The Church reminds us every year, in the month of October, that we are called to be a missionary reality, going out and present at the crossroads. Guillermo Aguilar, permanent missionary from Regnum Christi, director of the FIDEI Pastoral Center and the apostolate of the Full-time Evangelizers and who lives in Guatemala, shares this reflection on the missionary sense that goes far beyond one month, & that challenges us to follow the model of Jesus himself: from a courageous and radical mission.
The Church catolic celebrates every year the misions in the month of October, because it was in this month that the American continent was discovered, which provided the opportunity to write a new page in the history of evangelization; the treasures of the faith were shared with those who had been in the Americas. people who were also thirsty for God in estto mission land.
According to the Redemptoris Missio (encyclical of San John Paul II on the permanent validity of the missionary mandate), mission is what renews the Church, strengthens the faith of its members and consolidates Christian identity. It is the mission that gives it new enthusiasm and new motivations.; “faith is strengthened by giving it!” (Redemptoris Missio, 2). For members of the Regnum Christi, and after the General Convention held in April and May 2024, The mission resonates with a different tone, for we are invited to go out “to the crossroads” as the place of the mission.
«Go and invite all tohe banquet»
This is the motto that Pope Francis has chosen for the World Mission Day 2024. The Real Academia Española says that “to go” means to move from one place to another. The Pope proposes two verbs: “ir e invite”; the “go to” should be a permanent, constant attitude, just as it should be a permanent, constant attitude, just as it should be a permanent, constant attitude, just as it should be “invite”. We must go out again and again from ourselves, from our comforts, from our human securities, without getting tired or discouraged in the face of the difficulties and obstacles that we encounter in order to faithfully fulfill the mission received from the Lord.
Delivering the good news
Communicating good news produces the joy of sharing an experience that has been lived or is being lived, such as the birth of a child, the obtaining of an excellent job, a salary increase, etc. In these changing times we are going through, it is imperative to have experienced this experience and to be able to share it with others. bgood ooticia to transmit it as faithfully as possible. The Gospel of Jesus cannot be proclaimed without the concrete witness of life. Those who listen to us and see us must be able to read in our actions what they hear in our lives. from our lips.
God wants us to be happy and to transmit the happiness we have found with Him; to share with others our experience of and with Christ; to help others to see the best option in their lives.
Courageous and radical missionary option
God wants us to risk, despite the dangers and uncertainty of the future, to trust him fully. We need to live the fervor of the “membership”in the proclamation of the Gospel. Jesus comes to meet us and repeats to us with serenity and firmness: «Do not be afraid» (Mc 6,50). «I am with you always, to the end of the age» (Mt 28,20). These words allow us to walk and serve with that attitude full of courage that the Holy Spirit aroused in the first missionaries and led them to proclaim Jesus Christ.
Letting the Lord out
«Many times we end up being a Church [...] that does not allow the Lord to go out, that has him as “something of its own”, while the Lord has come for the mission and wants us to be missionaries».» (Pope Francis at the Congress organized by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, February 18, 2023).
Let us not forget that every Christian is called to participate in this universal mission with his or her own Gospel witness in all environments, so that the whole Church continually goes out with her Lord and Master to the “crossroads of the roads” of today's world. Yes, «today the drama of the Church is that Jesus continues to knock at the door, but from within, so that we will let him go out!».
