Fr Ennio Mantovani SVD 11 The catechumenate, as a consequence, ceases to be just a learning of the Christian doctrine, but must become a training in Christian life, in the apostolate. The catechumenate is not a mere expounding of doctrines and precepts, but a training period for the whole Christian life. It is an apprenticeship of appropriate length, during which disciples are joined to Christ their Teacher. (AG 13) (My underlining) Missionary by Nature The foundation for this theology of the laity is the new understanding of the nature of the Church. For me who had been working full time with adult catechumens it represented a radical change. From a Church concerned for her members, for their personal salvation, I moved to a Church looking outside of herself to the others, to the world and its cultures. The challenge to my catechumens now was to be co-workers with Christ for the establishing of the Kingdom, of God’s cosmic plan of salvation for the whole world. If they accepted that challenge to be co-workers with Christ, they needed to ‘repent’, to change their way of thinking and acting, to follow the way of Christ. The challenge to be co-workers was first, while the call for conversion was a consequence of its acceptance. The issue was not primarily personal salvation, avoiding eternal perdition, avoiding hell, but concern for the world, acceptance of God’s cosmic plan for the world. One was called to cooperation and if one accepted the call one needed to undergo a metánoia. What was supposed to move people was not self interest, fear of hell, but concern for the well-being of the others, of the world. For me as a missionary in PNG, this was really good news. I was to challenge people to put their values at the service of the Kingdom. I had to start by recognizing and appreciating the values of the people among whom I was working and asking them to put themselves at the service of Christ, to allow Christ to use them to transform the world, to fight evil, and to help God’s love to reign supreme. God loved them and their culture so much that God wanted to need them to ‘save’ the whole world. People wanted progress, wanted to eliminate evil in their environment and God wanted to use their cultural values to achieve that in a radical way. This was an entirely new way of doing mission. In a note in Abbot’s Documents of Vatican II we read: “It should be pointed out that the great contribution of Lumen Gentium to “the missions” was to locate the activity of the Church within the centre of the Church’s life instead of its periphery.” The document Ad Gentes highlights this change by stating: “The pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature.” When today, after Vatican II, we talk about the Church we talk about a people called to mission. If we are consistent, we must state that if the sacraments are not “missionary by nature,” they do not belong to this Church. There cannot be a Church which is missionary by nature and sacraments that do not share that nature. It does not make theological sense. As a consequence, the faith expressed through the sacraments that are missionary by nature needs to be a missionary faith. To better understand the missionary nature of the Church, we must remind ourselves too of the fact that today theologians see the Kingdom of God at the centre of Jesus mission. He truly lived and died for the Kingdom, for the reign of God. This was the program he announced at the beginning of his ministry, the mission he entrusted to his followers. His followers were to announce God’s plan for the world The challenge to my catechumens now was to be co-workers with Christ for the establishing of the Kingdom, of God’s cosmic plan of salvation for the whole world.
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