The readings from the Acts of the Apostles that are a significant part of the Liturgy of the Word during the Easter season remind us that we are all called to bear witness to the resurrection of Jesus. This seems to be a particularly appropriate time to reflect on the encyclical letter of Pope John Paul II, “Redemptoris Missio,” “The Mission of the Redeemer.”

The pope’s eighth encyclical, dated Dec. 7, 1990, was promulgated to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, “Ad Gentes.” The purpose of the pope’s letter is to remind us of our participation in the missionary activity of the church.

Sacred Scripture provides us a clear indication of the intense commitment of the infant church to missionary activity. There was both an urgency about the need to spread the Gospel and an awareness that the missionary activity and the identity of the church were intimately linked.

Even a cursory glance at the Acts of the Apostles reveals a self-understanding on the part of the apostles and the fledgling church that it was missionary by its very nature. The apostles were witnesses of the Resurrection and our salvation in and through Christ. The spread of the message was the spread of the church. The acceptance of the message was the growth of the church.

Church’s missionary nature

The Second Vatican Council’s Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, “Ad Gentes,” provides the foundational document for reflection on the church’s missionary activity. The introduction reminds us quite clearly: “The apostles, on whom the church was founded, following the footsteps of Christ ‘preached the word of truth and begot churches.’ It is the duty of their successors to carry on this work so that ‘the word of God may run and be glorified’ (2 Thes 3:1), and the kingdom of God proclaimed and renewed throughout the world” (AG 1).

Pope Paul VI followed the lead of the council and gave even greater emphasis to evangelization, as is evident both in choosing for his name as pope that of the “apostle to the Gentiles” and also in his apostolic journeys to other continents.

In his apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Nuntiandi,” he spoke of evangelization in the broadest of terms: “Evangelization is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God and to perpetuate Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of his death and glorious resurrection” (EN 14).

“Redemptoris Missio” builds on the doctrine of “Ad Gentes” and “Evangelii Nuntiandi” and devotes Chapter 3, titled “The Holy Spirit, the Principal Agent of Mission,” to a discussion of the doctrinal basis for the church’s missionary or evangelizing activity.

Missionary activity

Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, begins his reflection on the missionary activity of the church in Chapter 1 by raising the question, “Is missionary work among non-Christians still relevant?” He also asks the ultimate question relative to missionary activity: “Why then should there be missionary activity?” (4).

The pope notes that in recent years there have been widely reported a breakdown of commitment or enthusiasm in missionary work. Those who comment on this “breakdown” speak of a need to redefine or refocus the missionary activity of the church precisely in terms of the doctrinal basis that life in Christ, in and through the church, is an essential part of the proclamation that leads to new life.

In speaking of some of the reasons for this breakdown in the missionary activity of bringing people into the church, the Holy Father says this question is raised for several reasons.

“Nowadays the call to conversion which missionaries address to non-Christians is put into question or passed over in silence. It is seen as an act of ‘proselytizing’; it is claimed that it is enough to help people to become more human or more faithful to their own religion, that it is enough to build communities capable of working for justice, freedom, peace, and solidarity” (RM 46).

In answering the above objections, the pope refocuses the missionary activity of the church in terms of its profound doctrinal basis.

“What is overlooked is that every person has the right to hear the ‘good news’ of the God who reveals and gives himself in Christ, so that each one can live out in its fullness his or her proper calling. This lofty reality is expressed in the words of Jesus to the Samaritan woman: ‘If you knew the gift of God,’ and in the unconscious but ardent desire of the woman: ‘Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst’” (Jn 4:10, 15) (RM 46).

The permanent validity of the church’s missionary effort rests on the recognition that Christ is the way, the truth and the life and not merely one truth or way or life among others. “Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus told him: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me” (Jn 14:5-6). Jesus is the way to God. He is the only Savior and the sole mediator between us and God.

To the question, “Why mission?” the Holy Father answers: “We reply with the church’s faith and experience that true liberation consists in opening oneself to the love of Christ. In him and only in him are we set free from all alienation and doubt, from slavery to the power of sin and death. Christ is truly ‘our peace’ (Eph 2:14); the love of Christ impels us (2 Cor 5:14), giving meaning and joy to our life. Mission is an issue of faith, an accurate indicator of our faith in Christ and his love for us” (RM 11).