Has Missionary Experience Anything to Offer?

            I wonder would members of any western missionary society be surprised if asked how many of their confreres are still convinced of the need for ‘Ad Gentes’ mission? And by ‘Ad Gentes’ I mean going to countries where the culture and thinking of the people were still untouched by the message of the gospel?

            It is not so long ago that missionaries from the west were journeying eagerly to the east, confident they had something valuable to offer. In the early days, when they went by sailing ship, half of those who set out never got there because of shipwreck or disease. Those who got there had no expectation of ever returning home. Yet their commitment never faltered.

            Today it is different. The excitement of mission is gone from the west. Christianity is less important in people’s lives. Young people are willing to travel the globe to offer their services in humanitarian causes but most do not regard any one faith as superior to another.

            There are a number of reasons for this. One is disillusionment with the sad state of the Church in the west where it seems to have little to offer modern life or other cultures. Perhaps because of that, it had been stressed that every generation has to be re-evangelized and the situation is as urgent, if not more so, in the west as in the east or elsewhere. Others go further and, based on the observation that religious practices have a great similarity throughout the world, claim that looking on Christianity as being special is just the relic of a western superiority complex.

Similarities and Differences

            This last point is a good example of the confused thinking about mission today.

            There is no doubt that religious similarities and parallels do exist around the world. Anyone who has read Mircea Eliade’s works on sacred symbols will have been struck by the fact that rocks, trees, wells, fire and New Year festivals have been treated in an almost identical religious manner in traditional cultures all around the globe.

A similar phenomenon can be found in the ways people seek divine intervention or help in urgent financial, health or personal needs. I have witnessed this in places as disparate as Taoist and Buddhist temples in Korea and China, a cathedral in Cebu and the shrine of a holy man in Lahore. In each, the devotees performed basically the same devotions: humbly approaching or circling a sacred image, sometimes on their knees, offering candles or incense and repeating a prayer or sacred phrase.

            In their private live those believers were probably aware of precepts, similar to the Ten Commandments, which they knew they should be observing and felt guilty when they failed to keep them. They were good people, trying to do their best as their traditions guided them. Only the identity of the deity differed. If one of those religious acts was to be judged superior to any other it would be in terms of which deity was more powerful or successful in providing the desired help.

            Here I do not want to make too strong a distinction between people with a ‘favor seeking faith’ and a ‘spiritual search faith’. The reality is that the two are intermixed but at times, in individuals and in cultures, one dominates the other. To spell this out would take a book in itself, here I do not have the space and hope my point is not misunderstood.

Answering Questions

            In many parts of the world today, most pressing material needs can now be solved with human resources. In the 1980s and 90s when tens of thousand of young Koreans were drawn to the Church it was not in the hope of divine assistance in economic or other physical necessities but in a search to satisfy their deeper and inner yearnings. The Church’s stand for democracy and human rights on the national level had given them grounds for thinking it might have the answers.

            What they were looking for was inspiration in their lives, a source of encouragement and strength, a guide for moral conduct and a gateway to the transcendent they could vaguely sense around them. Young people in present day China show the same need for a view of the world that includes the timeless and profound in human nature.

            In my experience, Christianity, and no other religion today, has the answers to the questions emerging in minds both east and west. This is not to belittle the role of other faiths and the important contribution they have made in the human search for fulfillment. It was my involvement with oriental religions over a number of decades that led me to question what was of universal value in my own Christian tradition. In the process I also benefited personally from many of the insight and practices I found in the great religions of the east.

            It was my search that led me to discover what is unique in the message of the gospels. I had been warned by those closely aligned to modern thinking that it is not possible to isolate a core Christian message because of the bias of cultural interpretations. Theoretically that might be true, and indeed such considerations may have persuaded many to give up the effort. However practice shows a different reality. I have found that if the gospels are taken in their entirety they do give a clear and coherent message that is valid for any culture.  

            What I found in the human figure of Christ was his image of a compassionate Father, of the Spirit alive in the individual, the call to be part of a new creation, an answer to evil in the world, a spirituality that seeks the transcendent in ordinary life and a reaffirmation of the individual which challenges him or her in either western or eastern culture.

            Fortunately there are enough credible mainstream theologians in the Church today to reassure missionaries that what people in other cultures are seeking can indeed be found in the heart of the scriptures. 

Disappointment

            Unfortunately, many of the young Koreans in the 1980s and 90s did not find what they were looking for in the Church there at that time. Despite its public stand on political and social issues, on closer inspection the Church proved to be less democratic, individual-orientated, supportive and Korean than they had expected. While Korean society was becoming more liberal and forward-looking, the Church continued to draw on the nation’s Confucian past with its emphasis on formality, doctrine and hierarchy.

            Because of this, many of the young people left unsatisfied. That does not prove that Christianity is deficient, it just shows that in many Churches practice has still to catch up on teaching. As one Church leader recently put it, after the Reformation the Church moved from evangelizing to catechizing and has to return to scripture if it is to engage modern society.

A Further Role for Missionaries?

            If western Churches are to recover their vitality and missionary spirit, they could benefit from a reminder of how fresh and inspiring the Christian message can be when freed from it historical weights and presented in narrative form, relating to the life concerns of ordinary people.

            This is the challenge that missionaries faced when they tried to bring the gospel to people who could not appreciate the message when it was presented to them in terms, formulations and practices borrowed from another culture and age. Many discovered that they had not been adequately prepared for the task of identifying the essentials of the gospel and introducing them to another culture. As a result some took more time than others in making progress.   

For over four hundred years missionaries took a confident faith from the west to the east, knowing they were providing the greatest service by doing so. Now it may be the time for modern missionaries to take that faith, refined and renewed, back to their home Churches and help rekindle enthusiasm there.

                                                                                                          Hugh MacMahon    11/28/07

What it Means to be a Missionary

Recently a Korean Sister wrote about the small town in the south of Korea in which her congregation started a school in 1960, not long after the end of the Korean War. She said that in those days what the people wanted from the Sisters’ school were “scientific skills, pianos, folk dances and a knowledge of English”! She wondered what they needed from people like herself today, now that their basic needs are already being met.

            I immediately recognised the small town she mentioned as the one in which I had been for a short time in those post-war years and the place where I was first forced to ask myself, “What have I to offer the people here as a missionary?”

The questioning was sparked by the arrival at the church of two American Air Force sergeants looking for directions to the foreign Sisters’ convent. I had come to the country just nine months earlier and was taking care of the parish temporarily. After listening to my instructions on how to get to the Sisters one of the sergeants looked at me standing in my western clerical garb in the empty yard and asked, “What do you do here anyhow in this isolated place?”

            I was stuck for an answer that might make sense to them and as they drove away in their dusty jeep I decided it was time for me to clarify what I was about. If I could not explain it to others – even in English --it was probably because I was not too clear about it myself. Finding a satisfactory answer was to take me a lot longer than I expected.

