Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2007 / We can evangelize as 'missionaries for life'
October Prayer Theme
We can evangelize as 'missionaries for life'
The Michigan Catholic
Published September 28, 2007
"The Gospel of God's love for man, the Gospel of the dignity of the person, and the Gospel of life are a single and indivisible Gospel." (John Paul II, "Gospel of Life," article 2).
My Brothers and Sisters in the Lord:
Every October, throughout our nation, the Church celebrates Respect Life Month, a special time to reaffirm our commitment to the dignity of human life from the first moment of conception until natural death. This year of 2007, we, the bishops of Michigan, are focusing on a life issue of timely concern — stem-cell research. In your parishes the weekend of Oct. 6-7, you will be hearing homilies regarding the Church's teaching on stem-cell research and you will also be receiving materials on this matter mailed to your home from the Michigan Catholic Conference.  watch the video
October is also the month when we traditionally recall our responsibility to partner with missionaries in proclaiming the Gospel among the mission lands of our world. World Mission Sunday is always the third Sunday of October, a great reminder of the worldwide communion of faith we share with believers everywhere.
The people of America received the Good News thanks to missionaries who came to our continent almost 500 years ago; right up to our own time, waves upon waves of missionary priests and religious arrived with the immigrant people who came to America in the centuries that followed. As we have received, so, too, we must be ready to give; we do so through our support of the World Mission Sunday collection, through our participation in the Missionary Cooperative Plan in our respective parishes, by learning about the Church in mission lands, as well as through our prayers and sacrifices for the missions.
As I write my monthly column on evangelization, I would like to put together these two important and timely matters under the theme "Missionaries for Life."
Evangelization: Communion that becomes missionary
Eighteen years ago, as the concluding document for the World Synod of Bishops on the Role of the Laity, Pope John Paul II issued a beautiful Apostolic Exhortation on the Role of the Laity. Building on the imagery of John 15 — the vine and the branches — he spoke of the mission of the laity as "bearing fruit" in the midst of the world. He explained that communion with the Lord naturally flows outward in sharing of gifts with and for others. He wrote, "Communion begets communion: Essentially, it is likened to a mission on behalf of communion. In fact, Jesus says to His disciples, 'You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.' Communion and mission are profoundly connected with each other, they interpenetrate and mutually imply each other to the point that communion represents both the source and the fruit of mission: Communion gives rise to mission and mission is accomplished in communion" (article 32).
Some 30 years ago when Pope Paul VI wrote his groundbreaking encyclical on evangelization, he put it very succinctly: "To evangelize is the grace and vocation proper to the Church, our most profound identity." Simply put, the work of the Church is evangelization. Each of us has been called to membership in the Church, the Body of Christ, not just for our own well-being, but also that we might be missionaries or proclaimers of the Good News to others.
Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has also emphasized this same dynamic process and the necessary connection between evangelization and Christian service in his encyclical "Deus Caritas Est." He writes: "The entire activity of the Church is an expression of a love that seeks the integral good of man: It seeks his evangelization through Word and Sacrament, an undertaking that is often heroic in the way it is acted out in history … love is therefore the service the Church carries out …" (article 19). In his recently published book, "Jesus of Nazareth," our Holy Father has also reminded us that evangelization is not an end itself; ultimately, it points people toward the Kingdom of God when we will all be with the Lord and His holy ones forever. For now, we must help all people come to know and love Jesus as the Son of God.
Proclaiming the Gospel of Life
One of the most powerful ways we proclaim our faith in the lordship of Jesus Christ and call others to membership in the Church is by the way we live, by the witness of our commitment to family, bringing life into this world and respecting the dignity of life at every stage. In a very profound way, we are "missionaries for life" by our commitment to family living. We show our faith in the Lord as we live in communion with one another, especially affirming the dignity of children and all who are vulnerable.
In his encyclical, "The Gospel of Life," Pope John Paul II explained that "Within 'people of life and people for life,' the family has a decisive responsibility. This responsibility flows from its very nature as a community of life and love, founded upon marriage, and from its mission to 'guard, reveal, and communicate love.' …The family has (a) special role to play throughout the life of its members, from birth to death. It is truly the 'sanctuary of life: the place in which life — the gift of God — can be properly welcomed and protected against the many attacks to which it is exposed" (article 92).
