September – That the Secular Comboni Missionaries, while conducting their X General Assembly centred on the icon of the mustard seed, may live in the certainty that Christ will cause the seeds of the Gospel sown by them to bear abundant fruit. Lord hear us.
“The pilgrim Church is by its nature missionary” (AG 2; cf. Mt 28, 16-20; Mc 16, 15-20), but by its nature, it is also ministerial (cf. Rom 12, 4-8). Ministeriality and mission are closely linked since the mission becomes concrete and is realised through different ministries. A ministry is a service for the common good and for the development of the mission of the Church. Therefore, we may say that the Church is missionary in that it is substantially ministerial and a servant. In the context of the year of ministeriality which we are living in the Institute, in this article, we will dwell especially on the ministerial and charismatic aspects of the evangelising mission of the Church in the parish.
In light of the Second Vatican Council, we know that all baptised persons are called to be evangelisers since they participate in the three ministerial functions of Christ who is Priest, Prophet and King, and share in the mission (cf. LG 30-38). First of all, ministries may be classified as two main groups: Lay Ministries and Ministries of the Order of Priesthood. If we start from a hierarchical view of the Church and a clerical view of pastoral, lay ministries become suffocated or reduced to supporting the priest and his mission. Consequently, pastoral agents become mere collaborators, assistants, “altar boys” or, as happened in many missions, “mission boys”, even though they were adults. There are also some priests who dedicate much of their time to activities proper to the Brothers or other lay ministries, leaving little time for the ministries proper to their priesthood.
Another widespread practice is that of dividing parishes into pastoral zones, each of which is entrusted to a priest. Each one organises and administers his own zone, his own pastoral, his own team, projects, people, mission and money. The zone becomes his property where other missionaries may not intervene and concerning which, at times, they may not even express an opinion. Each one has to respect the territory of the others. The XVIII General Chapter and Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium appeal to us to begin a process of conversion, to pass from clerical and hierarchical models of mission and pastoral to models based upon ministries raised up by the Holy Spirit, to live the spirit of Vatican II. In virtue of our baptism, we are all equal: disciples of Jesus but with different vocations and gifts (cf. LG 30). Using the expression created by the Latin American bishops in Aparecida and adopted by Pope Francis, we affirm that we are all missionary disciples of Jesus Christ (cf. EG 119-121.130-131, Aparecida 184-224).
It is important that we emphasise that the baptised are, first of all, disciples of Jesus Christ and that the encounter with Christ transforms them into missionaries. Jesus, who has fascinated them, sends them out to evangelise. “Each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the “peripheries” in need of the light of the Gospel” (EG 20). Each missionary disciple ought to make their own the passion of Paul for the mission and exclaim: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9,16). Evangelisation is not only the duty but also the right of every missionary disciple of Jesus Christ.
Today it is fundamentally necessary to grow in ministerial plurality. Priestly and lay ministries are gifts of the Holy Spirit, given so that they may complement a common goal: “
There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of service to be done but always to the same Lord, working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is the same Spirit working in all of them. The particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose” (1 Cor 12, 4-7). The mission today demands ministerial pastoral models. A ministerial missionary parish is dynamic because, through listening to the Spirit and interpreting the signs of the times, it discovers, conceives, creates and develops new ministries and pastoral strategies.
I now propose two pastoral plans based upon ministries that are already functioning in different parts of the world.
I will not refer to ordained ministries since they are part of the priestly vocation, but I will emphasise lay ministries.
In order for a ministerially organised parish to function well, it is fundamentally necessary to be able to count on a parish council that includes those responsible both for ordained and lay ministries, so that, in communion, they may accompany the evangelising process, discern the signs of the times so as to understand which pastoral options are suitable for the present context and time and which ministries are necessary to carry out the missionary work. It is equally important to rely on a spirituality that may help the evangelisers to know and love more their vocation as missionary disciples of Jesus Christ.
Fr. Fernando Mal GatKuoth
On Saturday August 1, 2020, solemnity of Saint Alfonso María de Ligorio, the Laity from different parts of the country of Mexico, we held a national meeting, to share our experience in the pandemic. Lay people from: Michoacán, Guanajuato, Guadalajara, Morelos and Mexico City participated, accompanied by our national advisor: Gustavo Covarrubias MCCJ. We started with prayers to promote the missionary spirit, starting with the prophet Naum 1, 7. Then, we share the way in which we are living our vocation as Comboni Lay Missionaries.
We were enlightened by reality, meditating on the different social, political and family scenarios that we face and the way in which we can live them just as Saint Daniel Comboni would have done. Taking three strategies: Prayer, solidarity and cooperation and being signs of Hope in the world. Subsequently, we meditate on the Word of God to translate into concrete commitments in our missionary work: Prayer, meeting the other, working little by little in different missionary days, always giving priority to health, taking as reference the valuable and worthy which is human life.
Lastly, we share the panorama of mission at the international level and close with a moment of prayer to invoke the maternal protection of Our Mother Mary of Guadalupe, committing ourselves to remain consolidated as a single Comboni missionary family.
“Without the laity the mission work is sterile” (EC 1219).
Juan José Mendoza Buenrostro
We finish this series of videos with which we have accompanied the 35 years of the martyrdom of Father Ezequiel Ramin. On this occasion, the Comboni Lay Missionaries of Brazil encourage us to cultivate and follow a dream in life as Fr Ezequiel encouraged.
Let us remain faithful to our vocation and be brave. May the example of Fr Ezequiel and other martyrs in Latin America give us strength and courage to change the injustices of the world by walking together with the peoples who suffer it.
Let us receive the candle in our hands and let it give us light in our path.
Comboni Family in Mission
As we celebrate the 35th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Servant of God, Father Ezequiel Ramin, Sister Dina Siquiera, a Comboni missionary sistere, shares her testimony of life and vocation and Miriam reads one of Father Ezequiel Ramin’s letters: “The situation is heating up. The Catholic Church organized Labor Day on July 25. Among the courtships, bands and processions, they were expected to have promoted something. In Cacoal, before our eyes, the police arrested the president of the rural union, a farmer with 2nd class. We were forced to protest at the risk of arrest. In Aripuanã, a nearby place, the police fired during the procession. The bishop was leading the demonstration. Three wounded, including one very serious. The parish car was left as a strainer. Land reform is required. The reaction of those who have 10,000 hectares of land is evident! But the Lord always protects us and this is enough. “
Comboni family in mission