            First I began to ask the local people what their old beliefs meant in their lives. They replied that traditional religious practices were a help when a relative died or there was some emergency. They prayed at the local shrines or offered up money in the hope it would improve their health, protect them for evil spirits and bring good luck. The old religions also gave them some guidance on being truly human and on what was good or bad.   

            However, already some of these people were turning to the Catholic church for a more satisfactory means of meeting their religious needs – it seemed more modern and credible, had a formal liturgy that suited their Confucian background and reinforced their basic belief that there is one universal creator God. Its doctrines were sometimes hard to follow but accepting them seemed part of becoming a Catholic.

            As Korean society developed the younger generation showed that belief in a distant God meant less to them, they felt that liturgy should be lively and something in which they could participate actively and the church should be a witness to human rights in the world. They were moving away from traditional ways, and even from the congenial church that their parents knew, and were looking for a community where personal understanding and responsibility were important.

It was at that stage that I began to realise what I had to offer them as a Christian and a missionary. If I met those American sergeants today I would say, “The only way we can avoid more wars and human disasters is to be genuinely aware of how closely we are related to the rest of the human race and to the earth in which we live. The source of that bond is God and the story of what that means is in the Bible. Bringing this bond alive in people who have not already heard the story of Christ is what I try to do.”

Probably the two soldiers would not immediately grasp what I was trying to say but at least it would be a sign that I was getting closer to expressing what it means to be a missionary.       Hugh MacMahon  3/31/10

A Modern Missionary Success Story

                                                                                                Hugh MacMahon

            Word has spread about the small missionary society in Canada that shows impressive growth and regeneration while other groups are in decline.

            I asked their Vicar General what was the secret and he admitted that their vocation situation had improved and their lay mission program was generating new interest. “Actually it’s not that the numbers have greatly increased,” he said, “But the type of person we attract is encouraging.” Most of their applicants are in their twenties or early thirties and have a clear idea of what they wanted to do in life. Many have done graduate studies.

            What is the attraction? The Vicar General explained that it was probably because they highlight a single missionary challenge that appeals to young people. “We draw attention to something we call, ‘A Third Stage of Mission’ or ‘Third Generation of Mission’ and this makes people curious. They are looking for something more focused than what most missionary societies offer. Our objectives fit in with how they see themselves as Christians and they know that by joining us their creativity and abilities will be tested. Our older members have got new energy too. Many of them are off doing courses to prepare themselves to be part of it.”

How It Started

            When I asked him to describe this ‘Third Stage,’ he said that reaching consensus had not been an easy or rapid process. “Even three years ago the only thing our members were able to agree on was that we disagreed. Many felt a need to redefine our goals to serve the new world we live in but it seemed impossible to reach any common vision.”

Some thought it was too late to be making changes. The Society was still doing valuable work and most of the members were happy with it. They were not trained to look beyond parish or individual apostolates. They had done a good job and perhaps it was time to fade out. Some saw the present situation in a positive light. The Society was becoming a vehicle for those wishing to do Christian service either at home or aboard. Theologians were beginning to popularize this expansive vision of ‘mission’ so no other change was called for.    

A more optimistic group called on the Society to be engaged in issues that appeal to the modern mind. Traditional religious language and practices have lost their meaning for many, so new ways have to be found to relate to them. Involvement in seeking social justice, ecological awareness, political or religious reconciliation and assisting immigrants not only helped expand God’s Kingdom on earth but could also be a starting point for getting people to reflect more on the ‘voice within’ which was the inspiration behind their search for a better world.  This could be the start of a renewed interest in religion.  

Others, who worked in non-Christian countries of Asia and Africa, pointed out that the people among whom they worked still had a strong religious sense, coming from their spiritual heritage, but that religious reservoir had never been fully tapped by the church. As a result, even though the church was established among them it was still seen as foreign and failed to attract a significant number of the people. For them, helping to build a more genuinely local church was an urgent task and in line with the history and the traditional goals of the Society.

Reality Check

However, whenever the members got together to discuss these ideas, their different viewpoints blocked any progress. Eventually everyone became weary of meetings and wanted to avoid debates on goals or objectives.

“At that point,” said the Vicar General, “It became obvious that we were going  over the same old issues every time – mission spirituality, vocations, dialogue, partnership with laity, intercultural living, urgent global threats— but there seemed to be little progress in our common understanding or practice.”   

The underlying problem seemed to be the fact that members had no tradition of team work or joining together on missionary projects or issues. They were used to operating on their own and when changes were called for they waited for directions from their Superiors, the bishops or Rome. Something had to be done to get them to acknowledge the skills and experience of other members and develop a habit of collaborating with them. It was suggested that, before the next General Assembly, those interested in particular issues should get together to clarify their ideas and come up with concrete proposals.

At first only a few individuals responded to the urging and a number of proposals emerged. One in particular attracted interest. It drew on a concept in documents since Vatican ll that evangelization covers three stages: pioneering efforts to introduce the Christian message in a local language and culture; setting up communities and parishes where the people could learn, worship and be of service together; and finally a third stage of helping that Church to reach maturity as a ‘Local Church’.

The Vicar General explained, “Our members had some small involvement in the first stage. Looking back on it, we could have done more. We presumed that the people coming to the church had no serious spiritual background on which we could build. We just were not prepared to take their religious traditions seriously.

“Where we made our biggest contribution was in the second stage, by setting up new parish communities and getting Local Churches on their feet. That is what we felt we were sent to do and we had clear models to follow. It didn’t ask many questions about the sort of church we were helping to build.

“However we largely failed to initiate the final stage of convincing the local priests, sisters and laity that it was now their task to take the Western-style church we had given them and turn it into a genuine Local Church.”

The local-born leaders had also been warned in their formation against the superstitions in their culture and to stick closely to Roman practices. Before that mind-set hardened and became accepted as normal, the people needed to be reassured that God had always been present among them and it was now their task to build on that foundation. 

Since these ideas presented something new to think about they were debated at meetings before the next General Assembly and a degree of acceptance seemed to be growing. 

Frustration

Finally a proposal was drawn up and, after some amendments were made, it was presented at the General Assembly as follows:

1. The majority of peoples in Asia, and other parts of the world, remain cut off from the Church because of its foreign or irrelevant image. We will focus our efforts on encouraging Local Churches to become more local.

 2. The local priests, sisters and laity will be the ones to decide the future shape of their church since they are closest to the people’s religious thinking, traditional ways of worship and sense of morality. Our role will be to encourage them to draw on this heritage and make the Christian message more accessible to the ordinary people. In post-Christian countries it could be a means of reviving the people’s relationship with God.

3. The renewed awareness of the presence of God’s Spirit in their lives and history will inspire the people in facing the challenges and opportunities of modern life. It will be the foundation from which their concern for others, the earth and society will develop.

4. The benefit gained from drawing on their religious heritage will not only enrich their own spirituality and practices but also those of the universal Church.