Every family proclaims and affirms the Gospel of Life and truly shares in the missionary activity of the Church in the way they raise their children and pray together as a family unit, remembering in a special way the gifts and needs of elderly family members. Precisely by the quality of our faith commitment in our families and in our parishes, we can help people to form their consciences with a firm conviction that there is an inviolable worth and dignity to every human life. We will be able to proclaim the Gospel to others — near or far — only to the extent that we ourselves are aware of the dignity and goodness of the gift of life confided to us. Once we appreciate our stewardship of this treasure, we will be all the more aware of our potential to be missionaries of Gospel values to people we know and people we do not know in distant lands.
Missionary activity in the Church throughout the ages
At the very ending of St. Matthew's Gospel, Jesus sends forth His disciples, telling them to baptize and preach to all the nations, promising to remain with them until the end of the world. The apostles certainly fulfilled the Lord's mandate to them. Over the centuries, thanks to the courage and perseverance of countless individuals and communities, the Gospel has been preached to people of every culture. We often hold up certain figures as icons or witnesses of this missionary zeal in the first millennium of Christianity: according to tradition, St. James to the people of Spain; St. Thomas to those in India; St. Benedict to those in Italy; St. Patrick to the Irish; St. Boniface to the Germans; SS. Cyril and Methodius to the Slovak peoples; and so on.
During the second millennium of Christianity, in the Middle Ages, St. Francis, St. Dominic, and many of their followers revitalized the faith of the people of southern Europe as they called individuals and communities to prayer and conversion; they were indeed "missionaries for life." In the early modern era, religious orders of men and women and the many lay organizations came to birth as means for sustaining the faith and spreading the Gospel. These communities of faith all had a strong missionary zeal; they sought the conversion of each person so that, in turn, each one might become a witness to the Gospel for others.
We can think of some outstanding missionaries of earlier centuries such as St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, and the Jesuit martyrs of North America. We rejoice in the witness of women religious who were missionaries in a very literal sense — St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. Frances Cabrini. Our American continent was also blessed by saints such as Fr. Junipero Serra, the missionary preacher up and down the California coastline, St. Rose of Lima, and St. Martin de Porres in 17th century Peru. We recall also the gift of missionaries who preached by their silence and prayer — the contemplative communities of Carmelites and Trappists. St. Vincent de Paul and his co-workers, St. Louise de Marillac, and Blessed Frederic Ozanam, as well as men such as St. Vincent Palloti, believed in the powerful role of lay disciples as missionaries of the Gospel through service of the poor.
Closer to home, it is good to remember that some of the very religious women (for example: Felicians of Livonia, Adrian Dominicans, and IHM Sisters of Monroe) who taught us in Catholic schools also had sisters serving in mission lands. About 50 years ago, Cardinal Edward Mooney founded a local community devoted to missionary work right here on the streets of Detroit, the Home Visitors of Mary, and in the past decade, they have now created a "sister community" in Nigeria. And of course, we cannot forget our beloved Fr. Solanus Casey, OFM Cap., who was an evangelizer and missionary for life by the humble and prayerful way he greeted each visitor at St. Bonaventure Monastery.
The names of all these holy "missionaries for life" are too numerous to list here, and indeed, we could never hope to mention them all because their most compelling witness of faith and missionary service was often "hidden" in the normal circumstances of family living as they fulfilled their daily responsibilities with love and devotion. Herein rests a great teaching for all of us: It did not matter that their own name should be remembered, but the name of Jesus and His Gospel of life and love should be proclaimed.
Again I quote Pope John Paul II, who emphasizes our own personal capacity and responsibility to evangelize: "The 'Good News' is directed to stirring a person to a conversion of heart and life and a clinging to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior; to disposing the person to receive baptism and the Eucharist and to strengthen a person in the prospect and realization of a new life according to the Spirit. … Every disciple is personally called by name; no disciple can withhold making a response: 'woe to me, if I do not preach the Gospel'" (I Corinthians 9:16; article 33).
Missionary activity in our time
As we consider saints of our own era who have embodied our theme as "missionaries for life," we cannot help but think of two women religious, both of whom shared a version of the name Theresa — St. Therese of Lisieux, who died Sept. 30, 1897, and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, who died Sept. 5, 1997. Although separated by a hundred years, each in her own way was truly a "missionary for life," proclaiming the Gospel with all of its power and challenge. While Therese of Lisieux never left the monastery and died at the age of 24, she is considered the patroness of missions. Meanwhile, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta understood the importance of evangelizing by doing, through direct deeds of service. She proclaimed the Gospel of Life by caring for dying lepers, the poorest of the poor, all who were forgotten or spurned. She had the courage to speak about the rights of the unborn and the evil of abortion, even in the presence of civic leaders and world powers who had policies which were not in support of life.
