize”
(EN 15, 51). For this reason, the church has the obligation to keep
alive its missionary spirit, and even more to intensify it in the historical
moment in which we live. This is a responsibility which the church has for
all of humanity (EN 53). In other words, the term “missions” as used here
by Paul VI refers to the geographical sense of the word, as in the conciliar