Of course there was some skepticism. It was suggested that while the task of making the church more local might apply to Asia, it was not so urgent in other continents. Also, would this mean that all the members are expected to become experts in religions and cultures? The lay missionaries wondered how they would be involved.

Supporters of the idea tried to meet these concerns by pointing out that is not just in the East that large segments of the population feel alienated from the church, the challenge of renewing churches by drawing energy from their traditional spiritualities was everywhere. Since the principal role of the members, clerical and lay, would be to encourage and facilitate the local people they would not have to be experts themselves, they only had to show and prepare the way.

            Most of the members seemed satisfied with these explanations and it was with confidence that the proposal was put to the General Assembly. However, to the disappointment of those who had worked hard on it, only 35% supported the motion, 41% were against and the remainder abstained. Once more, differences in backgrounds seemed insurmountable.

A Way Forward

            It was a crucial moment that could have set the process back ten years but fortunately the facilitator recognized what was happening. He pointed out that it was a fear of change that was holding the Assembly back. We are now in a different world from that for which the Society was founded, from which the members were ordained and for which they were trained. Ordinary people today were unfamiliar with the language of that church, they did not feel the needs it addressed or show interest in being part of it.

            The members too had changed individually with the dramatic shifts in theologies and each had adapted in his own way. But it was harder to change an institution. Altering the way an institution directs its energies or organizes itself can threaten the individual’s way of life. Transformation will come only when the need to change is fully understood and its effects are seen as acceptable.  

The fact that the Assembly rejected the proposal was not important. It was only one possible vision of how the Society could unite in making a significant contribution to world Christianity.  What would decide the effectiveness of the Assembly would be the degree to which it was willing to face change. It was not just the survival of the Society that was at stake but its ability to address the new needs of mission and attract new recruits to that vision. Once the need for change had been accepted, work could begin on clarifying a new direction or identity. First, a formal process of change had to be activated.

            The meeting took this to heart and elected a leadership team that was committed to change and a process that involved all the members. Obviously the Vicar General was one of those picked. The new leadership team immediately set up a communications office to ensure that the members were kept informed on up-coming decisions and their suggestions sought. The office makes good use of social media and deals with language and cultural differences. It helps bring the thinking of the Society to the wider Church and world.

The Outcome

            Within a year the effects could be seen. An up-dated vision statement was completed with which most of the members expressed satisfaction. 

            The priest members found new reasons for planning together. They realized that including the group’s priority in their current work did not detract from it but made it even more valuable. There was satisfaction in knowing that an enduring contribution was being made to the local church through their combined efforts.

            Those in vocation work and fund raising used the opportunities they had to explain the challenges and benefits of localization and report on the ways it was being done.

            Lay missionaries and associate priests wanted to join because they liked the idea of being part of  a new experience of church which they could bring back home with them.  

            Formation and on-going education programs now had clear goals for which to prepare new missionaries and up-date older ones. Courses on popular spiritualities, traditional religions and the role of local churches increased.

            Everyone involved in implementing the ‘Third Stage of Mission’ found that their own understanding of the Christian message was being deepened. Uncovering the spiritualities of ordinary people brought home in a concrete manner how the Spirit was active everywhere and in all of creation.

            What is the name of this rejuvenated missionary society? It could be any of the existing missionary societies who realize the need for a process of change, use it to articulate a fresh vision and implement it in their planning and ministries.    12/6/11

Completing the Missionary Task

            Like many of East Asia’s metropolises, the city in which I live is unashamedly attracted to the profit motive. There is a standing joke that the temples to which people go to worship on a regular basis are the banks. Indeed, both rich and poor share an interest in the stock market and each day anxiously examine the rise and fall in prices.

             However, impressions are deceiving. Having lived here for ten years, I find the people remarkably religiously-minded. On a daily basis I see indications they are deeply sensitive to the spiritual and non-material world, more so than most urban dwellers in the West.

            In this city there is scarcely a home or shop that does not have a well-tended family shrine. During the ‘Month of Lost Souls’ people burn incense and place fruit outside their door for passing ‘hungry souls’. The festivals of local deities are major community occasions and thousands queue up at temples to seek a blessing at the lunar New Year. The police (and the Triads) offer annual service to Kwan Ti, the deity of courage and loyalty. No building or new enterprise is launched without a religious ritual.

            I have found the ordinary people to be friendly, family oriented, law-abiding and hard working. While they have their human weaknesses, their efforts to live a moral and conscientious life are at least as sincere as those of any other nation.  

            With so much in common, and with freedom of religion and no dominant non-Christian creed restricting it, you would expect the church to be flourishing here at all levels of society.   

            However, in this city of some eight million people it is estimated that there are just 250,000 Catholics and that the total number of Christians of all denominations is about 10%. The Catholic Church has been firmly established here for many years and is the envy of other Asian churches for it range of educational, medical and social services. Many of the government officials are graduates of Catholic schools and many ordinary citizens have availed of its institutions. The bishop is well known and popular, in 2002 he was voted the city’s ‘Person of the Year’ for his stand on social issues. The vast majority of the clergy, religious and lay leaders are local, many of them highly talented and experienced. There must be no one in the city who has not heard of the Church yet only 3% are Catholic and this percentage is unlikely to grow unless there is a major change in the Church’s image.

            One undoubted element in this image, which it has in common with other Catholic churches in Asia and which is responsible for their limited growth, it is its foreignness – its distance from the religious thinking, experiences and approaches of the ordinary people. 

            This development is understandable, though regrettable. For most of the past hundred years the goal of mission, in Asia and elsewhere, was to establish vibrant and self-sufficient local churches. The original intention was that those churches would then take on the task of spreading the message among the local people in ways which would be more familiar to them and closer to their heart and situation. Eventually large numbers of individuals, families and communities would be finding it natural to turn to these churches in moments of need, truth- seeking or thanksgiving. In few cases has this dream been fulfilled and today many young churches are no closer to localization than when the missionaries left or took a back seat.

            Why did this happen? There are a number of reasons or, rather, a chain of reasons.

            The emerging local leadership had been formed according to the universal guidelines laid down by the responsible Vatican authorities in order to ensure that their training would be both comprehensive and uniform. Once in charge, the indigenous leadership felt its duty was to continue and stabilized the system they had inherited. It had not been made clear to them that they were expected to move out of their foreign shell and bridge the gap with the wider population by developing a church more suited to the local situation.

            The blame for this lapse can be put on the missionary societies which had focused too narrowly on establishing self-sufficient local churches. They had failed to remember that this was only a first step and a second one remained: for the newly established local churches to take responsibility for reaching out to all levels of society in ways that would be more intelligible and fruitful among the ordinary people. Setting up of local churches was meant to be a means and not an end.

