Continuing Christ’s redemptive mission

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

          CHRIST’S redemptive mission is very much an ongoing affair,

and he involves all of us actually in this business. Those words that

he addressed to his apostles, giving them their mission, can be

considered as addressed to us also.

          “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few,” he said,

“so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his

harvest.” (Lk 10,2) The task, of course, is overwhelming and we are

asked to give our all. But we should not worry because Christ will

always be with us. It’s his work, after all, before it is ours. We

should just cooperate with him.

          In this regard, we have to give special attention to what

may be considered as the new mission lands nowadays where we do not

have to go far to carry out this duty. This can be done right where we

are.

          Yes, there is no doubt we are all meant to be apostles of

Christ, to be his ambassadors. That’s simply because we are meant to

be like Christ, to be ‘another Christ,’ and so we share also in his

redemptive mission which is a continuing affair as long as we are

still in this world.

          No wonder then that Christ would just choose his apostles

seemingly at random. He would just pass by a certain place, and upon

seeing someone, he would just say, “Come, follow me.” And wonder of

wonders also, the person called would just follow him without

question. In fact, it is said that the person called would leave

everything behind (“relictic omnibus”).

          We are all meant to be apostles of Christ with the lifelong

concern for doing apostolate, taking advantage of all the occasions

and situations in life. Vatican II spells it out very clearly. “The

Christian vocation is by its very nature a vocation to the

apostolate.” (Apostolicam actuositatem, 2) So, anyone who wants to be

truly consistent to his Christian identity and calling should realize

ever deeply that he is called to help others get closer to God. This

is what apostolate is all about.

          We need to be familiar with this Christian duty. We have to

do apostolate, and we need to see to it that the zeal for it is always

nourished, stoked and fanned to its most intense degree.

          We have to understand though that in doing apostolate, we

should rely only on Christ’s power. Thus, Christ in commissioning his

apostles, told them to “take nothing for the journey, neither walking

stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money…” (cfr. Lk 9,1-6) He will provide

for everything that we need.

          And nowadays, we seem to get more convinced that the new

mission lands are not anymore those places and people who are far away

from the mainstream, those who still are kind of primitive in their

culture and deprived even of the basic material necessities, or who

are still into their own pagan ways. Of course, due attention and

evangelization should continue for them. These should never stop.

          But we are more convinced that the new mission lands are the

more developed countries that are in the middle of the mainstream

world but are very far in their faith. More than far from the faith

and from God, they look more like resistant and even against God and

anything that has to do with religion. They are more challenging since

the attention and evangelization to be given to them require a more

complex strategy.

          We have to give special attention to these new mission lands!

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com