Pope Francis repeatedly said that Christian people need to be missionary disciples. But what does that mean?
For many of us, the idea of mission might conjure up images of lay missionaries in Asia working with people with disabilities or religious brothers and sisters setting up schools in Africa or priests baptizing or anointing the sick in Latin America.
And those are parts of mission. But the mission vision of Jesus was broader than those activities. He described his ministry, his mission, as bringing about the kingdom of God (a better translation: the reign of God).
What is the kingdom of God? It’s not a place that we go to. It’s not our destination after we die. Speaking to the Pharisees about the kingdom, Jesus indicates that the reign of God was already among them through his ministry and presence.
The reign of God is the relationship we have with our God, the relationships we have with each other when we are believing, caring, helping, loving, befriending and forgiving as Jesus did. It is not about an institution, about power and influence, about empire and domination and control, but about being a family, the People of God.
It is about people showing their faith and their love of God by loving all God’s children the way God loves them.
Those relationships of love are what caused a woman in Cambodia, at my final Mass there, to ask if I was going home or leaving home as I returned to the United States.
Home is where we are loved and cared for, and I have certainly felt that upon my return to Louisville. And two weeks ago, I felt that when I returned to Cambodia for some work. Mission works in both directions — in all directions — because Jesus calls us to be sisters and brothers, loving and caring for each other, no matter who we are, no matter where we are.
Not all of us can set up schools or service programs. But all of us are called to serve, to exercise our mission through simple, quiet acts of charity, such as acknowledging others with a smile or holding a door, checking on a neighbor or relative, listening to a sorrowing acquaintance, or just being a good friend.
We can give to the St. Vincent de Paul Society (or even better, we can volunteer), or we can assist in other parish programs or with groups like Room In The Inn, which provides homeless people a warm place to sleep in the coldest months.
Being a friend is one of the most important, most appreciated, most difficult things we can do. Friendship is a real ministry, especially befriending those people who are hard to love but need it. Even children can take on this mission, ministering to classmates who are bullied or are suffering because they are different in some way.
When we bring people together and interact with them with words and actions of love, letting them know they are our sisters and brothers, then we are continuing the mission of Jesus, whether we are in Cambodia or in Jefferson County.
Father Dittmeier, a retired priest of the Archdiocese of Louisville, served for decades as a missionary in Asia, working in particular with the deaf community.