            Undoubtedly there were also some missionaries who deliberately encouraged the young churches not to drift too far from the universal model of the Latin church. They feared that inexperience might lead them to be influenced by some of the less acceptable elements in their local culture. There were concerns that any tinkering with the existing system could lead to disagreements and divisions, based on a failure to understand fully the reasoning and justification behind existing practices and the need for unity. Others believed that, theologically, the church was never intended for all people anyhow but would always to be a ‘little flock’ or ‘tiny flame’ that would inspire and enlighten those in the surrounding darkness. It was more important for it to be ‘orthodox’ than to be ‘accessible’.

            These considerations may have some validity but they should not become obstacles in making the gospel available to all people, no matter what their educational level or cultural background.

            The challenge, then, is for the missionary societies to recall that their achievement in helping to set up local churches was a step in the road to proclaiming the gospel but not the end of the process, nor of their responsibility. They may now need to consider what they can do to encourage and facilitate the young churches in making discipleship possible for a larger percentage of the population.

Simultaneously, they need to use their experience and cross-cultural credibility to draw the attention of the authorities in the Vatican to the compelling case for inculturation. They might wish to use SEDOS to combine their resources and expertise in order to do the necessary research and help church authorities find ways of dealing with legitimate concerns about localization. Then the responsible decasteries could begin to encourage churches to open themselves to new approaches that will make them accessible to all levels within their culture.  

This would call for a five year plan to initiate the process and, then, a further twenty year plan to see it through its early stages. After that, the missionary societies might be in a position to claim that their primary missionary task has been completed.

 Hugh MacMahon    SEDOS Bulletin:   Nov/Dec 2006

Why the Lack of Excitement?

            I wonder how many members of Western missionary societies would be shocked at the idea of my asking them if all their fellow missionaries were still convinced of the need for ‘Ad Gentes’ mission?  And by ‘Ad Gentes’ I mean going to countries where the culture and thinking of the people is still untouched by the message of the gospel?

It is not so long ago that missionaries from the West were journeying eagerly to the East, confident they had something valuable to share. In the early days, when they went by sailing ship, half of those who set out never arrived because of shipwreck or disease. Those who got there had no expectations of ever returning home. Yet their commitment never faltered.

Today it is different. The excitement of mission is gone from the West. Faith is less important in people=s lives. Young people are willing to travel abroad to offer their services in humanitarian causes but do not regard any one faith as better than another.

There are a number of reasons for this. One is disillusionment with the sad state of the Church in the West which seems to have little to offer the modern life. Another is the defense that every generation needs to be re-evangelized so the task in the West is just as urgent as that in the East or elsewhere. A third comes from the observation that religious practices have a great similarity throughout the world and that thinking the Christian version is better is just the relic of a Western superiority complex.

The third objection may points to the key issue. There is no doubt that religious similarities and parallels do exist around the world when people, for economic or social reasons, depend on, or hope for, divine intervention to solve their more urgent financial, health and personal needs. I have seen this in the religious practices of places as disparate as Taoist and Buddhist temples in Korea and China, a cathedral in Cebu and a shrine to a Holy Man in Lahore. In each holy site the scene or ritual was similar: the devotees humbly approaching a sacred image, often on their knees, carrying candles or incense and presenting their requests with great respect. Usually they repeated a prayer.

In their private lives those believers were probably aware of precepts, similar to the Ten Commandments, which they knew they should be observing and felt guilty about if they fail to keep them. They were good people, trying to do their best as their traditions taught them. Only the identity of the deity differed. If comparisons were to be made between such religious practices, it would be in terms of which of the deities concerned was the more powerful or successful in providing help.  

But today in many parts of the world most material needs can now be solved by human resources. In the 1980s and 90s when tens of thousand of young Koreans were drawn to the Church it was not in the hope of economic or other immediate benefits but in a search to satisfy their deeper and inner yearnings. The Church’s stand for democracy and human rights on the national level gave grounds for thinking it might have the answers.

What they were looking for was inspiration in their lives, a source of encouragement and strength, a guide for moral conduct and a sense of their individual and personal worth. Today young people in China are showing the same needs.

Here I do not want to make too strong a distinction between people with a ‘favor seeking’ faith and a ‘spiritual search’ faith. The reality is that the two are intermixed though, in individuals and in certain cultures, one can dominate the other.

However, I believe Christianity, and no other religion today, has the answers to the questions emerging in both east and west. This is not ignoring the role of other faiths and the importance contribution they have made to thee wellbeing of the human family. I have spent many years immersed in, and studying, the tradition of the east and benefited from the experience. It was that involvement which led me to question my own religion and seek to uncover what was unique and of universal value in Christianity.  

What I found was the human figure of Christ with his message of a compassionate God, of the Spirit alive in the individual, the call to be part of a new creation, an explanation for evil in the world and a spirituality that seeks the transcendent in ordinary life, a reaffirmation of the individual while challenging him or her whether living in the west or in the east.

Unfortunately, many of the young Koreans in the 1980s and 90s did not find what they were expecting. The Church in Korea at that time, despite it public stances, proved on closer encounter to be less democratic, individual-orientated, positive, supportive and Korean than they expected. Many of them soon left unsatisfied. But that does not prove that Christianity is deficient, it just shows that in many Churches practice still has to catch up on teachings. There are enough credible mainstream theologians in the Church today to reassure missionaries that what people in other cultures are seeking can indeed be found in the heart of the scriptures.

If the mainstream Western missionary movement is to recover, it may be time for missionaries who have worked in a predominantly non-Christian environment, and faced up to comparisons with other religions, to bring back what they have gained from the experience. In their efforts to communicate the heart of the Christian message to people of different religious backgrounds they had to peel off the layers of later cultural additions and try to uncover its core message.         

 If they have survived this far as missionaries it is because they have glimpsed the value, even the urgency, of Christianity for themselves and others today and this has motivated them to want to share it cross-culturally. Now that same clarity of vision and ability to apply the Word to the questions of modern life is also needed in their home countries to revitalize the missionary spirit there.

For over four hundred year missionaries took a confident faith from the west to the east, knowing they were providing the greatest service by doing so. Now it may be the time for modern missionaries to take that faith, refined and renewed, back to their home Churches and rekindle enthusiasm there.  

                                                                             Hugh MacMahon   SEDOS 2/6/08

Refocusing for the Future

            In recent years, the number of seminars organized by missionary groups on topics such as the environment, immigrants and reconciliation has been impressive. Concern for nature and human rights is an integral part of the Christian message and, as such, should rank high on the agenda of communities engaged in spreading Christianity.

            However, the primary contribution that Christians, as a Church, can offer the world today is not a special competence in economics, the environmental sciences or social affairs but the gospel message with its call for radical change based on a deeper bond with God, creation and others. We cannot presume that, without this commitment,  the majority of people are prepared to look beyond their own self-interest to seek a better world and only need to be told what they have to do.   

Since missionaries have the extra challenge of bringing the Christian message across cultural barriers, it might be expected that the first question at any conference on world concerns, organized by missionaries, should be: how successful are we in the specialized role entrusted to us? Are we making the Christian message intelligible enough, for example in Asia and Africa, to encourage people there to want to make the changes in their lives that alone can solve personal and world problems?