Both of these women truly proclaimed the Gospel and helped to evangelize others. They represent a challenge for each of us: how are we using our gifts and talents to share in the missionary work of the Church within our own family, our metro area, and all around the world? We have been greatly blessed and have the responsibility to give to others what we ourselves have received.
The urgency of "mission" today
Approximately one-third of the human race at this time (about 2 billion people) consider themselves "Christian." Another billion (and ever-growing) call themselves "Muslim." Believers of other world religions (Hindu, Buddhist, Jews, and other religions) are approximately 1 billion; the rest of the world's population are non-believers, agnostics or atheists. Clearly, we Christians have our "work" cut out for us: We need to become compelling witnesses of the Gospel in word and deed. Our prayers, donations, and sacrifices for missionaries and people of mission lands can help make a difference and invite people to know and love Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Even in our land and our state and metro area there are countless people who have yet to witness a compelling invitation to know Jesus. Again, we best do so by the quality of our lives and by living according to our Christian values regarding the dignity of all life.
Affirming the dignity of life
This year in Michigan, the bishops of our state are inviting all our Catholic people to be more aware of the Church's teaching on stem-cell research. Quite often as the media frame the arguments with "sound bytes," it would appear the Church is opposed to all stem-cell research; this is simply misguided. The Church sees the wisdom and success rate of stem-cell research when it involves adult stem cells. Stem-cell research and therapy from embryos however, is quite another story. There is no successful proven track record, and even worse, embryos are being created for the sole purpose of harvesting their stem cells and then they are destroyed. In such a case, embryonic stem-cell experimentation is pure and simple destruction of human life.
We can indeed be "missionaries for life" as we speak about these things with family and friends, by the way we support the World Mission Sunday collection, and try to learn about the gifts and needs of people from missionary lands. Here in metro Detroit, we often pray in our parish communities of faith with a variety of people from many different cultures and backgrounds, a wonderful, visible reminder of the universality of the "catholicity" of our Church.
That which is most intimate is also most universal. As we go to the heart, we come to be aware of the same issues, challenges, and potential that is present within every other person. At the heart of the world, we discover the heart of Christ and when we draw near the heart of Christ and that of His Blessed Mother, we will indeed be in touch with the "seeds of the Gospel" present in every human being throughout the world.
The Holy Eucharist: Source and celebration of our missionary love
In the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, we gather in the name of the Lord and then are sent forth: as the Latin Mass said, "Ite, missa est" — "Go, you are sent!" Our communion with the Lord is never merely private; it rather impels us forward and outward. Our every sharing in the banquet of the Lord's Body and Blood should always include prayers for the well-being of all our brothers and sisters. As we say our "amen" to the presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, we are also proclaiming our "amen" to His whole Body, the Church. Every Eucharistic celebration truly has a missionary spirit, energy, and purpose: "We proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes in glory."
With joy, let us be "missionaries for life"!
Sincerely yours in the Lord,
†Adam Cardinal Maida
Archbishop of Detroit
October Prayer Theme:
"Missionaries for Life"
 During the month of October, we traditionally reaffirm our commitment to the dignity of human life from the first moment of conception until natural death. This same month, we also celebrate our communion with the Church Universal and our privilege of being partners in the work of missionary evangelization—at home and abroad. Putting these two themes together, we could say that every Christian is called to be "a missionary for life." Here in our state of Michigan, this year, we especially commit ourselves to understand the moral dangers of embryonic stem cell research.
Heavenly Father, we continually give thanks to you for the gift and mystery of your love expressed in the Death-Resurrection of Jesus Christ. As we have shared of your Holy Spirit through the waters of Baptism and continue to receive the Body and Blood of your Son, renew within us the impulse of missionary zeal to proclaim the Good News to the ends of the earth. By affirming and strengthening the dignity of all life, may we, at the same time, proclaim the Good News, and thereby, invite all of our brothers and sisters to share with us the communion of faith. Bless all those who are missionaries for life. We ask all this, Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
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