The expression ‘ad gentes’ comes from the words of Christ
who told his disciples to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel
to all creation.” (Mk 16,15) The Second Vatican Council adopted this
expression in one of its decrees that dealt on the missionary activity
of the Church.
It behooves all Christian believers to be most aware of
this intention of the Church to carry out this mandate of Christ
before he ascended into heaven. Everyone needs to examine himself to
see if this intention is given due attention.
Everyone, from the Pope to the last lay person, needs to
feel as fully as possible the weight and the urgency of this duty to
go forth to the whole world and proclaim the gospel, which is nothing
less than presenting the living and redemptive Christ, the whole
mystery of Christ to the whole world.
Being the pattern of our humanity and the redeemer of our
damaged humanity, Christ is not meant only for a few people. He is not
only for those who now call themselves as Christians. He is for
everyone.
Thus, every Christian, if he is to be an authentic
Christian, should feel the responsibility to be a missionary also in
his own way. This is a duty that is incumbent on every Christian. It’s
not optional.
This can only happen if he truly identifies himself with
Christ as he should, having the same mind, spirit and mission of
Christ, such that as Christ himself said, whoever sees and listens to
a Christian believer also sees and listens to Christ himself and to
the one who sent Christ to us. (cfr. Lk 10,16)
We definitely need to realize more deeply that our being
Christians essentially involves our being missionaries also. For this,
we need to realize that everything in our life can and should be a
material, a reason, an occasion to carry out this missionary duty.
There is actually nothing in our life that cannot be made use of to
carry out this duty.
After 500 years of Christianity, we should realize that
Christ is meant for everyone. While this duty to proclaim Christ has
to start with oneself and then to our family and our close friends,
relatives and colleagues at work, we should realize that we are meant
to have a universal outlook in carrying out this missionary duty.
Yes, while each one more or less has a niche or a specific
place in doing apostolate and mission work, we should see to it that
we are not trapped in one part of the world. Just as nowadays there is
a keen interest in globalizing some economic, social, political and
even ideological concerns, there should also be a more driving
interest in globalizing Christ, so to speak, making him known and
loved by everyone.
This definitely will require tremendous effort and
discipline. Obviously, we have to continually ask for the grace of
God, because only with that grace can we aspire to fulfill this
mandate from Christ. And then we have to study the different ways of
how we can deal with everyone. And the Church offers guidelines for
this.
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