FR. LOUIS BIRA
The number 14 of the Cahiers of the African Study Centre has been edited. Here is its edito.
November 30th, 1919 - November 30th, 2019, a hundred years have passed since Pope Benedict XV published the letter Maximum Illud (MI), known as the first missionary encyclical letter. MI appeared at a time when the Catholic Church was losing its missionary zeal. This was a sign of unfaithfulness to the mandate received from Jesus Christ: "Go into the whole world and preach the Gospel to all creation" (Mark 16:15). Therefore, in writing MI, the Pope wanted the Church of his time to rediscover its missionary nature and its commitment to it as a sign of fidelity to the word of the Master.
A hundred years later, Pope Francis wanted October 2019, an extraordinary missionary month, as a way to do justice to Pope Benedict XV’s prophetic letter. In the words of Pope Francis, the objective of this special celebration is to: "foster an increased awareness of the Missio ad Gentes and resume with renewed fervor the missionary transformation of the life and pastoral activity of the Church " . Although the time has changed since the publication of MI, Pope Francis reminds the Church today that the challenge of communicating the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ to all nations is still urgent and needs a new and strong commitment.
The texts gathered in the number 14 of the Cahiers of the African Study Centre were intended to be a participation and a contribution to this Church event. The participation consisted in designating the current missionary experiences which testify that the mandate of Christ was not betrayed in full because there are people who are fully dedicated today to proclaiming the Gospel to those who do not know it. Another indication of this fidelity is the opening of new fields of missionary apostolate in a country like Chad where Christians are a small minority. These experiences, which we are delighted with, have not prevented us from opening our eyes to the challenges facing the proposal of faith in Jesus Christ in Africa. The first part called contextualization is dedicated to this axis.
The second axis is based on the contribution. It is found in the texts about de-contextualization and re-contextualization as a deepening and future prospects. The Christian mission is about the proclamation of Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13, 8). Ideally, missionaries want to be daily witnesses of the love that God has shown to humanity by sending his Son (Jn 3:16). In this adventure, successes did not lack. But also failures and betrayals have accompanied the missionary gesture since the publication of Maximum Illud. Consequently, a conviction emerges in the published texts: the content of the mission does not change. But in a world that is facing rapid change and has become demanding and complex, it is the figure of the missionary that must be rethought.
The theme chosen for the extraordinary missionary month: "Baptized and sent: the Church of Christ on a mission in the world" enabled the authors to indicate this new expected figure of the missionary. Because the sacrament of baptism "democratizes" the mission, then all the baptized are missionaries. Thus the days of the mission in the hands of specialists have ended. But to be baptized means to be a new creature, to put on Christ (Ga 3:27). It is this new life in Christ (2 Cor 5:17) that is mentioned in the texts as a condition for being a missionary today. In his time, Pope Benedict XV spoke of the holiness of the missionary as an indispensable attribute: "The man who preaches God must himself be a man of God. The man who exhorts others to despise sin must despise it himself. Leading by example is much more effective than vocal preaching, especially among unbelievers "(MI 24). What has been called an indispensable condition of the preacher is today discovered as a call and a condition for all the baptized: "A Christian cannot think of his mission on earth without seeing it as a path of holiness, because it is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess4: 3) .
All in all, the texts you find published set in motion what Pope Francis describes as the "disciple-missionary’s condition (EG, 120). It is a mission that unfolds from the awareness that it is the permanent configuration to Christ, the permanent return to the Gospel source that confers the identity of the missionary of the Gospel. Otherwise, we come to his caricature. Equally linked to the condition of the disciple, is the wish expressed by the authors to see today's missionaries venture off the familiar paths. They are invited to invest in the new fields of mission such as the “virtual continent”, the new arts of dialogue with people of other religions and beliefs or even to dare to finance the mission otherwise; that is, to intelligently explore the ways of divine providence in Africa.
The number 14 of the Cahiers of the African Study Centre has been edited. Here is its edito.
November 30th, 1919 - November 30th, 2019, a hundred years have passed since Pope Benedict XV published the letter Maximum Illud (MI), known as the first missionary encyclical letter. MI appeared at a time when the Catholic Church was losing its missionary zeal. This was a sign of unfaithfulness to the mandate received from Jesus Christ: "Go into the whole world and preach the Gospel to all creation" (Mark 16:15). Therefore, in writing MI, the Pope wanted the Church of his time to rediscover its missionary nature and its commitment to it as a sign of fidelity to the word of the Master.
A hundred years later, Pope Francis wanted October 2019, an extraordinary missionary month, as a way to do justice to Pope Benedict XV’s prophetic letter. In the words of Pope Francis, the objective of this special celebration is to: "foster an increased awareness of the Missio ad Gentes and resume with renewed fervor the missionary transformation of the life and pastoral activity of the Church " . Although the time has changed since the publication of MI, Pope Francis reminds the Church today that the challenge of communicating the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ to all nations is still urgent and needs a new and strong commitment.
The texts gathered in the number 14 of the Cahiers of the African Study Centre were intended to be a participation and a contribution to this Church event. The participation consisted in designating the current missionary experiences which testify that the mandate of Christ was not betrayed in full because there are people who are fully dedicated today to proclaiming the Gospel to those who do not know it. Another indication of this fidelity is the opening of new fields of missionary apostolate in a country like Chad where Christians are a small minority. These experiences, which we are delighted with, have not prevented us from opening our eyes to the challenges facing the proposal of faith in Jesus Christ in Africa. The first part called contextualization is dedicated to this axis.
The second axis is based on the contribution. It is found in the texts about de-contextualization and re-contextualization as a deepening and future prospects. The Christian mission is about the proclamation of Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13, 8). Ideally, missionaries want to be daily witnesses of the love that God has shown to humanity by sending his Son (Jn 3:16). In this adventure, successes did not lack. But also failures and betrayals have accompanied the missionary gesture since the publication of Maximum Illud. Consequently, a conviction emerges in the published texts: the content of the mission does not change. But in a world that is facing rapid change and has become demanding and complex, it is the figure of the missionary that must be rethought.
The theme chosen for the extraordinary missionary month: "Baptized and sent: the Church of Christ on a mission in the world" enabled the authors to indicate this new expected figure of the missionary. Because the sacrament of baptism "democratizes" the mission, then all the baptized are missionaries. Thus the days of the mission in the hands of specialists have ended. But to be baptized means to be a new creature, to put on Christ (Ga 3:27). It is this new life in Christ (2 Cor 5:17) that is mentioned in the texts as a condition for being a missionary today. In his time, Pope Benedict XV spoke of the holiness of the missionary as an indispensable attribute: "The man who preaches God must himself be a man of God. The man who exhorts others to despise sin must despise it himself. Leading by example is much more effective than vocal preaching, especially among unbelievers "(MI 24). What has been called an indispensable condition of the preacher is today discovered as a call and a condition for all the baptized: "A Christian cannot think of his mission on earth without seeing it as a path of holiness, because it is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess4: 3) .
All in all, the texts you find published set in motion what Pope Francis describes as the "disciple-missionary’s condition (EG, 120). It is a mission that unfolds from the awareness that it is the permanent configuration to Christ, the permanent return to the Gospel source that confers the identity of the missionary of the Gospel. Otherwise, we come to his caricature. Equally linked to the condition of the disciple, is the wish expressed by the authors to see today's missionaries venture off the familiar paths. They are invited to invest in the new fields of mission such as the “virtual continent”, the new arts of dialogue with people of other religions and beliefs or even to dare to finance the mission otherwise; that is, to intelligently explore the ways of divine providence in Africa.