            Of course, that would draw attention to our own precarious situation: our confusion about missionary goals, the lack of skills demanded by the new challenges and concern whether there will be a next generation to continue our work.

            With forty years of mission in Asia, I am daily reminded of this reality and a number of the questions that require urgent attention at missionary meetings on local or international level.

1. Updating Terminology

            The first challenge in reviving a missionary spirit is to find a new and simple language to express the urgency and goals of mission. Once, when working with the Irish Missionary Union, I spent two years trying to find a satisfactory replacement for the old slogan, “Missionaries save souls”, an expression that had already lost its meaning. At that time we could not find a suitable substitute, but that was twenty years ago.

Today we need an answer to the question, “What to missionaries do?” that will not only restore the interest and support of lay people, but will help missionaries find focus and energy in their efforts and enable potential recruits to see the relevance and attraction of mission. It calls for discipline in peeling away the non-essentials of mission and re-expressing the original objectives in terms of today’s context.

            One of the key terms that need to be broken down and reformulated is ‘salvation’. How do missionaries ‘save’ souls today?  Missionary goals and methods will be determined by the answer given. One understanding of salvation can lead to an emphasis on church over message, with a focus on catechetics and adherence to a fixed set of beliefs and laws. A different interpretation of salvation might put more emphasis on a scriptural and spiritual search, seeking to help individuals develop a personal comprehension and commitment. In Asia, while the previous generation could accept the former, the more worldly-wise present generation look for the latter.

            Why is there a need for missionaries today? Finding a simple but compelling answer should provide material for more than one seminar and remove many of the distractions that are sapping missionary energy. If it cannot be done, the future of international mission is not too bright.

2.  Extending the Opportunities for Inculturation

            While much has been written and said about the need for inculturation, little has been done. When missionaries do discuss the topic they tend to focus on how to use the limited opportunities permitted at present (for example, in liturgy) rather than on how those opportunities can be expanded. There are other wider issues such as the need to revalue the role of  analytical theology in Asian and African cultures where ideas are transmitted through narrative and example. Grasping the message comes first, theological distinctions emerge later.

The Holy See has a responsibility to guard unity and uniformity in the Church but missionary societies have the complementary vocation to be pro-active in seeking diversity by lobbying for greater cultural latitude. The future of the Church in Asia and Africa depends on how active the missionary lobby is.

3.  Taking Lay Mission Seriously

            With the dramatic decrease in clerical and religious missionary vocations, the challenge of preparing lay missionaries to take a leading role in mission is an obvious concern that has yet to be faced.  

            While a number of lay missionary organizations do exist, most of them are engaged in auxiliary roles. Few possibilities exist for lay missionaries to engage in key ministries, there is  little encouragement or opportunity for them to prepare for the demands of transmitting the faith cross-culturally, and steps have yet to be taken to secure sustainable ways of financing them and their families.

            In recent centuries mission has been entrusted to priests, brothers and sisters, and the goals and methods of mission have been fashioned around them. The Church must now find new ‘workers for the vineyard’ and change the system to suit them. While the future of clerical ministry is a pressing one for the whole Church, the task of finding new full-time personnel for mission is even more compelling.

4.  Revitalizing Western Spirituality

            For many years, Church leaders have given lip-service to the role that the Churches in Africa and Asia can play in enriching Christian spirituality. At a time when Christianity in the West is losing its credibility as a spiritual and moral guide, any enrichment it can get from other traditions is not only desirable but necessary.

            This is more than a pious platitude. People in the West are being attracted to aspects of Eastern or African religions but the Church offers them little guidance or encouragement in discerning what is helpful. 

            Missionaries who have experienced the sacred in other cultures are those best placed to be a bridge and guide in promoting the exchange. Since their appreciation of non-Christian traditions comes from direct experience, they are the most credible witnesses of what other spiritualities have to offer and best positioned to share them with their home Churches.

            While a few individuals are already attempting to do this, it will take a more organized effort for the mutual enrichment to have any wide effect. Missionary gatherings would seem to be the most natural place to discuss and initiate practical steps.

            A final question can be asked: why have the above topics, which seem so obvious to those in the field, been neglected or ignored until now?

            Perhaps for too long, missionary societies have followed a pattern of parish-based mission that demanded little innovation or reflection. The system itself calls for unquestioning adherence and missionaries, as loyal ‘champions of the faith’, are inclined to be conservative. As a result, they tend to be ‘doers’ rather than thinkers, more comfortable in overcoming practical difficulties than giving time to speculation or speculators

            It is not surprising, then, that missionary societies till have to deal with the consequences of Vatican II. Since the Council, Papal documents have done their best to clarify the distinction between the evangelizing duty of Christians everywhere and the special role of Ad Gentes missionaries among those not yet touched by the Christian message. Yet, confusion continues and a vocal number of missionaries have come to see the ‘missio dei’, or activity of God that operates also outside the Church, as making the preaching of the gospel or spreading of the Church a less urgent demand. Their interest has turned to the cutting-edge social issues of the day, even in their home countries. This has become a sensitive issue among missionaries, one they are reluctant to debate in public.  

            Now is an opportune time for missionary gatherings to face the issues that will decide whether the Catholic Church becomes a slowly shrinking European/North American religious movement or grows as a world religion. At this turning point, missionaries, with their cross-Church and cross-cultural experience, can play a valuable role. Maybe this is one of the life-giving things that “missionaries do today”.

                                           Hugh MacMahon   SEDOS  2/6/08

Mission Institutes --- Adapting to the New Reality?

                                                                                                                                                                                               

            Recent articles by Michael Amaladoss SJ on the future of mission institutes have given rise to helpful discussion. While some may dispute individual points he makes there is no doubt that he has surfaced many of the issues challenging missionaries today, especially those belonging to mission institutes Ad Gentes.

            As one who has spent forty years as a member of a mission institute in Asia I would like to take up some of these issues and hope I can be as frank and thought-provoking as Fr Amaladoss.

1. Origins of missionary motivation

Did the European missionary movements of the 19^th and 20^th centuries stem from a colonial enthusiasm as Fr Amaladoss suggests? Whatever colonial instincts may have existed among missionaries in the 19th century they had lost their impact by the 20^th. Ireland was not a colonial country and was in a rather anti-colonial mood when its missionary movement took off in the early 1900s. However, already Ireland and other western churches had a belief that Christianity was closely related with modern development. Missionaries were convinced they had social and economic benefits to bring to less developed countries which were non-Christian.

Until recent times combating famine, providing medical services and encouraging education in Third World countries were synonymous with mission. Yet the main impulse that moved the missionaries to leave their country and go to distant places was the conviction, embedded in the theology of that time, that the church and its sacraments were the most valuable aid they could provide.

Today the theology of salvation is more open and the pressure to set up local churches has been removed from mission institutes. It is now accepted that missionary motivation comes from a personal appreciation of what the Christian message offers the individual. This gratitude leads to a desire to share it with those who, for historical or cultural reasons, are unable to benefit from what it has to give. 

