Last week, I shared with you the Mission Statement of our diocese, as articulated by our Fourth Diocesan Synod held in 2017. As a parish in the diocese, and not just any parish, but the Cathedral Parish, I made the case for seeing that mission as our mission as well. With that I mind, I have decided to include this Mission Statement on the inside cover of our bulletin moving forward. I would like to spend the next several weeks unpacking this Mission Statement, so that we have some clarity on what we are all about. If you look to your left in the bulletin (if you are reading the print edition), please re-read the Mission Statement as we begin our reflection today.
Let me start with reflection on the first word: mission. According to Father John Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary, mission is defined as follows: “The term literally denotes ‘sending’ and covers a variety of meanings, all somehow expressing the idea of a going forth from one person to others in order to effect some beneficial change in their favor.”
As I mentioned in my previous article, it makes sense for the mission of our parish to be
in alignment with that of the diocese. And since the diocese is one part of the larger body of the Church, it is important to ensure that our mission is in alignment with that of the Universal Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers a good section on the mission of the Church in paragraphs 811-870. But the Catechism sums up the mission with these words: “The ultimate purpose of mission is none other than to make men share in the communion between the Father and the Son in their Spirit of love.” (CCC 850)
Communion with the Blessed Trinity is the purpose of the mission, and everything that the Church teaches and does is in service of that communion. Through prayer and the sacraments, we draw closer to God, which commits us to a life of charity toward our brothers and sisters. When he does pastor installations throughout the diocese, Bishop Paprocki always likes to quote the words of Pope St. John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte, “On entering the New Millennium.” The Holy Father wrote: “all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness.” (n. 30) This is another way of summarizing the mission of the Church, and thus our diocese and our parish. Everything that we do should, in some way, be set in relation to holiness, which is nothing more than sharing the life of communion with the Trinity.
Mission therefore is not first are foremost about going out and performing works of evangelization and charity, important as those tasks are to the life of the Church. Our starting point is with God, from whom we draw the grace and strength to then share His love with the world around us, which in turn is at the service of our brothers and sisters seeking to love the Lord more in their lives and to one day become saints. The mission therefore begins with God and ends with God. That is a key aspect of mission that we should never forget.
One striking example of this is St. Teresa of Kolkata, better known as Mother Teresa. The works of charity that she and her sisters have undertaken are heroic in many ways, serving the poorest of the poor. But she knew that to carry out this demanding work, prayer always had to be their priority. She demanded that the sisters spent time in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament each morning, then receiving Christ in the Eucharist, before going out. For it was only by spending time looking open Christ in prayer and receiving Him in their hearts that they would then be able to see Christ in His most distressing disguise in the poor.
By our spending time in prayer before the Lord and receiving Him in the Eucharist, we will better be able to see Christ in every person we encounter, hidden as He may seem, and we will be motivated share in the mission of bringing the love of Christ to them so that we may all one day be united together with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Heaven.
Father Alford