Monday, February 3, 2014

The Great Mission


Pope Francis emphasized "evangelization" as a top priority in the Church. During the World Youth Day in Brazil, the Pope criticized Brazil's Church for the exodus of Catholic followers.  The Pope blamed the exodus on a long list of failings by the church and and leaders sometimes caught up by intellectualism over rigid rules - a church that is "too distant" or "too cold."   

According to Brazilian census data, the number of Catholics decreased from 125 million in 2000 to 123 million in 2010, with the Church's share of the total population dropping from 74% to 65%.  During this same time period, the number of evangelical Protestants and Pentecostals has risen from 26 million to 42 million, which is an increase of 15% to 22% of the population in 2010.

After hearing the Pope's message of evangelization, the Neocatechumenal Way took the Pope's advise.  They took to the streets, going into the public squares to spread the news of God's love and mercy.  The Way chose certain public places to evangelize. This was very different from going out on two by twos.  In this type of evangelization, our communities chose an area, which is a huge field.  The area is close enough to a road traffic light where people in their cars were able to see and hear us....especially when the traffic light turns red.  Members of the Way also invited guests to these public squares to listen to Christ's love and mercy for each one of us.  The role of evangelization does not belong solely to the priest, but to every baptized Catholic.  According to Pope Francis in his letter, which is published in the Vatican website:  

The Second Vatican Council emphasized in a special way how the missionary task, that of broadening the boundaries of faith, belongs to every baptized person and all Christian communities; since "the people of God lives in communities, especially in dioceses and parishes, and becomes somehow visible in them, it is up to these to witness Christ before the nations" (Ad Gentes, 37).  Each community is therefore challenged, and invited to make it's own, the mandate entrusted by Jesus to the Apostles, to be his "witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8) and this, not as a secondary aspect of Christian life, but as its essential aspect: we are all invited to walk the streets of the world with our brothers and sisters, proclaiming and witnessing to our faith in Christ and making ourselves heralds of his Gospel.  


http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/messages/missions/documents/papa-francesco_20130519_giornata-missionaria2013_en.html


This Great Mission took place on Guam and all over the world.  In some cases, it can have an unexpected impact on a person.  According to one Catholic news report on the Great Mission (you can read the rest of the news report in the weblink below):  


Great Mission Launches

bishop blesses communities
The woman found the flier lying in the gutter.
“Your life will change, you will be happier,” the paper declared. “Christ loves you! He loves you, even though you may be a sinner.”
It was just the message she needed that day—the day she had planned to kill herself.
She attended the event—“The Great Mission,” the flier called it—and told the others who gathered there that her life was in chaos so deep that she could see no way but death to resolve it.
“That’s why I’m here. You gave me hope,” she said. “Today, you saved my life.”
It all happened in the parking lot of a Westminster grocery store where the brothers and sisters of the Neocatechumenal Way had gathered for The Great Mission, a project inaugurated by the Year of Faith.
Around the world, it’s estimated that the Great Mission was carried out in over 10,000 public squares—11 of them in Orange County. Members of the neocatechumenate community volunteered during the five Sundays of the Easter season to reach out to people in a public area—perhaps the parking lot of a shopping center or a restaurant, perhaps a park—and invite them to a 75-minute gathering including mid-afternoon prayers, testimony from people walking the Way, a group dialogue, and catechesis.
It can be nerve-wracking to approach strangers with an evangelistic mission, neocatechumenates admit, but their involvement in the Neocatechumenal Way prepared them for the Great Mission. The Way—a process of ever-deepening catechesis—is made up of individuals in small communities who “walk” together, gathering weekly for a celebration of the Word and the Eucharist, and monthly for a convivence (or day retreat). Together the group moves from phase to phase: from the pre-catechumenate to the first and second scrutinies, from the catechumenate to traditio, redditio, and election. In each phase, they add to their Christian activities—praying from the breviary each morning, for example, saying the rosary every day, and going door-to-door in pairs to share their experience of Christ.
Response to such neocatechumenal outreach can certainly vary, but the Great Mission was well received, says Frank Canlas, who carries the title of “the responsible” for neocatechumenate communities at Yorba Linda’s Santa Clara de Asis and San Clemente’s Our Lady of Fatima.
“The response from the people when we went out to invite them to this Mission was surprise that the Catholic Church was coming to them. They were surprised that the church is reaching out to them,” he recalls.

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