 I would suggest therefore that the origins of the missionary thrust are to be found not in a colonizing spirit but in a wish to share the “good news” whether it was seen (in earlier times) as essential for salvation and/or a help towards economic and social development or (in later times) as a starting point for spiritual awakening to a fuller life. 

2. But Where?

            Readers of Amaladoss’s articles might go on to ask, “But are those missionaries not needed just as much in the west today?”

            I am sure the majority of western missionaries would be the first to admit that their own countries are in need of evangelisation or re-evangelisation. Indeed evangelisation is an on-going and never ending task. However in the universal church there is a division of responsibilities and, traditionally, the special task of going out to unreached peoples has been given to missionaries Ad Gentes.

            Fr Amaladoss raises two other possible objections to their going out.

The first is that the church is already planted everywhere.

It is true that almost every country now has some form of local church. Yet a significant number of local churches are still too weak to tackle the challenges of evangelisation. China is but one example and today in China there are more people than there are Catholics in the whole world.

If the local Church, for example in China, is unable to meet the challenges it faces it needs help. Foreign missionaries, in a witnessing and serving capacity, can reach sectors of society that the local Christians are unable to touch. Their influence can attract young people to study the gospels and enquire about Christianity. An active local church is necessary to gather, form and guide the new Christians so helping to set up such a church is a logical goal for the missionaries and one to which they are accustomed.       

This brings up the second possible objection: foreign missionaries introduce the Graeco-Roman model of church and so hold back the development of a genuinely local church which responds to the Good News through the medium of the local culture.

It is true that the foreign missionaries brought a western church with them. Wherever local churches exist today they follow the western model and in many cases are “more Roman than Rome itself”. There are reasons why they are happy to remain this way. As young or minority churches they do not want to be seen as lacking in any aspect of orthodoxy – theologically, liturgically or ecclesiastically. They are encouraged by the universal church to conform to the Graeco-Roman model and chided if they diverge from it.

The international missionary institutes have belatedly come to realise the consequences of this and to promote inculturation. However they are already on the periphery of the local churches and are no longer in a position to directly influence the manner in which those churches develop. With their new cultural and theological sensitivity the institutes are likely to be more open to the need for inculturation than the majority of local Christians and freer to encourage and facilitate a drawing from “local wells”. 

Few others have the focus, commitment or resources for this task and so, for the foreseeable future, the presence and support of the mission institutes for inculturation will  be invaluable even in energetic young churches.  

3. Enrichment

            Another reason why mission institutes are needed is because of the contribution they can make to their home churches.

For many years lip-service has been given to the hope that the development of Asian and African churches would enrich the church in the west. So far this has not happened. Those most likely to stimulate the western church towards renewal are returned missionaries who have learnt from their experience in another religious tradition.

It is by seeing similarities and differences while traveling abroad that people become more aware of their own culture and even come to questioning some of it dearest assumptions. Similarly missionaries in a country with strong non-Christian religious traditions have the opportunity to see their faith in a new perspective. They will find themselves asking, “What is there in Christianity that is worth sharing with the people here?” All religions have much in common so what is unique in Christianity? Going deeper, what in our present church is particularly Christian and what was absorbed over the centuries from the universal heritage of religious beliefs, symbols and practices?

Returned missionaries are in the best position to raise these questions and they will find willing listeners among those seeking to renew their home church. From their experience in the non-Christian world they can help separate what is essential from what has been added and re-present from the original message what is fresh, inspiring and eternal.     

4.        A Future for Mission Institutes?

The need for mission institutes remains – to prepare and send personnel who can communicate across cultural barriers and also bring back to their home churches a fresh appreciation of Christianity. Therefore if a question mark hangs over the future of some institutes it comes from within. Can they meet the new demands?

Most of the existing institutes have an aging membership and may not be keen to see major changes. They had to struggle to find their feet in the debates after Vatican II. Are they Ad Gentes or Ad Extra? Should they be involved in dialogue, development or conscientisation? Should they be on “six continents” or only among unreached peoples?

They had renewal and discernment processes without, however, reaching any consensus. As a result their members had to work out a personal response, find a role for themselves in the new situation and become used to working independently. Now they are called upon to give up some of this independence and accept a communal vision of their identity in order that their institute may play a part in meeting the new needs of mission.

The fact that their numbers will be smaller is less of a problem – as long as those few are strategically positioned where they can make the greatest impact. There they will need to see themselves as facilitators of others rather than as individual servants and witnesses. By themselves they will at most do the work of two or three but by enabling others to take on the task they will have hundreds doing the work.

Can they adapt or must new institutions emerge to take on the task?

5. Conclusion

            A new image of mission as a specialized and demanding calling may not attract big numbers but the few who come will have the qualities and attitudes needed today.

            Even if they come from a variety of cultures it will not matter as the clear focus and sense of purpose set before them will help them put their differences into perspective.

However if an institute cannot adapt its future is not likely to be bright.

The myth that there are endless vocations in the young churches has been shown to be groundless and if candidates have a confused idea about the goals of mission there will be problems coordinating them later on.

Neither are lay missionaries the future until there is a radical reappraisal of ministry in the Catholic Church and laity are given the recognition and financial support that will make long term mission involvement practical for them.   

The new missionary situation is challenging but it can be a wake-up call for mission institutes rather than their death knell. However any revival should be motivated by more than just a desire to continue in existence. In a divided world where hope, concern for others and regard for the non-materialist is fading, the missionary has a special role and it is there that the Ad Gentes mission institutes can show their worth.     

   Hugh MacMahon 10/19/04

We Need to Work More on Our Identity

   

A recent article in a mission magazine provided me with some food for thought about our identity as missionaries today. One observation that caught my attention was how deeply the countries, or geographical regions, in which individual missionaries served have influenced their vision of mission.

  For instance, those working in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan or Pakistan were surrounded by a population with little experience of Christianity. There the priority for missionaries was to try to introduce the Church as the sign of the Kingdom and encourage the local people to join them as Christians. While this meant finding ways of  sharing their beliefs across cultural differences, often the establishment of parishes, or even dioceses, to accommodate the new Christians and provide social projects for the wider community was given precedence. 

On the other hand, those appointed to Latin America and the Philippines found themselves among people with a Christian tradition but, perhaps do to a shortage of priests, Religious and trained laity, needed help in broadening their understanding of the Christian message and renewing their commitment. Since many of those people were overwhelmed by unjust economic and political systems, that context had to be addressed in a genuine renewal process. As a result there was an emphasis on solidarity with the poor and the social teaching of the Church. 

I would not like to draw too clear of a distinction here, as if one group was concerned only with a spiritual dialogue and the other only with raising Christian social awareness. In both situations there was a blending of the social and spiritual messages but the different contexts inevitably meant that in certain situations more attention was given to one aspect of the Good News than to the other. The contrasting experiences and priorities that ensued were to have important consequences for the development of our Society’s identity.

On the one hand, it led to considerable expertise in the fields of international justice and the environmental threat. However, our knowledge of the field of religious studies was not refined to the same extent. For example, there is an opinion among a surprising large number in our Society that all religions are much the same and, therefore, going out to encourage people in non-Christian cultures to become Christian is out-dated.

I hope I am not misrepresenting the mind of the author mentioned above when I read one of his sentences in that light: “These realizations have demolished any lingering geographical basis for mission and made quite impractical any distinctions between a people, a culture, a community, an individual alleged to have heard the Gospel and those alleged to have not.”

There could be a number of reasons for this misunderstanding. One may be disillusionment with the sad state of the Church in the western world. Another, a belief that every generation needs to be re-evangelized so the task in no one culture is more urgent than in any other. A third could come from the observation that religious practices have a great similarity throughout the world and that thinking Christianity is better is just the relic of a Western superiority complex.

I think the third objection points to a key issue. There is no doubt that religious similarities and parallels do exist around the world when people, for economic or social reasons, depend on, or hope for, divine intervention to solve their more urgent financial, health and personal needs. I have seen this is places as disparate as Taoist and Buddhist temples in Korea and China, a cathedral in Cebu and a shrine to a Holy Man in Lahore. In each place the scene or ritual was similar: the devotees formally approaching a holy image, often on their knees, carrying candles or incense and presenting their requests with great respect. Usually they recited a prayer.

In their private lives those believers were probably aware of precepts, similar to the Ten Commandments, which they knew they should be observing and felt guilty about if they fail to keep them. They were good people, trying to do their best as their traditions taught them. Only the identity of the deity differentiated what they were doing. If comparisons were to be made between such religious practices, it would be in terms of which of the deities concerned was the more powerful or successful in providing help.   

But in many parts of the world today most material needs can now be solved by human resources. In the 1980s and 90s when tens of thousand of young Koreans were drawn to the Church it was not in the hope of economic or other immediate benefits but in a search to satisfy their deeper and inner yearnings. The Church’s stand for democracy and human rights on the national level gave grounds for thinking it might have the answers.

What they were looking for was inspiration in their lives, a source of encouragement and strength, a sense of their individual and personal worth.  Today young people in China are showing the same needs.

I believe Christianity, and no other religion today outside the small circle of mystics, has the answers to this search. The message of Jesus uniquely offers:   

--a relationship with God that is direct and personal, giving a sense of being valued, of being wanted or called; 

--a path in life that is inspiring, enlightening, encouraging rather than prohibitive, compassionate rather than judgemental;

-- a world view that is positive, with an active role for humans and uniting people.  

Again, I do not want to make too strong a distinction between people with a ‘favor seeking’ faith and a ‘spiritual search’ faith. The reality is that the two are intermixed though, in individuals and in certain cultures, one can dominate the other.

Unfortunately, many of the young Koreans in the 1980s and 90s did not find what they were expecting. The Church in Korea at that time, despite it public stances, proved on closer inspection  to be traditional, hierarchical, restrictive and too dependent on foreign theologies. Many of the young people soon left unsatisfied. But that does not prove that Christianity is deficient, it just shows that in many Churches practice still has to catch up on teachings. There are enough credible mainstream theologians in the Church today to reassure missionaries that what people in other cultures are seeking can indeed be found in the heart of the scriptures.

It is possible then, and indeed it is stating the obvious, to say that there are geographical areas of the world today where the vast majority of people have not heard the message of the person Jesus, and could benefit from it. The prime example is Asia, with a third of the world’s population. There is much to respect in, and learn from, the traditions of the East but that should not dampen our confidence and enthusiasm for offering to them what we are fortunate to have inherited.

A problem remains in our Society of two streams of experience talking across each other rather than to each other. The loss is not just to the Society but to the world of mission in general.    

                                                 Hugh MacMahon.             11/15/07

Whatever Happened to Mission?

            Recently I noted in a Furrow book review of D. Vincent Twomey’s The End of Irish Catholicism? that the author “suggests that missionary congregations lacked any coherent theological vision and so devoted their energies to issues of justice, peace and, latterly, ecology as a substitute for what they were originally founded to do”. Here in Hong Kong the  book itself is not available but the above statement on its own has a ring of truth that makes me want to pause and consider how mission arrived at such a critical state and what this might have to say to the Church today, in Ireland and elsewhere.

            I will draw on my own forty years experience of mission to reflect on what happened. Allowing for situational differences, I believe it is similar to what missionaries elsewhere also encountered during those years.   

The Accepted Attitude

            Back in the early 1900s, when the Columbans were founded as the Maynooth Mission to China, one of the first serious missiological debates was taking place. In question was the primary goal of mission and the discussion was in terms of which was more urgent: baptizing those in need or establishing the Church?

Some held that giving baptism, even to dying infants, was the more pressing need because the immortal life of people depended on it while others insisted that establishing the Church had priority because, once active, it would be more effective in providing the sacraments to greater numbers. 

            When I arrived in Korea in 1963 both approaches were still alive though in practice the priority was on establishing the Church: setting up new parishes and establishing dioceses in every province. Through parish work the missionaries offered the means of salvation but also gave material assistance to a population still suffering from the effects of the Korean War.

The Vision Eroded

            Vatican II undermined this understanding of mission on two fronts. The Council stated, cautiously at first, that neither baptism nor the Church was essential for the eternal welfare of individuals. The second blow to classical missionary thinking was the clarification that the Church is to be established not for its own sake but as a means of furthering the Kingdom of God in the world.

For the Columbans the implications of Vatican II were to surface in the marathon General Assembly of 1970. Normally General Assemblies last for some weeks but on that occasion discussions went on for three months. They were also heated. To quote the Assembly Report, “There are violent tensions in the Church today; many of them are reflected in our Columban family.” The notion of replacing a faith system hinging largely on fears for eternity with one emphasising love and hope in this life was too sensitive for many to accept immediately. The 200-page report of the Assembly tried to record faithfully the different viewpoints and sought respect for diversity. In doing so the pain of facing up to the new reality was postponed and subsequent Assemblies were reluctant to renew such a potentially divisive debate.

On the positive side, a new understanding of the Kingdom as active in the world was evident in the Assembly Report and for the first time issues such as socio-economic activity, witness among the poor and dialogue with other religions were mentioned.

            I was fortunate in having the chance to catch up on Vatican II at the end of the 60s while studying mission science in Canada. On my return to Korea in 1970 I joined the majority of my confreres in the expanding urban parish apostolate. However, I now saw the role of the Church differently: as spreading Kingdom values and forming Christians who would actively contribute to the improvement of their families and society. It was a time when young Korean professionals were flocking to the church and involving themselves actively in parish councils. Life was hectic but happy, with a strong sense of achievement. 

However not everyone remained satisfied with parish work. During the 70s some young missionaries began to move into “special apostolates”: areas not normally covered by parish work such as involvement with university students, factory workers, farmers and the handicapped.

Offering What?

I remember one incident from those days. During a classroom session with older catechumens I was trying to explain how the Mass was both sacrament and sacrifice. Between using church terminology unfamiliar to them and trying to preserve doctrinal orthodoxy I succeeded in tying myself up in verbal knots. The fact that oriental people, such as Koreans, are happier with concrete matters than with abstract ideas did not help. When the hour mercifully came to an end one man comforted me, “Don’t worry Father – we accept whatever you were trying to say.”

I was grateful for his sympathy but it made me wonder what aspect of the Church attracted him and, indeed, what I was offering him. Obviously it was not the relevance of all its doctrines. When asked why they came out to the church most newcomers said they liked its atmosphere of order, solemnity and community. They had a strong natural sense of the sacred and the Church helped them express it through conformity to set practices. But was this mirror image of a Church that was losing its relevance in the West all that we had to offer? Only later did it strike me that our tradition of worshipping a merciful but remote God did little to introduce individuals to Jesus’ image of an accessible and accompanying Father. At that time I just felt that something was missing and wondered what it might be.   

At the end of the 70s I returned to Ireland to work for the Irish Mission Union and had the pleasure of working alongside a well known Irish theologian. Most days we went out to lunch together and I would say to him, “Now, what is unique about Christianity that it has to offer to the world and to other religions?” He would begin his reply by saying, “Well, actually that is not the right question,” and proceed to tell me what he thought the right question was. But for me it was the key question for mission: if Christianity had nothing unique to offer mankind in the area of religion why bother to share it? It was only when I moved to China, and a new missionary situation, in the mid-1990s that I began to see where the crux of the problem lay.  

China: Recovery of Mission

Because it puts limits on direct evangelization, China challenges traditional mission. Foreigners cannot get involved in church work so their contribution must be through witness and service. When approached by young Chinese wanting to know where their patience and lack of self interest came from, they had to search for words to express adequately what inspired them. Young Chinese are immune to indoctrination so dogmatic and impersonal statements are of no avail.

Perhaps for the first time the Christian has to ask “What motivates me?” and seek to express their basic belief in simple language. The answer is in their relationship with the Father they know through Jesus. It is this faith that has molded their own life and led them to want to share it with others. Spiritual and scriptural imagery are best suited to describing their convictions.

The new generation of missionaries in places like China insists that their approach is not a second class way – a temporary measure until restrictions are removed and the Church can once more become the principal agent for spreading the gospel. The natural, and original, process of sharing the message is to show what it means in practice, explain the reasons behind it to those who ask and then gather the new believers together for support, witness and worship as a community. They are the ones who, eventually and in dialogue with the universal Church, should develop the structures, theologies and liturgies that will help them implement and share the Good News in their own culture.   

Revaluating the Past

In Korea we had started at the other end: we believed that providing the structures, theologies and liturgy of our Western Church would lead the people to unearth for themselves the original message and inspiration of Jesus. However, this did not happen. We were following a tradition, going back to the Middle Ages, which was God-centered rather than Christ-centered. Hence the hierarchical system we brought with us — clergy as representative of a distant God/Judge, acceptance of doctrines rather than an understanding of the gospel teaching, the practice of popular devotions rather than the development of a personal spirituality.

In Korea, when the parish appeared too inward-looking to exemplify the message of Christ to the world, it was thought necessary to promote Kingdom values directly: solidarity with the poor, the struggle for justice and democracy and concern for the earth. We hoped that such efforts would stir up an interest in Christianity and lead people to encounter Jesus. But more often than not, while our stand and support was appreciated by activists in those fields and often by the general population, it failed to lead them on to enquire about Christ, the Kingdom and the Church. And those who came to the Church, expecting it to be an example of equality and dialogue, were likely to find its institutions as impersonal, rule-bound and narrow as society itself.

The Chinese would call such a situation, “Releasing a captive before capturing him.” People do not change their habits easily, even if they are made aware that their present life style is not good for themselves, for the majority (who are poor) or for the world we live in. Only a deep awareness of God’s presence, and the rest of the gospel story, can open people to move beyond selfishness. First they must be caught by a personal faith, and then released to express it in care of each other and the earth.

Test for Missionaries

If proof is needed that somewhere along the line missionaries wandered from their original task, it can be found in the lack of Catholic scholars specializing in the key mission issues.

The questions ordinary people ask are basic: what sort of being is God, what is God’s attitude to me, why does God let his believers suffer hardship, how can I enter into a close relationship with God? Responding to those queries in a country like China is not simple.

The missionary is immediately faced with challenges such as the following. How far can we go in isolating the basic message of Jesus? (Downplaying our Western interpretation of it and presenting it as impartially as possible.)  Is Christianity for the few or the many? (Practicing folk Catholicism is often more popular than seeking a personal relationship with Christ.) How much freedom can a local Church be given to develop its own theology, liturgy and structures? How to balance charismatic and fundamentalist tendencies? (Chinese today are attracted to evangelistic fundamentalism.) How to revitalise a Church that is caught in the past without damaging the faith of its people? (Another problem in China.)  How much at one with humanity is God? (A question facing Christians in dialogue with Oriental spirituality.)

            Rather than suggesting solutions to these questions, the few theologians with mission connections are inclined to specialise in areas such as ecology, globalisation and genetic engineering. They see themselves as conveying the concerns of the Third World to a largely uninformed West. While they are making a valuable contribution in these fields, and get the local Church involved, they are not giving their colleagues in the field the support they need. As a result many of today’s missionaries face considerable frustration in their work and can easily drift from the down-to-earth issues of transmitting the faith to the geo-political concerns of the day.    

And Ireland

            By now some readers may recognize challenges that are as pertinent for Ireland as for China, or other non-Christian societies, because Ireland is close to becoming a post-Christian country. The external authority of the Church no longer commands obedience and moral teachings are neglected because no deeper foundation has been shown for them.

            People need to be helped to recover a sense of God in their life and in the world, just as Irish spirituality once did.

            Let me summarise my reflection in more precise terms.

            Dr James Fowler, the pioneer of faith development studies, divides faith progress into six steps. The majority of believers progress to stage three: from childhood imagination to unreflecting religious conformity. Only some, usually in their mid-thirties, go on to stage four at which they begin a serious search into who they are and how they relate to God and others.  This is the moment at which missionaries would like to reach out to individuals in a non-Christian society – stimulating their interest in religion by witness of life and deepening it though discussion.

            It is only after further reflection and growth at Stage Five that the believer reaches the final stage at which he/she is ready to commit themselves to a vision such as the Kingdom and it associated values of justice, peace and ecological concern.

            The missionary’s rightful field is at stages four and five, where they can sow the seed and till the newly cultivated soil. Reaping the harvest of a committed faith (at Stage Six) and calling for involvement in the great social issues is the task of others – the pastoral prophets in a developed Church.

                                                                                                      Hugh MacMahon      2/3/04